Hello.
So I solicited my friends for interest in a more serious-than-usual urban fantasy campaign centered on a single city. I mentioned it'd deal with racial issues, poverty, and politics revolving around this one city: Korvosa. I got four, "Hell Yeahs!".
Let me first warn you that there will be spoilers from many sources. Sources other than just the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP. (Several other APs, Dungeon Magazines, other campaign journals etc.)In fact, assume most of my ideas are not my own. For whatever I accomplish, it was on the shoulders of giants who I've gleefully stole from. My skills lie in hiding the duct tape and stitches that blend this assortment of clever adventures all together. So this is the only spoiler warning I'll be giving before proceeding.
Even prior to character creation, we ran a one-shot adventure my friends dubbed: Law and Order: Korvosa Unit. Some pregenerated detectives had a great time looking for a missing noble scion. (Reaper's "The Eldest Son" adventure). Using generous amounts of info from Guide to Korvosa, I fleshed out a city, introducing several reoccurring NPCs, racial and social tensions, art, and landmarks of the city. My players are pretty new to RPGs in general so I thought giving them a chance to play some Pathfinder and experience Korvosa would help fan the flames of character inspiration.
Following the conclusion of this adventure, we had our session 0. Expectations and character creation. This game would never work without this. I required two things from characters. The first is that they are children forced to work by a seedy scumbag named Gaedren Lamm and the second being that their character requires some sort of motivation or goal to help the city. "To get rich" is not a valid motivation. Think of something your character want's to change about the city. An injustice or unfair institution that your character want's to see fixed.
Dramatis Personae
Alika - Female Human(Chelaxian) - Cleric of Torag
Alika is a math genius. A socially awkward girl obsessed with the workings of machines and engineering. She views her faith as greatly tied to her city. To her, this city is one colossal machine and she is called to keep her running smoothly.
Melik The Provider - Male Dwarf - Druid (Urban Druid)
Melik is a Dwarf sent from Janderhoff to train at Korvosa's University. Too bad his uncle he was staying with had other plans. Deep in debt, he sold Melik to Gaedren. His betrayal of his kin left him sour and untrustworthy of others in authorty. He has taken to as a sort of shepherd for his fellow Lambs. He seeks to restore balance, socially and ecologically here in Korvosa. He sees hope in the poor and the youth of the city.
Rat - Female Human (Chelaxian) Ranger (Sable Company Marine)
Rat grew up in the Shingles before being Gaedren's courier. She originally was undecided on her life until seeing the Sable Company on their mounted hippogriffs and found her calling. She seeks to use her skills to tackle the escalating poverty and violence in the Shingles.
Cada - Human (Half-Shoanti) - Alchemist
She was sold at an early age to Gaedren by her mother and never knowing the identity of her Shoanti father. After encountering the venomous effects of Dream Spiders at an early age, she imagined she was a wolfbeast and felt at home. This strange sensation propelled her into a career of alchemy in hopes of unlocking this inner animal. She wonders if it is tied to who her father is/was.
Before I begin with the prelude, let me explain some background changes I made for my game as a nod to a previous one-shot based on a Golarion/pathfinder rendition of 3.0's "The Sunless Citadel." As a nod to that game, Kazavon and a certain Ustlavic Vampire are replaced by Ashardalon and his faithful vampire priest, Gulthias.
My next post will detail my prelude sessions!
Looking forward to it.
Prelude - 1
Gaedren’s little lambs stirred in their sleep as a thunderstorm pounded the city of Korvosa over the night and into morning. By the time it ceased, a gray colored dawn was coming through the windows. Not long after, a crooked little gnome shakes up the orphans to get out of bed and pulls 4 of them to gather some rats to feed a hungry pet alligator, Gobblegut.
On their way out, they ran into Gaedran. He grabbed the half-shoanti girl by the shoulder saying, “Not you, little girl. I need you for something special today.”
Hookshanks takes the three others and gives them an old potato sack and a small knife, while leading them down to an alley with a sewer entrance. He warns them that the storm runoff will be draining through the sewers at this time too, so tread carefully less you be swept away and eaten by the sharks. Or worse.
Down in the sewers, the water levels are much higher than normal. Additionally, Malek notes that by the state of these torches, someone has been down here last night.
Their normal rat catching spot requires passage under several warehouse subpump sections. Normally this isn’t a big deal, but after a storm like this, they are working overtime right now. The sewer tunnel is lined with various pumps and gear sections that wind all up, over and down either side of this tunnel for several tens of feet. Some are blowing out piping hot steam prohibiting passage. Alika thinks she knows how these systems works and some sort of regulatory devices must be nearby. She finds a deplorable regulator in the wall behind several layers of pipes. She weaseled her hands between them and was able to temporarily shut down some of the pipe’s steam. Rat and Malek question how safe this passage will be, pondering the present condition of these pipes. Alika mentions the system should be good and will hold for the time we need. The pipes whine and buckle under the increasing pressure. Alika begins to doubt her previous estimate.
Further down in the sewers, they reach a large chasm. Originally a hole with a ladder leading further down into the sewers, the current water is just pouring down into this hole for tens of feet before reaching the bottom. Sounds of rushing water can be heard below.
As the players make their way around the chasm, they hear the sounds of the pipes giving out. Hissing and metal breaking begins to catch up with their location. These tremors knock Alika’s footing and she tumbles down into this hole!
Rat and Malek scream for her and they can hear Alika splashing and calling for help. Rat finds the step ladder down, but it is quite slippery and water continues to pour down on to her face. She makes it down and grabs hold of Alika, but during their climb up, they both slip and Alika gets pulled back under water. Alika doesn’t resurface.
Rat begins diving into this water and feels the intense current pulling her away deep into the sewers. Rat screams for Malek that she’s going in after her. Malek, familiar with the sewers, begins rushing off to where he thinks the next available below level access point may be.
Minutes go by for Alika. Her swim checks against the rushing water are desperate. At least until something large grabs hold of her leg. She tries to scream and fight with her last few moments of breath. Rat manages to swim with the current and catch a glimmer of a wrench juttering around- Alika’s trademark weapon.
Rat swims onward and there’s a lot of ruckus going on below the water ahead. Some dark shape grabs her as well the two begin to be pulled in a different direction. Both go unconscious.
Rat is the first to wake. She’s on solid ground. Still in the sewers, and it’s incredibly dark, but alive. She spots her friend Alika on her side being cared for by this monstrous, 9 foot tall monster whose skin is a patchwork of several different humanoids. It appears to be petting her hair while reciting some sort of poetry with a noticeably sad tone.
Rat immediately gets to her feet and screams at the beast to let her friend go- to step aside and let her help Alika. The beast quickly stops what he is doing and scurries back, giving space for Rat’s first aid. Alika regains consciousness, coughing up dirty water as Rat beats on her chest over and over again telling her to get up. The monster remains scared and says he only wants to help the little ones.
He says he found you two when hiding from the scary wizard men and he means no harm. He is just trying to get home but doesn’t know how to get out of the sewers.
Alika, naive as always, wishes to befriend this monster and ask it some questions. Rat is suspicious and thinks we need to get back as soon as possible. She is scared for Malek and his whereabouts. Alika is too enamored with this creature after deducing this thing is called a Flesh Golem- A combination of machine, magic, and life. Alika calls him Ozymandias after the lines of the poetry he repeats.
Malek rushes down several sets of passages and stairs looking for any sign of his comrades. He’s terrified he lost them and doubts himself as a responsible caretaker of his friends. He thinks he is close after catching the sound of distant voices. He calls out to them.
Footsteps are heard; several sets. The terrified beast bids the girls to hide with him. The voices are of younger men. They are talking about how some precocious necromancer brat was able to sneak into the Hall of Necromancy. He somehow enabled this beast and it got out. No wonder the Acadamae is terrified of this getting out of hand. This could cause a panic.
Their patrol’s conversation is cut short when one of them hears the sound of a voice calling out for someone named Alika. The two mages go silent and investigate. Alika, not one for subtlety answers back to Malek saying we’re here. Seemingly forgetting she agreed to be hiding. Oops! Rat looks furious.
Malek pipes up when he hears Alika’s voice, but the sounds of the other voices quickly turns his optimism into deep concern.
The pair of mages find Rat, Alika, and Ozzy. Fortunately Ozzy was able to pound these two mages into bloody pulps before they did anything. But all the children see what dangerous potential their new friend has. Malek agrees to help Rat and Alika escort Ozzy to an exit that’ll take him away from the city. Attempts at finding out where his “home” is, besides somewhere outside the city, go fruitless
They finally bid farewell to Ozzy and collect some rats before returning home. A presence of Acadamae personnel are on the streets questioning folks about what happened last night. Apparently there was some sort of brawl that happened down the streets of Korvosa following an Arcane Training Exercise mishap occurring late last night.
They get back to an old clogshop they’re staying in and see Gaedren with a younger, scrawny, pale, teenager who he introduces has Rolth. His nephew and how he’s taking a semester off from the Academy for “personal time” with his uncle.
DM Final Thoughts:
My first session did not go as initially as planned. After Alika failed her acrobatics down into the current, I had to improvise. My original idea about using an otyugh/beast fight seemed like it wouldn’t work after those failed rolls so I went with this water rescue thing. While my introduction for Ozzy/the Beast from the Carrion Crown AP turned out better than I hoped. The party thinks him as friendly and have seen his true nature.
I’m struggling having these earlier sessions behave. Like they are, by nature, more railroady than my usual style of game. It’s still awkward when I just appear to keep droning on and on about what’s happening with very little player input. Yet, after typing this report, perhaps it wasn’t as bad as I thought.
So I managed to make it through the prologue before terrible news struck my group. We had to disband the group because of myself and a few of my player’s workloads. We’re all mature about it and everyone agrees that this is probably the best decision. We all want to play in a way that doesn’t feel like a chore and the rescheduling and stress from our jobs was muting some of the fun and joy gaming brings… so them’s the breaks.
Now this wasn’t the first time my best laid plans have had life get in the way. So I’m taking it in stride.
Sometimes I feel like my GM campaign prep is entirely Sisyphean in nature.In the meantime, I’ve been able to just have “pick-up” games and falling in love with the new 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons. I’m toying around with either rebooting this campaign at some date in 5th edition or running a brand new Grimms Fairy Tales meets Ravenloft Carrion Crown game idea that I’ve been toying around with.
Should I reboot this, instead of a prologue, I'll utilize a larger bring down Garden's operations. Piecemeal style. With each peice taken down, Vellara the harrower can pinpoint Gaedrens true location. So stuff like stopping a shipment of dream spiders from being off loaded, taking down the warehouse it was going to, the basement processing center, and then like Gaedrens private retreat. Actually I like that idea a lot.
Additionally, my office has blocked my ability to log into my Paizo account and post messages. I can only browse. This has drastically limited my ability to interact here on the boards!
Anyways, the game!
Prelude 2
The party awoke to the sound of the thuggish half-orc Giggles. Grabbing the party and few others lambs, Giggles brought the orphans to Gaedren and his nephew currently assembled in the main floor. Also present was Yargin, the greasy Alchemist with a full sack of something.
Gaedren told the group that they’ll be taken care of by his nephew, Rolth today. The lambs have the opportunity to make ol’ Gaedren more proud than he’s ever been should all go well! (The party instantly knew something bad was planned today.) First order of business this morning everyone needs to line up for a fitting of a new costume!
Yargin pulls out this large sack of strange leather armor outfitted for children, commenting how they he had to buy out the stock of Halfling sized armor… let alone been up late making these “modifications” Gaedren’s nephew required.
While being outfitted, Alika and her deductive mind recognized this armor, tubing, and bladder as some sort of liquid gathering contraption… yet the purpose of such a device remained unknown.
Wearing their strange armor covered by baggy cloaks, the lambs scuttled over to Old Korvosa to an abandoned opera house. In the early morning, out front of this condemned theater, the party learned their mission.
Rolth, sniggering, said today they’ll be catching spiders! Specifically their venom. Inside this theater is a nest of dream spiders. The lambs need to get in there, find these spiders, and have their venom “milked” into their suit’s bladders. All they need to do is hold still and let these things bite their armor and no one will be hurt. One last piece of advice: Please do avoid the webs. No one wants to deal with a crazed, hallucinating brat who can’t do one simple job.
The first few lambs sent into the theater weren’t the party. Everyone got to hear their friends scurrying around saying how dark it was and how there’s so much webbing… and then silence. Suddenly- Crashes! Screams! Shouting! The sound of footsteps comes approaching the door.. banging on the inside. It’s a lamb! Quint. He’s crying and begging to be let out. To not let the spiders get him.
Hookshanks, Giggles, and Rolth disappointedly open the door and let him free. Out comes a crazed Quint, covered in silvery shiny webbing. He screams they’re all gone! Coughing in a fit, he tries to push away anyone coming close to him calling them spider men. Fighting to not be eaten. Giggles knocks him out.
It’s decided that the party now must venture into this house and collect the venom and find the other lambs. They know whatever lies inside this opera house is preferred to coming home to Gaedren empty handed.
The party quickly arms themselves with whatever they have: A dagger, a wrench, a plank of wood. They fight their way down to the stage when they see a trap door spring open and their friend Amarice fighting off two spiders. Her clothes are dusty and torn and her armor has been pierced and it’s bladder has some sort of rainbow colored liquid in it. She calls for help from the party!
In a dramatic style, Rat brings down an old curtain on one of the spiders, confusing it, while the rest of the group deals with the other. The pair of spiders go down easily.
Amarice doesn’t know the fate of Quint or the other lamb that went with her. She heard screaming, fell through the floor and has been trying to find a way out ever since!
It was at this time Melik noticed a cocoon the size of a small boy being operated on by a spider in the back of the theatre. The party rushed over and slew it and freeing an unconscious orphan- their friend and missing lamb.
Only after they defeated the spiders, they learned they could extract the venom once they were dead with the help of Cada’s ingenuity. She clearly has some gifts with poisons and extracts.
Only one problem remained- how are they going to tell Rolth about how they killed the spiders? They decided to lie about there being more and deal with that problem when the time comes.
DM Notes
This session really hit stride with everyone having fun. Big thanks to Mr. Vergee for this idea to run this venom extraction idea... it's so genius!