| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
I already have a list of changes in mind, but was curious if anyone else had any ideas about ways to modify or add stuff to any part of LoF. I don't need finished content or even fully thought out ideas: idle thoughts about stuff you think would be cool would be greatly appreciated.
Howl of the Carrion King
Dig deep enough into this forum and you'll find "Fortress of the Ghouls" (I hope I'm remembering that correctly), which expands a peripheral element of the adventure into a little side-trek. I also posted a map and some adventure ideas for the other border fort overlooking the Pale Cascade waterfall.Between Howl of the Carrion King and House of the Beast, I also used the Kingdom rules (from the Kingmaker AP at the time, since updated and expanded in Ultimate Campaign), which allowed my players to create a "personalized" version of Kelmarane going forward. I soundly recommend this--really helped get my players invested in the community.
House of the Beast
I introduced Amwyr Yuseifah to the campaign a year (of game-time) before starting HotB. While most of the PCs were out hexploring, they visited Bronze Hook for the first time and there encountered Yuseifah and his entourage on the way to Pale Mountain, completely open and boastful about his plan to sell the dozen concubine slaves with him to the Carrion King. I gave the players the opportunity to buy some of the concubines (but not all of them). Two of the players surprised me by basically turning out their pockets to buy as many of the concubines as they could possibly afford from Yuseifah on the spot. I'd assumed they buy one or two, and that those NPCs would then filter out into the world (and out of the campaign). Instead, they managed to buy nine out of twelve, and many of those nine went on to become major fixtures in my campaign--two are now cohorts, another two are followers, and another became a sidekick in a PBEM I'm running for one of the players (and I may have more to say about her in a few more months).
The Jackal's Price
I inserted Broken Chains into the middle of this adventure and established some loose connections between Father Jackal, the Midwife, and their respective compatriots and clientele.
The End of Eternity
I'm running a version of this adventure that blends the published version with the author's expanded "director's cut."
That's as far as my game has progressed so far, but I'm not looking to add much into parts five or six; my PCs are about a level ahead of the curve for the moment (thanks to adding Broken Chains while running on the medium XP advancement track), so in those two adventures I'll mainly be looking to barrel toward the conclusion.
ETA: Oh, and in yet another thread on these boards, I posted some scratch-notes on a potentially mythic sequel/extension to the AP that would take PCs to 20th level.
Thanks you for the reply. I really love the Broken Chains idea -- I've had that module for a while and always wanted to use it, but for some reason didn't make the obvious setting/level connection with LoF.
There are numerous potential connections in Broken Chain just begging to hook into The Jackal's Price. BC is 1 level low for where the PCs are expected to be as they reach that point in the AP, so I bumped up the opposition a bit. I also used the "quest giver" to resolve the loose thread of Haleen's bad debts in the city (since she had now become a cohort). The PCs took Amwyr home, only to discover that he'd been taken for dead months earlier and had lost control of his business and home. Insisting he still had savings to pay off the heroes, Amwyr took them to the Violet Fire, where the PCs immediately found themselves up to their necks in trouble with Guildmistress Blacktongue, who'd purchased Haleen's debts some months back. (In my campaign, Zayifid survived HotB, and thanks to his whisper campaign and Felliped's account of the fall and rise of Kelmarane in a Pathfinder Chronicle, the PCs reputation had preceded them to the city.)
While two of the PCs were "relaxing" at the Violet Fire shortly thereafter, one of them discovered that one of the tiefling courtesans was an undercover Gray Talon, who nudged the PCs in the direction of Whispershade. The deal was simple: Haleen is in deep to the Duskwalkers, and Blacktongue intends to make an example of her. Find our agent, and A) we can pay you a reward to help with Haleen's debts, and B) if you confirm that this slave ring--dues payers to the Duskwalkers--are breaking the law, you can use that proof to negotiate with the highly legalistic Blacktongue, trading her vendetta against Haleen for a bigger fish.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Biggest change I made was making Undrella a Pairaka Div since I knew a harpy would be shot down on sight. She still played the role of Kardswann's human pleasure slave, but played up the victim role more. Veiled from view even after she was freed, she kept sowing discord by becoming Almah's trusted vizier and turning her against the party. Finally uncovered, Undrella escaped and continues to harass them by spreading word of the Scroll of Kakishon and taunting them with summoned dorus. The players HATE her and have become fairly paranoid : )
Like JM, I also ended up foreshadowing the slaver in HotB. He actually kidnapped an associate of the party and they let him live when he was apprehended. They let him go AGAIN upon finding him in the dungeons though he was recaptured and ended up dead on Madfang's device.
I wasn't initially going to use Broken Chains b/c it seems to similar to HotB, but I think I will use the first half and segue into a retro smash up of some bits from Against the Slave Lords as I got the AD&D reprint recently. Haleen will also be the lead in there, but she's actually the Twilight Talon (she was undercover in HotCK trying to break Kardswann's slaving ring).
Though this AP does get pretty railroady in parts, there is also lots of opportunity for some sandbox fun.
Oh yeah, Madfang--that reminds me. When my group went through House of the Beast, the PCs never laid eyes on the Whispering Stalker, though one PC did have an uncomfortably close encounter with it (hearing only a squeaky voice and feeling a tiny hand on his leg) while sitting motionless in the dark, hoping the mob of gnolls just past the nearby open door weren't overhearing anything.
Anyway, the PCs left the House of the Beast having never solved the "mystery" of who or what the rumored Whispering Stalker had been. Another loose thread: After the PCs killed Madfang, one of them decided to keep his head as a trophy. After the heavy fighting died down, the PCs left the head in a pile of loot while they mopped up what little resistance remained. When they came back, they discovered the head (but none of their other treasures) missing.
Six months later and well over 200 miles away, just after they'd wiped out most of the Demon's Womb (losing a PC in the fight against the Midwife in the process), someone or something unseen rolled a leathery object down the hall into the room with them. Initially thinking it was a stingchuck or some sort of trap, they approached cautiously and were disturbed to discover that it was Madfang's badly preserved head...
You should totally add some sort of hex-exploring during the downtime in Kelmarane or when starting the 2nd book - There is a lot of stuff to explore and be turned into adventures around Kelmarane (for example what the f!$% is up with Marudshar?)
Although I'm running my game as a Mythic Adventure a lot of the changes in plot and backstory I have made can be implemented any a non-mythic game too.
I really feel the AP suffers from some plot disconnect between the separate modules. I have tried to fix this by changing Xulthos background and by making Zayifid a more prominent player in the events of book two, three and four. I have also made the Captian of the Sunset ship a ally of the Dark Pharaoh who is trying to subvert Jhavhul's plan, which is a set up for my "book seven"
You can read about my game in this thread.