I'm about to begin running a new campaign using Rise.
It will be set in my home brew campaign world, obviously this will require a little bit of shoe horning.
I'm looking for some advice on what things I need to keep in mind to allow for in terms of major movers across the campaign.
Obviously I'll need stand-ins for prominent deities like Lamashtu.
I do have an ancient culture analogous to Atlantis, that I can squish to suit the purposes of the campaign.
Your ancient culture needs to make use of Giants and Lamia's, they should also get on with Blue Dragons.
You ideally need at least 2 powerful Wizards who were hostile Rivals
Karzoug and Alaznist, to make sense of the Runeforge you really need the other 5 as well.
I think thats about it.
That's exactly the type of thing I'm looking for, thanks.
I can use pretty much the entire group of Runelords as an idea for my "Atlantis".
Echidna is a demigod for my homebrew, which works fine as a stand in for Lamashtu.
The area I'm intending upon using in my world does not have any large nation-states, but does have a large city-state that I can use for Magnimar.
The entire campaign is about the Runelords so they'll need the best adjustment. Just reading the summaries at the beginning of each chapter gives you a good idea of the big movers in the campaign.
The first chapter centers around Nualia who has the least tie in to the Runelords. Erylium and her minor runewell provide some major foreshadowing for the the rest the arc, as well as specific foreshadowing to the sinkhole event in chapter 5. Nualia herself was being groomed by Xanesha but her motivations in the campaign were ultimately her own and could be tweaked to whatever you want her to be.
The next two chapters center around Xanesha, then Lucrecia (lamia sisters), who are both trying to sacrifice greedy souls for Karzoug. The concept of sacrificing specific kinds of people to resurrect Karzoug pops up everywhere in the campaign, and you will also want to replace the Sihedron symbol as that also is a recurring symbol with deep ties into the main plot. The Lamias (and the Scribbler, later) are how everything gets tied into Lamashtu so you can swap them out for a different race that is more relevant to your Echidna if you wanted.
Towards the end of chapter 3 you meet the Stone Giants who follow Mokmurian- he is the guy who pretty much gets everything in motion after being spurned by his own kind. You could swap the Stone Giants out for some other Large race if you want, all that matters is that Mokmurian is meant to feel like the actual big bad for awhile until the players learn more about Karzoug.
The runelords themselves are themed after the seven deadly sins so it would be up to you if you want to keep those themes or exchange them for something else. You will want to keep the number seven though unless you want to do some tweaks to both the Sihedron symbol and to the structure of the Runeforge in the fifth chapter.
As for cities you have the big "lost" city of Xin-Shalast, Sandpoint, Magnimar, and Turtleback Ferry. Turtleback Ferry is extremely rural and will need to be on a lake or river if you keep the dam/black magga event. Sandpoint just needs to be a charming town and Magnimar is the "big city" full of greedy people for Xanesha to sacrifice. Remember to put some sort of Thassilonian monument in your version of Sandpoint in place of the Old Light - this is why Mokmurian raids Sandpoint in the fourth chapter. (Ideally you'll have ancient monuments throughout the setting to encourage your players to get interested in that civilization well before they realize the bad guy is Thassilonian himself.)
Thanks Karolina, this helps quite a bit.
Naulia seems like she should work pretty well as is.
Xanesha and Lucrecia - lamias, should be just fine, Echidna is lamia-esque in appearance anyway.
Replace the 7 pointed star rune in some way... or leave it, probably would be fine.
Stone Giants will be fine.
Runelords/7 deadly sins, is also fine as is, with some renaming.
The "Atlantis" fell due to internal corruption, the virtuous becoming sinful as a theme for the fall of an ancient great civilization was certainly a draw for me in picking this AP to run.
Sandpoint is small enough to be renamed and used as is (largly).
Magnimar I have covered pretty well and should work with the city I have in mind.
Turtleback Ferry I can work with.
Xin-Shalast, is gonna require a bit more I think - There's not much of big scary mountains in this area.
How breaking would it be to have Xin-Shalast not actually exist on the material plane? Perhaps existing in a local mirror realm (either Shadow based or Dream based).
Making that whole section part of the dream realm should work then.
I've been looking over Gr4ys thread on community created things - is there a final (or semi-current listing of links post in that haystack?
Xin-Shalast is in super high mountains notorious for being a thin spot between material plane and plane of Leng.
if you want to go full on Leng with it Into the Nightmare Rift has a gazzetteer of Plateau of Leng
My players have decided that (at least three of them) are going to be from the same family, one that has fallen on hard times, and turned to bounty hunting. Their family may have been involved the the lumbar industry.
Sounds like without planning (they have no idea what I'm intending to run)they have given me a bunch of hooks right from the start.
I've been thinking of making Eyrlium a succubus rather than an advanced quasit.
Your party will die quickly then. How will they make DC 20+ saves vs. Domination and Charm Monster?
Fair question. Certainly why I raised the thought here.
Nualia's claw hand made me think much more of a Profane Gift.
As a smaller group, I was considering getting the party up to 2nd-3rd before starting the AP proper, yes that means the early stuff will be easy, but adding a few more goblins now and then wont hurt.
Confrontations dont have to end in death, Profane Gifts are always a nice way to end things...
You should've included that in your initial question:)
i don't see why you would want to switch Erylium personally, for a Quasit she packs a punch and is a wonderful NPC early on, if you want to make it a purely Rpoleplaying moment then go ahead, however you should prepare for thing to degenerate quickly. personally i would keep her as is, there are plenty of Succubi in RotRL without adding more:)
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Oh! Bounty hunter's a great background, Lorax. The inquisitor of Abadar in my group also styled himself as a bounty hunter, so one of the first things I did for Local Heroes is write up some bounty posters for him to collect on. I made up a few of my own (a Varisian cat burglar and a psychopathic half-orc brute), and then made up some posters for people in the AP itself - Orik Vancaskerkin and Caizarlu what's-his-face. He ate it up! If your PC goes that route, you could easily get some mileage out of something simple like that.
Actually that was how I intended to start off group play with the group - right as they are about to confront a bounty.
Actually that was how I intended to start off group play with the group - right as they are about to confront a bounty.
Having considered some things, while I am going to start with the above as the first part of the campaign proper, I'm gonna do some pre-campaign scenes during the Late Unpleasantness to really root the characters in town.
If you have an "Atlantis" in your campaign world you should remember that Thassilon was basically an evil offshoot of that culture. If your version of Atlantis turned to evil then this is fine but if they weren't then you should make Thassilon some kind of colony that went astray (though the event that destroyed Azlant also destroyed Thassilon at the same time).
The game is set in two regions; lower Varisia is fertile and fairly civilized, but is still a "frontier" compared to more major nations. The Storval Plateau is arid and inhabited by the barbaric Shoanti along with lots of monsters such as giants and orcs. There are a lot of Thassilonian ruins here and there all over the region.
Geographically things will work out, I just have to flip around some directions, Splendor has given me pause to rethink where I place Xin-Shalast, but I'm actually still leaning towards making it not actually be on the material plane.
My campaign's "Atlantis" fell in the ancient past due to two problems, first was civil disorder due to internal corruption, the second being a disruption in which elemental earth material and energy poured into the material plane which caused wide spread havok, including the sinking of large area - there are reasons that I've selected this area of my campaign world to place this campaign, as the mythic history fits into the area pretty well without too much shoe horning =)
So I intend on expanding the "Late Unpleasentness" to include a shipwreck, bad storms and drought along with a shifting a few other events into a several month period of suck for the residents of Sandpoint, being capped off with the Sandpoint fire.
Pre-campaign scene 1 (I'll post more as I type them up, just roughing them out for now):
Kag was the shaotai garbage collector during the Late Unpleasentness. He spent many years as a prisnor and slave in an orc tribe. The orcs were driven from the area by the migrations of goblin tribes. Kag escaped from the orcs during a goblin raid, taking with him his young son Gorvi.
One of the PCs will be caught trying to sabotage one of the red garbage carts bringing a load of manure to Pillbug, and will be sentanced by Casp to spend a week with Kag, Gorvi and the rest of the garbage collectors. While poking around on beach that PC will encounter a lone goblin scavenging the refuse.
If things go wrong, Kag will be watching to save him. Kag will have a talk with him while sitting near the Old Light. Kag will explain that he doesn't so much mind the goblins helping the surf to do the work of hauling off the trash and then Kag will tell him a bit of his story while pointing out the goblins combing the beach.
After the story, there will be a bright flash of light above the Old Light, and flames will burst forth , loose stones from the Old Light will fall on Kag, killing him.
The town's accepted version was that it was lightning that struck the Old Light, but it was, in fact a flare up of the old war machine, and this PC will see that.
Been lazy about posting the rough drafts.
The good thing is that the current house campaign (that is not being run by me) is taking longer to finish than anticipated.
Obviously I'm taking some liberties with the story - some to fit the campaign world, some to fit the character backgrounds.
Looks like I'm gonna try to do 2-3 small scenes per character, rotate around the table, give everyone a chance to get a feel for their character.
The above character is planning on being a Rogue with some fighter levels.
So, pre-campaign scenes, character two. Planning on a Druid with a Ranger dip.
Simon Korvat and Tanethia Wheen will be seen playing by the Mill Pond, when an accident will occur - the two children will fall in. (perhaps a hint that Simon was behaving maliciously?) The character will save Simon, but poor Tanethia will drown. Das Korvat will reward the character with a hound pup "This one ain't the right color for my smithy."
This character will also be present at Foxglove Manor with the "Varisians" and be witness to the courtship of Iesha.
Amongst the expanded "Late Unpleasentness" will be a number of fires around the town and its outlying area (mostly caused by the Old Light's attempts to sputter to life).
Daviran Hosk, will of course blame the fires upon goblins and will be spending the time that Chopper is on a rampage hunting goblins (which will be something of a bone of contention with Casp, as he could have really used Daviran's skills hunting Chopper).
Character 3 is intending to be a Slayer.
Character 3 will come across one of these fires, and see goblins about (weather the goblins caused it or not will be unclear), someone dies in the fire. The character gets the blame for the fire, and will be sent up to Fort Rannick to the Black Arrows where he will encounter another new inductee, Keven Windstrike.
Back at "Sandpoint" (Sandpoint is being renamed) the fires continue, which will include the death of the character's parents. Hosk can serve well as a friend to the character's parents, and manages to uncover/manufacture proof that goblins are the arsonists plaguing the area. With the death of the character's parents, the character will be called back to town for the funeral. With the support of Hosk's "proof", the character won't be sent back to Fort Rannick, but may spend some time with Hosk hunting goblins or at the very least helping put a certain dead goblin into a brand new custom glass container to serve as a display piece.
This character seems to have a fairly dense amount of background events, but I really feel a need to create a hook to Fort Rannick, as the AP's connection between Skinsaw and Hook Mountain is a little thin.
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The 4th character (a last minute addition, I didn't think the person was going to join us) is an orphan rogue from the Turandarok Academy.
As I didn't get to quite plan as much for him, he ended up being a tag-along for most of character one's events.
I did add on a part where he got into the basement of the Academy.
Before the first session, I gave the players a bit of homework, a three question piece.
1) tell me something you did growing up - a matter of pride or shame
2) tell me someone in town that you know
3) how are the two related
I have run the starting scenes (across two sessions) having the players live through the "Late Unpleasantness", and interact with some people (suffering with the addition of the Young Template), which wasn't so bad given their propensity for being sneaky as a group.
The players were horrified at the rampage of Chopper, one character was convinced that one of his older brothers WAS the Chopper. I didn't get to work in my Fort Rannick/Black Arrows/Keven hook - MAYBE I'll work it in as a one off sometime this week.
The group as a whole already has moderately negative opinions on the Scarnetti family, given that their family's house and lumber mill burned down during the "L.U."
Next session is planned for a mostly light session.
I'll give them a little "in medias res" of them catching a local graverobber, a sczarni, out at the Pauper's Graves. I'll throw in a single Ghoul for them as well. Then on to the Swallowtail festival.
I really want them to see a bit of the lighter side of the town by experiencing it, if I can arrange it, I'd like to end the session just before the goblins attack.
With the fire burning down the Cathedral, the Old Pauper's Graves were put back into use for the occasional burial, due to issues related to construction of the new Cathedral.
One of the Characters has selected Favored Son (amusing as they don't even know that they are on a mostly RotRL campaign), and the Sheriff, in an effort to nail down ANY problems before the Swallowtail Festival has asked the party to go check on some disturbed graves/possible grave robberies at the Old Pauper's Graves.
After a few days of patrolling the site and Tracking around the area, they spot a light in the graveyard at night. The run into 2 human graverobbers, capture one, but the other escapes into the darkness into the woods. (I started this scene with them having spotted the light, then filled in the why they were there and how they got there)
They find out later that those 2 were part of a group of con men and swindlers in the area (which includes the guys who will be dead by the start of Skinsaw).
Ironbriar was supposed to be in town for the Festival, but was called back just days before, but at least one of the PCs got a chance to see him and meet one of Ironbriar's guys(cultists).
The Swallowtail Festival went pretty good, with a little prodding they got into playing some of the games (using some versions of the ones in the forums here) one of the player did the Sandpoint Devil and Goblin Toss in one try, and got a couple of ribbons. The two 10 strength characters goaded each other into doing the swing a mallet ring the bell in which they managed to not embarrass themselves.
While I wanted to end the session before the goblin attack, I ran about a half hour short with Festival shenanigans, so I had to go into Zantus' wrap up mode, and ended the session with the Thunderstone.
I have stored an encounter with an ogrekin who killed some sheep - I should have run that after the graverobbers, oh well, the ogrekin's stat block isn't going anywhere.
Soooo...
Two of the players (one was getting a ride from the other) were an hour and a half late.
Still we got through the three fights for Goblins in the Streets.
I added in some sightings of other town NPCs, and extra goblins for scenery, often dying. One goblin ran at the characters on fire and grappled him - setting him on fire. One of the Pyros had a Desnan Candle.
The scenes went smoothly and at a good clip even with the extras running around in the background (or rolling around in the case of one goblin with his head caught in a wagon wheel of a wagon with panicked horses).
I added Shayliss to the Die dog Die scene, to help set up the Shayliss/Aldren/PC Lust/Envy triangle.
One of the PCs picked himself to be the target of Shayliss for The Shopkeep’s Daughter, the scene went splendidly with Benny Hill goodness - the PC in question was a rogue with both dodge and mobility. While both him and Shayliss failed their perception, Ven was unable to get his hands on him as he fled - throwing back a "I'll see you later Shayliss!" which further enraged Ven.
Another PC went by the shop to try to smooth things over, but hes known around town as a bully so he went into the encounter with penalties on top of Ven already being upset - and only made things worse.
The rest of the party was actually kind of upset at this, as they are considering opening up a gambling den/casino (a plan which is going to be amusing to play out - Sandpoint is turning into a fantasy mafia movie setting)
They are set to go on the Boar Hunt in the morning with Aldren.
Just read your updates - looks like everything is chugging along smoothly for you!
I played up the Sczarni as a "fantasy mafia" group also. Unfortunately my group did not become interested in them until they were pretty high lvl (10/11 or so) so a group of organized human thugs aren't as menacing as they would have been back at lvl 1, but it still is good roleplay. Jubrayl Vhiski has escaped them once so far!
Boar Hunt went smoothly, (feel free to check on the Boar Hunt as a social encounter thread) I went over the top with the prep for it, but the player's enjoyed it, and were impressed. Aldern came off exactly as intended.
Things did get smoothed over with Ven a little bit anyway - they approached him while he was drunk, and rolled a 20 (on the die) on the Diplomacy Check.
Monster in the Closet almost killed the lone rogue who went to deal with it.
Belor and Shelalu/News from the Mosswood went fine, leaving the PCs a little jealous of the fact that the cool kids got to go on an adventure while they got stuck babysitting the town. This amused me.
The party has gotten word about Amekio and gone to check on the Glassworks, they've gotten just far enough to know that there's goblins inside (which included them overhearing the goblins singing - storing up goblin songs has certainly payed off in player amusement).
Tsuto's re-appearance in town is of interest as he featured in some of the pre-campaign scenes. I didn't quite use my plan of sending the Slayer up to Fort Rannick, instead he got in some trouble with Tsuto, stealing a wagon, getting drunk, and they THOUGHT they ran over a little girl. Tsuto ratted the Slayer out, but the PC was off out of town, and by then Chopper was doing his thing...but the Slayer hasn't forgotten Tsuto.
I'm still toying with Erylium.
Succubus is probably a bad idea (unless they wait until after Thistletop)
I have worked up a Half-Field Goblin Snake, Sorcerer(False Priest) 3 - Aberrant Bloodline version that I'm kinda liking, as the naga stylings do fit well with Echidna (medusa, lamias and nagas being part of her worshipers).
Shelalu is going to come back looking for the PCs almost immediately after to get their help with assorted goblins around the area.
The plans for opening a casino seem to have been agreed upon by the PCs, which I'm more than happy to go along with - I do want them to have more connections to town, and then have them come into conflict with both Jubryl and Titus.
Glassworks ended with Tsuto captured and brought to the Garrison.
Tsuto made a play to try to get let go, trying to recruit his old buddy.
The Slayer seems to be considering at the very least trying to release him to learn more information (they didn't search the Glassworks/find his diary).
As I'm filing off the name plates of deities/places/people, I've been considering adding Dawn of the Scarlet Sun to the middle/end of Skinsaw.
Xanesha certainly seems to be at least half out from under Mokmurian, and more interested in her own business, such things as Naulia.
She seems bored/uninterested with gathering greedy souls, "...and is content to leave the actual work of harvesting greedy souls to the Skinsaw Cult."
If I reskin the cult in Dawn of the Scarlet Sun as an Echidna cult - and more closely associated with Xanesha/Naulia, I could have a nice tie in.
Anyone have any experience using Dawn of the Scarlet Sun during Skinsaw?
Hmmm. missed a couple sessions, thats OK.
With Hemlock still out of town, the players took to questioning Tsuto - leaving the jerky-I-like-to-intimidate-people-to-get-my-way-because-everone-is-out-to-g et-me psycho alone in the room with him.
Tsuto did his best to be misleading and stoic.
Vachedi, who already has a bit of a grudge against Jerky, put out an order of arrest for Jerky for torturing a prisoner.
The party was chased out of the Catacombs by my alternate Erylium.
The next session only 2 of the 4 players were at, so the focus was on roleplaying in town.
They brought news of the Catacombs to the Mayor, talked to Father Zantus, Brodert Quink and Madame Mvashti - all pretty entertaining.
The party has thoughts of opening a casino. Three of them are brothers who's ancestor was amongst the group of brothers and cousins that Almon Scarnetti rounded up to mount a murderous raid on the Varisian camp during the founding of town. The Scarnetti's tried (not entirely successfully) to use their ancestor as a scapegoat for the attack.
As such they decided to approach the Valdemar family for support for this business.
The party went to Chopper's Isle (where I replaced Simon with a Haunt version of Simon rather than a monster). When they found Simon's remains, they were a little saddened, but when they brought the remains and the stuffed animal to Das Korvat, the player who had saved Simon from drowning in the Mill Pond had to fight back tears, the whole table was moved - good stuff.
I probably need to bring Belor back to town a day or two early so as to break things up (some of the party are convinced that an attack on town is going to happen any day now).
I added Shayliss to the Die dog Die scene, to help set up the Shayliss/Aldren/PC Lust/Envy triangle.
This is a great idea! I wish I had thought of this as a way to introduce Shayliss. It would have made the later encounter much easier to introduce.
The rest of the party was actually kind of upset at this, as they are considering opening up a gambling den/casino (a plan which is going to be amusing to play out - Sandpoint is turning into a fantasy mafia movie setting)
This sounds like it has the possibility of setting up some interesting side plots involving Jubrayl Vhiski. By all means play up the Sczarni if that's what players want. You could also set up rumors of "gambling boats" operating on the lakes of the Varisian river systems, and if they were looking for advice on the issue they could find themselves in a written correspondence with one particular boat operator from book 3... :)
They are set to go on the Boar Hunt in the morning with Aldren.
For the record I had Aldern give the guys a few extra pieces of gear, including light horses for everyone, as the early parts of the adventure are kind of treasure-light.
Peet
Yeah, Aldren hooked the party up with horses, full saddle/saddlebags/hunting gear, a days worth of food, some wine...cant wait 'till he turns up as a ghoul.
The next time the party walk in to the store, they'll see an argument between Shayliss and Ven that will hint at Aldren having a thing for Shayliss and Ven supporting that idea, poor Ven.
The casino, gambling angle is coming along fine, when they talked to old Ethram Valdemar, he was luke warm on the support (and even at that amount of support because of the weed that it would put up Titus' butt). He pretty much told them, If you want to get in on the gambling business you better do some research into the local players...maybe a trip up to Turtleback Ferry between Burnt Offerings and Skinsaw, with the Paradise still in operation. Heck, the bad guys in this would be ALL FOR another casino.
Due to assorted reasons I've had a number of shorter sessions without full groups the last few weeks.
I took a few of my extra goodies out of my grab bag and got to use them.
We Be Goblins -
I had done some seeding for using this during the initial attack on "Sandpoint" by equiping some of the goblins with some of the fireworks.
I redesigned the adventure using the unseen character "Scribbleface" as an instigator to the process. Thrree characters went with him.
Altered to story to make "Scribbleface" be Vorka's boyfriend, who after he was kicked out of the tribe and scared decided that he was no longer the goblin for her.
Scribbleface decided to get revenge and enlisted the "Longshanks what killz lots" to help get Vorka. With the pregen goblins hot on their heels to get to the boat.
The party barely survived Vorka and did, and didn't waste time searching as they were in no shape to even take on four 1st level goblins.
The Toadstool Goblins -
The party's Slayer went with Shelalu to check on the Toadstool Goblins.
The slayer and Shelalu managed to take out 8 goblins and Kneecrusher (in one hit) before both the player and the Goblins pulled back.
The Toadstool goblins abandoned their lair in the night in small groups
Here there be Ogre(kin) - an encounter I designed
This is an encounter I've been waiting to hit the group with, but I really want them to be (or at least mostly 3rd) by the time they do it.
Borrowing a little from the Hobbit, this is a group of three Ogrekin Ranger 1s.
They have come down from their home on the Devil's Platter looking for food and found a sheep flock. (Ogrekin #1: "Nothing but mutton to eat."
Ogrekin #2: "What I wouldn't give for a bit of bad flesh.")
One of the PCs encountered Robby the shepherd boy who warned them of the monsters - the ogrekin are still lurking around.
When the PCs all got back together, they decided that, based upon what they learned, they should go to Thistletop.
This is good, as they dont even know about the contents of Tsuto's journal yet.
As they're in town preparing to head to Thistletop, the Sheriff returns.
Amongst the people brought from "Magnimar" will be Kassidei (as set up for Scarlet Son)
If I've learned anything so far its that I should be introducing NPCs before I need to use them for their scene.
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I had been toying with the idea of Orik getting sentenced to go to Ft.Rannick to join the Black Arrows, a thread which would require Orik living, but getting captured.
With Tsuto in my back pocket, as a prisoner already, I think that's where I'll send him instead, the plot line being.
Sheriff comes back to town -> Tsuto, as a member of an aristocratic family demands to be tried in a high court(ie "Magnimar") -> Tsuto goes off screen for a while, being convicted treason -> Tsuto is offered the chance to avoid execution by being Geased and sent to the Black Arrows
Now, I COULD let Tsuto take the Keven role as the big betrayer, and caught by the Grauls.
- OR -
I could have Tsuto be awaiting pick-up by agents of the Black Arrows, and have the mayor of Magnimar ask the PCs to escort Tsuto to Ft.Rannick.
While I really like the first idea, it doesn't give the nice flow into book 3 that the second one does.
The second scenario makes a little more sense time-wise most likely, unless your players spend a lot of downtime time during Book 2.
There's not a lot of time for a brand-new conscript to get hooked up with Lucretia, etc., and it's also not very likely they'd trust him with the sort of access he'd need to pull off everything that Kaven does IMO.
Yeah, I agree, there really isn't enough time for Tsuto to take over the betrayer of the Black Arrows role, it just seems more interesting.
I have two other concerns, one is Daviren Hosk. The party is always looking to hook up with him while dealing with all the goblins around town (and I've added plenty of extra goblin-based material). While I've certainly played up his hatred of goblins, keeping him from being the goblin murder machine that he is has been difficult. Has anone else had a challenge with dealing with Hosk?
Also, for Erylium, who the PCs retreated from, I'm afraid that if I add her to Thistletop, it'll create a TPK issue. (I have made an alternate Erylium, a half-fiend goblinsnake sorcerer)
If it isn't too late, I would make sure you stress in your descriptions that he's retired, probably because he's too old for the stresses of adventuring and such. He might hate goblins, but if he was still up for going out murdering, I think he wouldn't be described as retired. He wasn't a problem in my game, about his only contribution was during the giant attack in Book 4, acting as a lookout.
For Erylium, if the party retreated, a better solution might be for her to remain in place making sinspawn and sending them out to cause problems in town until they deal with her once and for all. If Erylium herself flees, then it makes sense for her to go to Thistletop, but if the party is the group that retreats, I think she's crazy enough to think that this is her chance to really cause some damage upstairs.
It is kind of too late to portray him as someone who is completely retired. In my pre-campaign scenes that I ran during the Late Unpleasantness one of the PC accompanied Hosk - rescuing a young girl who had been captured by goblins - when they next meet him he'll be sporting some injuries/new scars, nailing up a bunch more goblin ears and in my best Danny Glover voice "I'm getting too old for this..."
I'm going to be using the idea I've seen a few places on the forums of the mayor calling in some dwarves to seal up the Catacombs.
Brodert Quink has already asked the PCs to escort him through the Catacombs once they're clear, he's going to put up a fuss, perhaps even including a colleague of his from Magnimar. I can imagine the hilarious scene of two old men haranguing the dwarven workmen when a couple of sinspawn come running out with murder on their mind.
The Sheriff spent some time getting caught up on events and eventually talked to the PCs - sharing the information from Tsuto's journal - this confirmed the plan they already had to go to Thistletop.
Through the briars they went, killing the goblin refugees, and driving off the druid, who was able to send warning to the chief.
The party stealthed across the bridge, The goblin guards were (and as well they should be) useless.
While the guards were dying, the chief gathered the inside goblins for a showdown in the throne room, which left most of the party bad off (their healing is pretty sub-par). Presuming he would Ripnugget psent word of his victory over invading longshanks downstairs.
By the time word finally reached Naulia, the party had decided to get some rest in the trophy room, beliving that they had largely cleard the place out.
Naulia gathered her people and the few remaining goblins, for an attack on them as they slept. Fortuneately the person on watch was not suprised, but goblins, Orik and the gang were coming in - the party broke and ran, escaping with single digit HPs total amongst the party, and losing the druids animal companion.
After arriving in town and telling the sheriff what they saw, including Naulia they went to get healed and have tenatively planned to return to the Catacombs (and NOT Thistletop).
The Thistletop goblins have been almost entirely been wiped out, but Naulia, Lyrie, Orik and Brathamuz are all fine.
As I see it, there's four competing goals amongst the bad guys:
Naulia - now more urgent than ever to get Mal free.
Lyrie - securing a clean escape route is paramount.
Orik - "Oh man, I wish there was an easy way out of this mess."
Brath - "I got Naulia and unlimited access to the goblin harem - SWEET!(and yes, he is reskinned as an ogrekin...)"
None of them can really stand up to Nualia at all power-wise so I imagine her desire to keep working there would keep the group in place. Orik probably really wants out at this point, and might volunteer for guard duty above with the hope that he can negotiate as soon as the party returns?
The real challenge is that it's likely to be 5-6 days after their attack before the PCs come back.
So Day 1-3
Naulia and team keep high alert, gather and revive what goblins they can, (say 1d3 per day)
Gogmurt recruits what goblins he can for the next few days then pretty much bails, moving out past the local area in the direction of Windsong Abbey.
Day 4 Naulia sends Bruthamuz and a goblin ranger 1 out to scout the area, perhaps find more goblins, perhaps run into Shelalu or Hosk. If Bruth Survives, +1d3 more goblins.
Day 5 If Bruth returns, Naulia HAS to be getting close to being done, pulls what forces she has down to the dungeon. If Bruth doesn't return Orik bails here. Lyrie is forced at this point to stick it out - her fate is tied to Naulia's by this point.
If it's not until Day 6 (or later) Naulia is done, Orik is too - he gets away during Naulia's finish. Mal, Lyrie and Naulia go...somewhere?
Actually I think the biggest chunk of goblins left would probably be the Mosswood. The presence of Birdcruncher refugees at Thistletop instead of Devil's Platter says to me that the Birdcrunchers at the Platter probably aren't much of a going concern currently, the Mosswood goblins are described as the biggest tribe in Shalelu's summary, and Big Gugmut (their hero) doesn't make an appearance in this or any other modules afaik unlike the other heroes and is thus a safe slate to be used without making you change any other content you might want to run later.
I've been thinking about this one.
It seems that if released, Malfeshnekor is powerful enough to be the new leader of that group.
As a former lieutenant of Alaznist, Mal was/is opposed to Karzoug. Burning down and sacking Sandpoint is of very little interest to him. What's going on with the Runelords is.
Also Lamashtu has just sent him, at the very least, two new servants, one a priestess of Lamashtu.
I think Mal is likely to want to hole up somewhere safe to learn the new state of the world, and to gather forces to oppose Karzoug.
Perhaps they become erstaz allies against Karzoug?
A slightly different view:
Mal is a minion of Lamashtu who just happened to be working for Alaznist. So he is more likely to follow her wishes and as I read the AP, she seems at best indifferent to Karzoug's return. Though he may very well blame Karzoug for 10,000 years of imprisonment...
Even if Mal is interested in thwarting Karzoug, at the end of Burnt Offerings he has no way of knowing that's even possible. At that point in the story, there is only one being within 200 miles of Sandpoint that knows that Karzoug is active (Xanesha.) You could even argue Lamashtu doesn't know either. It's not until the events of Book 3 and Book 4, that the reality of Karzoug's awakening becomes known and even then only to the pc's (unless they share it with others.)
I agree, he would seek out goblins to rule. And then try to forge all the local goblins into a military force (including goblins outside the immediate Sandpoint vicinity) He would try to find out what happened to Alaznist and find the runewell and re-activate it. If that means burning Sandpoint to the ground, so much the better.
Thanks for sharing some thoughts Latrecis, Ian and Misroi.
With any luck,(as much as I'd love to have Lyrie and Naulia have a little more screen time) for me, the PCs and Sandpoint, the PCs move to settle issues at Thistletop quickly.
If not, Lyrie, Naulia and Mal fade off screen for a bit.
Naulia and Mal is a link up specifically engineered by Lamashtu (or my stand-in in this case) their actions will have to be carefully considered in this light.
Perhaps they are going to hook up with Scribbler?
Lamashtu's goals - plans for Scribbler, Mal and Naulia are a bit murky.
Anyone point me to some thoughts on WHY Lamashtu is so involved directly with the events of Rise?
I've always viewed it as coincidental and exploitive (on Lamashtu's part.)
All this is based on my limited background and recollection - someone may have more authentic information.
As I understand it Alaznist permitted her servants, followers, minions, what have you to worship demon lords, of which Lamashtu was one (one of many?) This may have been unusual for Runelords at least to the same degree. Ergo, those spaces (Cathedral of Wrath, Scribblers Lair) and agents (Elyrium, Scribbler) with ties to Alaznist and Bakrakhan have Lamashtu ties. The presence of a Lamashtu temple is how Nualia's pregnancy gets perverted and she eventually falls to Lamashtu worship. Standpoint lies in what was once the DMZ between Alaznist (Old Light) and Karzoug (Thistletop) so another of Alaznist's agents - Malfeshnekor - can be found in an ancient Shalast prison. And that's why a cleric of Lamashtu is ransacking the place (incompetently) searching for him in the present day. Ogres and ogrekin are degenerate giants with "breeding issues" - they are natural worshippers of Lamashtu so you will find shrines etc to her in their lairs (which show up with some frequency in RotRL.)
When Nualia conceives a child on Lamashtu's doorstep, it gives the Goddess an opening.
When Nualia kills her would-be lover, it gives her another opening.
When Nualia receives tutelage from Elyriam, another opening.
When Nualia burns her father's bones in sacrifice, another opening.
If Nualia frees Malfeshnekor, another opening.
When Karzoug's renewal flares at the end of Book 4, another opening - this time to restore the Scribbler.
Lamashtu views the Runelords as simply an opportunity to expand her influence and recruit followers. She doesn't care if Karzoug "rises" or what kind of mayhem or misery he may unleash in Varisia or Golarion - though she may be much amused. In the end, She is eternal and he is not and she'll leverage any chance she can to pervert whomsoever she can. Runelords seem pretty good at creating those chances.
For Naulia, I can buy that, with the caveat that Naulia probably has the specific requirements, that were set when Mal was originally imprisoned via Binding, to free Mal.
So using Naulia to get Mal free is pure opportunism.
Ogre/Ogrekin links are just happenstance.
Scribbler requires a bit more direct intervention - bringing him back to life is beyond even a 9th level spell (much less adding any templates). And thus to my mind is a bit beyond just coincidence.