The Lamashtu stuff is apparently part of some Lost Coast Lamashtu vs. Pazuzu meta-plot that runs through a lot of Golarion stuff. They haven't yet revealed where they're going with all that, AFAIK.
Demons Revisited has some info
(after reading through Demons Revisited)
Hmmmm, that really just alludes to a demonic show down.
I think I have a solution.
Brodert is going to keep them in and around town for a day, perhaps making them go back into the Catacombs for him to double check all of his translation work, and then Brodert gives the party a bit of an info dump about the Catacombs.
Meanwhile Jubrayl Vhiski, who had planned to move a bit of product out of town (poisons and perhaps some drugs made by Pillbug Podiker)through the tunnels has an unfortunate problem - running into some (Pallgreaves)Dwarves that the Mayor hired to wall up the Catacombs.
Brodert causes a stink at the mayors office over sealing up this archeological find.
By the time the players get back to investigating Thistletop, things are a mess there too. Orik comes stumbling down the road with a tale of woe. Naulia managed to free Mal who caused some havok and left the area with Naulia and Lyrie in tow. Gogmurt has gathered up what refugees that he can - including the remnants of the Toadstool Goblins that were chased off. He has returned to Thistletop, Orik barely escaped with his life. Gogmurt is working on solidifying the defenses and contol of the area - inviting other goblin tribes to join the Thistletop with their expanded areas. Gogmurt is actually trying to distract the goblins away from the plans to attack "Sandpoint", but Orik doesn't know that. Bruthazmus is more than happy to go along with Gogmurt for now, hoping that Naulia returns soon with the goblin-wolf-god that she freed, to seize control of the tribe.
The players get a nice big showdown with a goblin horde led by some druids and then recover some things that Mal wasn't worried about taking, such as Naulia's journal.
Mal, Naulia and Lyrie go into my sack of NPCs to return another time as they are off trying to recover other lost things in the area for the upcoming demonic showdown.
TLDR? Mal, Naulia and Lyrie get away, Thistletop refills with Goblins.
The party has spent about a week since their aborted assault on Thistletop working on some side quests like Elyrium and...
I had introduced a group NPCs - an adventuring party, that the Sheriff brought back from "Magnimar", reskinned 1st level iconics (inquisitor,witch, summoner, oracle). They have spent their time working on hunting the other goblin tribes.
One of the characters spoke with them and they talked about how they fought some goblins led by an Ogre. Feeling that they needed more firepower against Naulia, they struck a bargin to help the NPC party with their goblin nest (Master of the Fallen Fortress, re-designed with goblins and an Ogre Ranger 1 boss)and in return, the NPCs would back them up at Thistletop.
They completed that side quest (and loved the extra heals that the NPCs brought to the mix). Returning to town, they ran into a commotion at the Mayor's office - Brodert Quink was raising a stink about not being allowed back into the Catacombs, and the mayor having them bricked back up.
Que Orik to come stumbling into town looking for the PCs, then to go into my "longish solution" above. I have 9 pages of Naulia's Journal excerpts to fill them in on back story issues and give them some clues for going in to Skinsaw. It also includes a number of character specific easter eggs for them, but they can also completely ignore/gloss over it and miss nothing but fluff.
After which I'll let them spend a bit of time puttering around town and the outling areas cleaning up goblins, and getting involved in the social scene of the town before starting up Skinsaw - this seems like a good place for there to be a break to let them work on some character development.
If Nualia freed Malfeshnekor and got away with it -- then have her replace Xanesha for Part 2, or have her replace Lucrecia in Part 3. (Or just add her to the mix, assisting the other minions of evil...)
I do like the idea of Naulia being one step ahead of the party in the AP.
- Naulia is in Magnimar with Xanesha before the PCs get their big showdown there.
- Xan sends Naulia to Luccrecia.
- By meeting up with Xan, Malfeshnekor learns that Karzoug is waking up, and goes along with the plan to go to Luccrecia to learn more about what's going on.
It could certainly help bridge the gap between Skinsaw and Hook Mountain which I still don't care for (especially for my group of PCs).
My group finally got through Thistletop - They found Naulia's journal (I gave them a nice prop with excerpts going back to 5 years before the Late Unpleasentness - giving them pretty much all of Naulia's story and some clues for the future (information about her time in Magnimar).
The journal also points to Raven's Watch as the next place to look - as it is where Ripnugget and the other goblin tribes were storing supplies for the upcomming Big Invasion.
I don't have a big plan for this yet - but I was thinking of just using the moat house from T1 and stocking it with enough supplies to help out their gear a bit, if anyone has some bright/clever/interesting/crazy idea to use for this I'd love to hear it.
After that I'll let them settle in to the plots that they were building and introduce the beginnings of Skinsaw slowly.
OK, here's the thought:
While the PC have been stumbling around - spending days at Thistletop, Shelalu, Davrien Hosk and Jodar end up stumbling upon the gathering goblins at Raven's Roost. Things don't go great, Jodar gets killed, Davrien is left for dead in the woods with a missing hand, and Shelalu is captured.
Amongst the goblins at Raven's roost are a couple of Grauls.
Certainly helps set up her joining the party for book 3.
With Mother's Day and me recovering from surgery, among other things, I haven't gotten in a lot of game time in the last few weeks, but it has left me time to plan.
I'm going with the Raven's Roost plan, I think it'll be the nice showdown that Naulia should have been if they didn't dilly dally, and will give me some more connections for further down the line, I'm happy with what I have for it. I'm putting Banny Harker in with the prisoners as well, you know so I can introduce him before he gets wacked.
I've also been looking at some ideas for Sin Lords - taking the ideas of Champions of the Dark Seven (PrC) from the Green Ronin book the Unholy Warrior's Handbook, except that class is pretty bad. I came up with a Magus archetype to represent more militant arcane casters (here)who are followers of the Rune Lords, which I'm pretty happy with, but doesn't fill the niche I was hoping for which was the idea of people who follow the sins as a religious obeisance.
While I've started working on the idea of Oracle curses based upon the sins, a few have me stumped - notably as far as RISE goes, Greed.
Well, my party finished up with the remains of the goblin army at Raven's Roost, recovered Davrien Hosk, rescued Shelalu and Banny Harker, and 3 of the PCs staggered out with under 10 hp total, characters being knocked down (and dying) 3 times, uncounted amounts of potions and wand charges used. A few good strategies saved the day (that perhaps wouldn't have needed to be saved if one player would have made a build that will do anything before 9th+).
(Running this in my homebrew, lots of assorted people/places/things have been renamed, I'll stick to using the original names here for clarity)
I do have a plan for moving forward, but I'm open to comments and ideas - I've swiped lots of ideas already and plan on more.
As far as villains go:
Tsuto is captured and in jail - is set to be tried in Magnimar. Will use the idea of Hemlock being relieved when he hears the Ironbriar will hear the case.
Naulia escaped, with Lyrie having freed Mal. Mal doesn't care about razing Sandpoint, but is interested in the Catacombs of Wrath.
Elyrium, is dead (third time's the charm!)
Orik is imprisoned as well, but he gave up voluntarily after Naulia freed Mal. Will most likely be sent to the Black Arrows. Poor Orik.
Other villains and ideas -
Aldren is targeting Shayliss with a lust obsession, but it's too bad that he'll be dead soon. She'll be happy he's stopped writing letters...for now.
The Scarnetti Family, the three brothers (among the PCs) still blame them for their parents deaths. To say they're blameless would be an exaggeration.
I've been tempted to use Hannah Velerin as a minor villain herself, perhaps just having something to do with all the illegitimate Half-elves in town, or perhaps a secret Lamashtu cultist and the one who gave Naulia her starting push in that direction, but helping make sure that people's superstitions about Naulia turned out to be "true".
I'm set right now to let them explore Sandpoint and their own goals for a couple months. I'd like the challenges to be a bit mundane for a few sessions, and let them move forward with their idea to build a casino. I'm thinking of trying to get them up to Turtleback Ferry BEFORE the Paradise sinks, perhaps as "research" for their own gambling emporium.
Of the three brothers, the youngest has been being played as a bit...psychotic.
During my "rest" period before starting up Skinsaw, the oldest of the three brothers is going to head over to Habe's - just to see if there is something that can be done to calm the nerves of the youngest.
I'm thrilled, as I get to introduce some NPCs before their screen time.
Anyone have any thoughts about this encounter that won't blow the later scene once Skinsaw gets going?
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Well, first off, if Grayst isn't in the Sanatorium yet, then I don't really see a reason why Caizarlu would poke his head up out of his hole. In my head, the place should feel hopeless and desparate, but not because there's a necromancer in the basement - asylums are historically terrible places to live out your life, so that's what I'd play up. I would have the tiefling guards keep the PCs out of the restricted areas "for their own safety." Habe might still be nervous (he's harboring a necromancer, after all, and his own sinister experiments are a problem), but he might be between experiments, so there's really nothing for them to find right now.
Oh I don't want them to "find" anything yet - I mean, Habe still has to be there for Skinsaw. I just want them to think "...hmm, I really don't wanna lock my brother up in there, he's not THAT crazy."
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Cool, we're on the same page, then. Just show the conditions that the two legitimate patients live in, and that ought to convince him that being put in the asylum's a one way trip. And honestly, if it's just prescribing something to "calm the nerves," I'd think that someone would suggest Pillbug's, rather than Erin Habe.
Well, its not just to calm the nerves - the two older brothers really believe that it might just be for the best for their youngest to be in an institution, for his own sake. Goblin singing seems to set the character off...
Given some of what I've been hearing, it seems that there is some differences between the original and the AE version of the Sanitorium encounter - as I only have the original, anyone care to shed some light on the changes in the AE?
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I ran a re-themed (and upgraded) Firemaker.
Ancient Ruins, check
Weird artifacts of the past, check
Goblin and Ogre infestation, check
With only a slight bump to the baddies (and re-write of the boss) it fits fine. It wasn't challenging, but it wasn't supposed to be.
On their way to adventure they ran into Farmer Grump talked with him briefly and agreed to take a supply order to town for him.
When they came back to Sandpoint, Quink started pestering them about taking him to Thistletop (one of them had promised to do so). The recruited a young stablehand to watch the horses.
When they got there they found a pair of dwarven druids finishing clearing out the remains of the place (thanks Story Archer) on the rumor that there was a goblin god trapped there. After spending a day with Quink and the two dwarves, in Thistletop they returned to town while on the way home, two of the characters had a bit of a falling out that turned comic when they started a fist fight on horseback, neither having any ranks in ride and unable to make DC 10 ride checks...
The characters have been spending a couple of weeks in and about the town, buying houses and such and I'm about to head into Skinsaw proper.
I'm going to have Shayliss be the one who draws the party into the murder mystery (rather than the sherrif begging for help).
As for the return of Farmer Grump, I intend to run the investigation of the Hambley Farm by local farmers as a scene, handing out four 2nd level commoners for the party to play (and to get converted into ghouls) - finishing up the scene with "...Maester Grump tells you of the horrors that occured at the Hambley Farm a few days ago."
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As for the return of Farmer Grump, I intend to run the investigation of the Hambley Farm by local farmers as a scene, handing out four 2nd level commoners for the party to play (and to get converted into ghouls) - finishing up the scene with "...Maester Grump tells you of the horrors that occured at the Hambley Farm a few days ago."
That's awesome. I've had a love for alternate perspective one-shots ever since I read Vecna Lives! back in the day. It lets the PCs play characters that either wouldn't be suitable for a long-term game or wouldn't be fun for long, and allows the DM to show what happens when their characters aren't around and also to MERCILESSLY KILL CHARACTERS without causing too much distress to the players.
Thanks, I'm looking forward to it.
As an additional plus, I get to throw in some background on the Hambley family.
I have half-page NPC sheets ready for them, with one question on the bottom of each, like:
What is this NPCs secret sin?
Tell me something interesting this NPC did last week.
ect.
I want them to be JUST attached enough to these 5pt build human commoners that they feel a little something about it when they get to kill the ghoulified versions.
Shayliss being the one who drew the party into the murder mystery worked great - the players didn't have any bad impressions of the sheriff, and the story line worked great.
Hemlock was returning from Magnimar (he was bringing Tsuto and Orik for trial) when he ran into Grayst (and dumped him off at the Sanitorium), then soon enough the Lumbermill murders.
Shayliss came running to her boyfriend when Ven got locked up by the Sherrif. Two of the PCs eventually made it to the Lumbermill, and the game was afoot.
As the party gathered, and started investigating many theories were bantered about, including: Chopper's Isle re-inspiring someone, Naulia and Mal (still on the loose, I have a plan for them), other (Echidna)Lamashtu cultists, Scarnettis, Shayliss herself...
Fairly quickly Aldren came to the front of the suspect list, but he had been such a non-combatant in previous scenes that there was resistance to naming him. By the time they got through the Sanitorium (no hitchs, peaceful, no piles of house cats all over a melee) they were pretty sure what they needed to do.
I'm set to start the cut scene with the players running the commoners next week.
The cut scene went pretty well, a few things I learned:
1 - keep it short, my scene lasted all of 3 rounds before 3 of the four players were paralyzed by ghouls and being hauled off.
If it had lasted longer it wouldn't have been fun, it would have been a distraction.
2 - Use the NPCs to portray parts of the story that they have no reason to know, but will help paint the larger picture.
3 - Start things up in medias res or right at the start of the action, give them the set-up and background and say GO.
4 - I think it was helpful to have the players tell ME something about the NPCs - just one thing, but enough to give them a connection to them.
The four 2nd level commoners and Maester Grump came up on the house, and were quickly overwhelmed by ghouls - Maester Grump and one of the commoners ran away - the players were made a bit nervous of how quickly the NPCs they played fell to the ghouls.
The players got to hear Maester Grump tell a garbled version of the story and shout some things about walking scarecrows.
When they got there with their real characters, they were nervous and skittish - and scarecrows/ghouls jumping them from surprise only added to the edge. When they shot a live person near the actual farm (one of the 2nd level commoners they played) they were even more concerned. They ended up running into the house which turned into an Evil Dead farmhouse scene pretty quickly, they successfully fought them off from inside but were sweating the fight, it wasn't until after that they realized that the biggest threat was being paralyzed - 2 of the 4 of the players skipped most of the fight paralyzed.
I think I'll Spoiler the update on how things went to keep this cleaner.
I decided to not allow the characters any way to avoid the haunts beyond the saves vs. the effects - they experienced every haunt.
I'd found someones Haunt Cards (Misroi's maybe?), thanks with some edits, they worked GREAT.
I moved the Goblin Ghouls into the back shadows of Aldren's room to make that fight more interesting - if I did it again, I would run Aldren a bit different - I would have him just start off talking and begging to be saved. If the PCs don't let him monologue, THEN the Hurter takes over and he flies into a rage.
Following the leads to the Foxglove townhouse, I added one faceless stalker, (in the guise of Rogors Craesby), and had a nice Bluff/Sense Motive conflict before things broke down into melee - which was a bit of a harsh fight with the extra flanker.
In planning all the extra stuff I want to do in "Magnimar", I hadn't noticed how poor the connection between Townhouse and Sawmill was. There several paragraphs on Norgorber, and no description on how to pick out the correct sawmill (assuming there's not a big sign saying "Seven's Sawmill", which isn't described in the sawmill).
Now I've already planned to use The Lyrie Scenario, at least in a modified form, as well as The Scarlet Sun (also modified) and add in an encounter with another Justice. I trying to muddle through how to include the Sawmill informations through the other two plots which are going to be connected (loosly) to each other and to the main plot.
Lyrie escaped Thistletop along with Naulia and Mal.
The three of them have returned to "Magnimar" and have come to talk with Xanesha. Lyrie is reconsidering her situation now that Mal is in charge, and not Naulia - she wants out, but needs money to flee far, queue the basics of the Lyrie Scenario.
The Scarlet Sun - Avelexi, Zadendi and the Scarlet Son stay mostly the same, but their motives and background change, they are servants of "Lamashtu" instead, and are allied with Xanesha. They're just causing trouble around town to obfuscate who the real targets of the Skinsaw Cult is, however, I think that Xanesha is actually more interested in their survival than the Skinsaw Cultists being fellow followers - I'm going with the thought that Xanesha is only a nominal supporter of big K, which is part of the reason she's just getting the rituals done by proxy.
The extra Justices are mostly part of the scenery of the corrupt civil government in Magnimar, and one will be coveting Ironbriars position.
The entry on the Seven's Sawmill in Magnimar, City of Monuments makes it sound like it's a pretty well-known spot that people would know by name to me, so I wouldn't worry too much about that.
Having the "Seven's Sawmill" be an unknown quantity worked pretty well.
After meeting with Ironbriar about all the information they had they started wandering around town with some ill defined plans of maybe checking out the Underbridge (which Ironbriar had pointed them to)
But they spotted someone tailing them after leaving the Pediment Building, so they tried to turn the tail around but did not succeed.
The tail was a member of the staff of another Justice who is coveting Ironbriar's position. This rival Justice eventually did make contact with the PCs and asked them to be informants for him on Ironbriar.
Lyrie makes contact with the PCs and makes the offer leading to the Lyrie Scenario, which the player's took and Lyrie's antics took up a good chunk of the session - leaving next session for the finale of the Lyrie Scenario.
The drug deal is destined to go bad as indicated, but it will have additional challenges.
First is the buyer - who will catch on to Lyrie cutting the drugs.
Second is Lyrie's supplier - who she stole the drugs from in the first place.
Third is Skinsaw cultists - out to silence Lyrie.
Fourth is Town Guard - tipped off by SOMEONE in one of the above organizations, or among Lyrie's people.
So it gets to be the battle of five armies in an abandoned warehouse - anyone have a good map for such a thing?
Anyway towards the end, Lyrie told the PCs of a innocuous mark in the lower right corner of the business' sign that indicated that it was a Brotherhood of Seven's business - which when they get the chance will lead them to the sawmill.
The end of the Lyrie scenario should play out soon, leading to a pretty rapid slide through the rest of Skinsaw.
I have wanted to add more in between Skinsaw and Hook Mountain.
I had read that in Hook Mountain, there was originally a scene on the Paradise, which before even knowing that, I felt that the PCs not having the chance to see the Paradise in operation was a missed opportunity.
I have Orik (and another NPC) being sent up the river to the Black Arrows. I'm thinking of giving the PC's the chance to meet Jakardros Sovark and travel with him to Turtleback Ferry escorting the prisoners. Give them a couple of encounters, start playing up the beginnings of the rain, then to the Paradise where they meet Keven (but Lucy is out of sight).
Back home to Sandpoint, ramp up their plans as upcoming members of the town. Let them follow up on NPCs that they have made contacts with. Give them some Scarnetti and Sczarni intrigue. Maybe have a haunting encounter with the Sandpoint Devil. And the rain keeps coming.
THEN I move on, Shelalu shows up, with word from the area around TBF: Ogres are more active, nothing from the Black Arrows – try to steer conversation to them bringing up Jakardros. Shelalu becomes the driver for the mission. Get them back to Turtleback Ferry, Hook Mountain proceeds, replace Vale with Orik, or perhaps just add Orik to the Grauls or the Fort in some way (even if as a corpse).
I like the flow of the above, but any thoughts, comments, ideas, rude remarks?
Well, its been a few sessions (including a week off while I was out of town).
The party finished off the end of Skinsaw - the non-AE Xan is a beastly murder machine - I'd painted the mini for her so was ready to use her, knowing that she was a beast, but then as I looked closely at the numbers (and the numbers on the PCs) and the tactical situation, I saw that it would have been a TPK if I let it go as is.
Even toned down with the sorcerer levels removed she was a monster - like people thinking that they'd have a better chance of surviving the fall from the clock tower than they fared vs. her spear.
I'm proceeding with the plan to send the PCs to Turtleback Ferry before the fall of the Black Arrows, throwing in 2 side treks.
(take a look in the Hook Mountain thread if you're interested in details.)
Even toned down, it took the party's slayer getting in a key high end Great Sword+Power Attack+Sneak Attack+Crit that saved the day from TPK to victory.
A lot of what makes her a murder machine is the terrain.
The super AC and heavy damage output don't hurt, but the terrain is murder - one character survived because he tied a rope to himself and the tower.
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Presumably you rolled to check on the availability of that many pairs of magical boots. Magnimar is a big city, but multiple pairs of identical magical boots being available becomes increasingly unlikely the more you want. Though as large as Magnimar is, they may be considered a relatively common item.
If one of the PCs have Craft Woundreous Item, he can make one of those boots in 4h (although no more than one per day)
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If one of the PCs have Craft Woundreous Item, he can make one of those boots in 4h (although no more than one per day)
True, but the way my GM ran it, we were on the clock so spending 4 days crafting items between finding out about where we needed to look and actually going there seemed like a really bad idea to us. Other games might play at a different pace; get lucky and find out where to go without tipping off the bad guys.
We were bulls in a china shop, so everybody saw us coming.
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The plan is to:
Send the PCs to Turtleback Ferry - let them see the Paradise and meet some of the Black Aarows, give them a couple side missions.
Let them go back to "Sandpoint" deal with issues there, including:
-Finishing up the Misgivings (they bought a scroll of Dispel Evil) to purge the hauntings.
-Lyrie has gone to try to catch up with them there (they have her MONEY)
-Maybe a Sandpoint Devil encounter
-Local political challenges (Glassworks, Scarnettis)
-Maybe some Goblin mop up action
Then move on to Hook Mountain, as scripted - possibly with Shelalu being the instigator instead of the Lord Mayor.
The plan is to:
Send the PCs to Turtleback Ferry - let them see the Paradise and meet some of the Black Aarows, give them a couple side missions.
Let them go back to "Sandpoint" deal with issues there, including:
-Finishing up the Misgivings (they bought a scroll of Dispel Evil) to purge the hauntings.
-Lyrie has gone to try to catch up with them there (they have her MONEY)
-Maybe a Sandpoint Devil encounter
-Local political challenges (Glassworks, Scarnettis)
-Maybe some Goblin mop up actionThen move on to Hook Mountain, as scripted - possibly with Shelalu being the instigator instead of the Lord Mayor.
This is mmy plan to, more or less, except with different sidetrecks. But I'm going to split Lucretia from the hook mountain issue. Lucretia and the hags are responsible for the Skull Crossing and the rain and Black Magga, but once defeaed, the PC have some time to do things by they own. Later, the Kreegs will take the Black Arrows by surprise. Making them to know the Black Arrows before they die will work as an emotional hook
Yea, I as much as I like the individual portions of Skinsaw, I really wasn't feeling the connections from segment to segment along that path.
Misgivings -> Skinsaw Cult, and
Skinsaw Cult -> Turtleback Ferry
Both are links I just wasn't feeling good about.
Introducing the Black Arrows before the PCs see them at the Grauls is gonna make that scene have a much better impact.
Now, I like your thoughts on Lucretia.
I don't see her being a big fan of hanging out with ogres.
How are you planning to use Lucy and the Hags differently?
Almost makes me think that the flow of HMM should be:
-PCs arrive in TBF
-FLOOD event/Black Magga
-PCs go up river to check things out
-Grauls
-Fort Rannick
-Skull Crossing
-Haunted Heart/Myriana
-Hook Mountain Clanhold
My plan is that Lucretia has made a pacto with the witch coven. The coven is in Skull Crossing.
I'm going to out Lucy in the paradise. Iwant the PC being able to interact with her. I know there's a risk that they go straight ahead and attack her on sight, but my plan is that they notice, through sense motive, that ALL the town Love her. She has been doing a good job using charm monster and being a damn nice smiling face. So attacking her might mean 300 charmed innocent charge you, and they don't like that, I suppose.
My Lucretia has also hidden some nuggets of gold in the river. She wants a "gold rush" that attract greedy people to TF.
Depending how thus goes, I could make for a Sleepy Hollow scene, with a Dullahan taking the head of one of the few citizens not under control the night after he speaks vs her. This is because I'm going to mix book 3 of the Shattered Star campaign, and I'd like to introduce a foreshadowing of the Dark Rider. But this is optional, and will depend on how straightforward the PCs go. If they stay a day or two gathering info, I'll do. If they go straight vs Lucy, I won't.
Once the PC face her, she's going to tell them that it's too late, Karzaug return is already a work in progress, and nothing can stop him. The PC are hopeless ahaindt the Runelord, blah,blah,blah. Then she'll sink the paradise (which already have some attached charges in the Hill) with a command word
While the PC try to save the civilians in the Paradise (presumedly, at the very least the LG cleric will do) she'll cast Dimensional door a few times in a row to get distance (or a teleport scroll, maybe, I have to think about it), and go straight ahead to skull crossing. Then Black Magga arrives to the town, and when the PC get to skull crossing, they face Lucy, the hag coven, river trolls, and papa skragg, but no ogres.
Forgot to out my order:
Arrive to TF
Tslk with Black Arrows, see Lucrecia
Go to skull crossing.
Kill lucrecia
This wraps up the 7 Brotherhood chapter. They get to rest, craft, go to do personal quests, whatever.
Then:
They get an animal messenger from Black Arrows (maybe Shaelelu...). It's writen in blood. Says "Help Rannick"
They go there.
Find Graul Farm.
Clean Fort Rannick.
Go to mirianna. Something foul happens in the forestal, they find a lot of becromancy and stuff.
Find the Dark Forest and kill the Dark Rider, who has the Gluttony Shard
Go to hook mountain and kill Barl, and Lamatar, and their army of wight ogres
Nice.
I'll have to think about how you are running all of that.
Trolls really arn't much of a social upgrade from ogres.
I don't really want to have them interact with Lucy until they need to in order to further the plot.
I still have Mal/Naulia as a dangling thread that I'm not sure where it'll end up going - right now Mal is still trying to get his bearings and finding out what K's agents are up to,
I think Mal is at least somewhat interested in thwarting it - Mal would be on the hit list once K is a fully armed and operational battle station.
Trolls aren't really social, but they are contacted by the hags. Lucrecia's original plan didn't involve to mess with them, that's something that happens when the PC arrive to TF and she needs/chooses to flee.
I understood, that was more of a Lucrecia in character thought...
"<sigh> Trolls aren't much better than ogres..."
Your plot line does make me want to not use Lucrecia at Rannick.
Maybe Malfeshnekor and Naulia are responsible for killing Lucrecia, and the PCs find the body?
Unless Nualia has leveled up quite a lot, I'm not sure they are able to do it even if they team up. But on the other hand, you don't have to run the combat, so anything that moved the plot forward will work. Maybe they got her sleeping thaks to M invisibility or whatever.
But yes, I feel that Rannick is not Lucrecia's fav place.
Well, I have some other things to worry about first, the personal quests and wrap up of previous events back at Sandpoint.
Not 100% how/where I want Lucy to pop out of her snake den.
the Misgivings - Party is bringing back a Dispel Evil scroll and hopes they can get Zantus to help with breaking the curse.
Lyrie - hopefully the solution to this dangling thread - though these players have a LONG history of leaving threads to grow and bite them on the behind. Catches up with the players here, expecting her money from the Lyrie Scenario...
Pillbug - The Pillbug is a behind the scenes problem that will have connections to a lot of problems, I think I'm gonna run with him being behind people at the Kitten getting sick at the behest of Jubryl.
Sczarni - Not directly opposing the players, but into a number of their problems socially - want to Just watched Fist Full of Dollars to get some ideas for a Sczarni/Scarnetti conflict.
Goblins - I'd like a goblin problem/challenge to pop up - something more annoying then dangerous
Foxglove Sisters - Legal issues, one of the PCs is hoping to claim Misgivings after breaking the curse, and the party has the deed to the townhouse as well. Legal issues with surviving Foxgloves could be an issue.
Glassworks - the legal/tax issues in town regarding the Glassworks
Deverin/town owned millworks
Scarnetti - 3 PC brothers blame (to varying degrees) the Scarnetti for their family lumber mill burning down and claiming the lives of their parents during the Late Unpleasentness. The Scarnetti's are potentially their rivals on a number of these challengs.
If anyone as some neat ideas for any of these, I'd love to hear it.
As for Hook Mountain, once the above are done, for what I'm doing...
-PCs get invite/request from Lord Mayor to go to Turtleback/Rannick, due to flood/Paradise sinking/no Black Arrows.
-Travel back across country
-PCs arrive in TBF
-FLOOD event/Black Magga
-PCs go up river to check things out
-Grauls
-Fort Rannick
-Skull Crossing
-Haunted Heart/Myriana
-Hook Mountain Clanhold
Between Holidays, the return of Lyrie and the Plots listed above, it has been a bit - my players are mid-way through the Graul house. Its going good.
Despite fears, the Mammy Graul fight went great, without her ever leaving her bed. I borrowed someone's retooled Mammy and added Vampiric Shadow Shield/Displacement/Mirror Image. It went well and the players enjoyed the odd tactical situation. I could have gotten Mammy out of there but dropping multiple characters and leaving one with a Bestow Curse (which they won't easily get rid of, only caster is a druid) did the trick.
For everyone who has posted some of their own Graulfulness, thanks.
The party has pulled back, but they can't leave, they're too horrified by the Graul house to just walk away with the Black Arrows (they went to the Barn first).
Hucker and Muck are the only ones left alive, and I dont see Hucker sitting around waiting on PCs. Outside of just reseting the traps and maybe setting a new one or two, any thoughts on having Hucker do something besides just slipping away into the woodwork?
Perhaps he meets with them and talks polite. Explains things his family has done without judgment, just matter of fact - Karl Childers from Sling Blade?
Haven't updated this in a bit - I got one of the players to take over DM duties for a bit with their own game, giving me time to prep for the next phase, and skip the whole summer-everyone-misses-random-weeks-for-whatver time.
The party made it through the rest of HMM by relying upon their only strength - stealth, and ambushed quite a few of their opponents. They went straight to the dam after Rannick, spotted Black Magga nosing around the crack in the dam before sacrificeing the Pit Fiend and releasing the water pressure early - so I ended up skipping the Black Magga scene(even after painting a mini for it).
At the end of HMM (which had a few twists, and I added a few leveled ogres into the mix here and there)The party has agreed to be the new caretakers of Fort Rannick, and that's pretty much where I've left things until I'm ready to pick it up again.
I've worked up the equivalent of a Leadership feat worth of NPCs that will be sent from Magnimar to help them out - they won't help the players adventure, and they ultimately don't answer to the PCs.
I think I want to go with the option of letting the rest of the year go by and having the players invited back to Sandpoint for Goblin Day, but I'll see how it all plays out - does anyone have any advice or interesting things they did inbetween HMM and Fortress?
I've been working on and off again about how to proceed once I pick things up again.
I think I would like to run a few sessions overviewing the activities of the next several months, giving the players time to settle in to Rannick, resolve some dangling plots and the like, then get them back to "Sandpoint" in time for the next year's Swallowtail Festival and, of course, Goblin Day! Let them fuss with that a bit then spring Stones over Sandpoint on them, which will include multiple mini encounters with the players having the chance to play some of the town notables during the attack.
From there I expect them to move on towards tracking down the giants, which will include a potential side trek into a ruin that will be swiped largely from B4 The Lost City/Elder Evils before reaching Jorgenfist - this could include a new sighting of Naulia & Mal.
While I don't have the AE, the original gives a good assortment of things to happen - a lot of which I can distribute via email in the weeks before I actually start back up. I do have a few additional ideas of things to do there:
Ogre bands - While the Kreegs are largely defeated, their exxodus from Hook Mountain is sure to create small bands of desperate ogres around the area.
Property dispute - Ossund (a town I added to the area, and was largely wiped out by a few ogres, and an ogre werewolf). I'd like to add in a dispute over property rights for the area, allowing the PCs to support a side - both sides I think, will be a win for them.
Lucy again! - I've left Lucy's top two (charmed) henchmen from the Paradise (Eel's End) in Turtleback Ferry, trying to rebuild things in hopes of Lucy's return - what if they get a Reincarnate cast?
Internal issues - The PC soldiers lent to them from "Magnimar" could contain agents from any number of places - thoughts?
From some responses in other threads, it sound like, unlike the original version, the AE encourages the PCs to rush back to Sandpoint after Hook Mountain is finished.
I'd really like Rannick to end up being a Money Pit for them.
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If you want to keep the party at Fort Rannick for awhile, then don't give them the knowledge that Sandpoint is under any degree of threat at the moment. Barl's message stating that the Jorgenfist army is en route to Sandpoint? Yeah, nix that. Instead, there's a message that suggests that Barl start drumming up troops, and to expect an envoy with orders to march in the near future. Those orders can drop once you've given the party time to build up Fort Rannick.
Yea, the AE has a note...
...from Mokmurian (on mammoth hide) to Barl, describing Teraktinus' attack on Sandpoint and ordering Barl to prepare to provide assistance should Teraktinus need it. While this serves to warn the pc's about the raid and motivates them to return as quickly as practical, it doesn't make a great deal of sense. Teraktinus is unlikely to come anywhere near Hook Mountain if headed back to Jorgenfist nor will the Kreeg ogres have any ready way to establish contact with the retreating stone giants if they did. Now the pc's have no idea about this when they find the note - they have no idea where Jorgenfist is. And by the time they do, this oddity will likely be forgotten.
You're free to not have such a note. Indeed you could omit the Sandpoint attack altogether - what if Teraktinus and the dragon are sent to retake Rannick? And captured giants lead the pc's to Jorgenfist - maybe Teraktinus has orders from Mokmurian? And when the pc's follow-up they can find notes indicating Mokmurian was planning to attack or investigate Sandpoint looking for Runeforge, etc. You could even omit the sink hole and have the players looking for secret dungeons under Old Light. Maybe the players need to recruit Conna to do the stone-telling for them...
I actually might end up doing a mix of what you suggested, Latrecis.
Even though (I thought) I've got a big enough gaming table it is usually clattered with beverages and sweets andandandand, so I already dread the logistics for presenting the Sandpoint attack on a 1" grid.
Rannick would be way easier but I'd like to incorporate TBF here as well and need to think about the travel logistics...
Moving the sinkhole to the other location will actually sate the curiosity of one of my players: thanks for that!
Ruyan.