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Important: I'm looking for advice, not a flame-war. I appreciate constructive comments.
So, having read a lot of the reviews here and elsewhere, a lot of people (including Cthulhuphiles, which I am not one), complain that Wake of the Watcher, while well-done in itself, does a poor job of fitting in with the overall arc of the AP.
So, while I'll buy and read the Wake of the Watcher, mainly to be sure that I don't miss something critical to the player characters in later episodes, I'm looking for suggestions of modules, either Paizo or third-party, but certainly Pathfinder if possible, to replace this one with. It apparently takes the PC's from 9th-10th level. I'm more willing to adapt another horror module than have to run a Lovecraftian thingie that apparently doesn't mesh with the AP in the first place.
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There is at least one full upgrade of Carrion Hill to the level that the party is intended to be when they get there. If you take that one and a few other brief modules you could possibly string together some modules on the road south to Thrushmoor and perhaps even on the road to Caliphas.
Of course Carrion Hill is Lovecraft as well so...
Legendary Games did a whole string of 'Gothic' influenced adventures right around the time that Carrion Crown came out that might be helpful if you want to put them on the road and upgrade the encounters/difficulty to give your players something to do between books 3 and 5.
Wake of the Water really is a great book though. :)
Have you read The Harrowing? It's published by Paizo, and fits nicely with the Varisian feel to Ustalav.
What you need to do if you're replacing chapter four is make sure that you have a reason for chapter two to have happened, since that was the Whispering Way taking control of the Beast of Lepidstadt to steal the Seasage Effigy. As written, they want to swap the Effigy for the Raven's Head, in order to use it in the Carrion Crown ritual (though canonically they fail to get it).
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Have you read The Harrowing? It's published by Paizo, and fits nicely with the Varisian feel to Ustalav.
What you need to do if you're replacing chapter four is make sure that you have a reason for chapter two to have happened, since that was the Whispering Way taking control of the Beast of Lepidstadt to steal the Seasage Effigy. As written, they want to swap the Effigy for the Raven's Head, in order to use it in the Carrion Crown ritual (though canonically they fail to get it).
I do have the Harrowing (though I'd forgotten what level it was). That might well work. Maybe the Whispering Way cultists have reason to believe that the artifact they seek is in the realm of the Harrowing. I like that a lot!
Wow that's a stretch, the Harrowing is an excellent module but is even less theme fitting than Wake of the Watcher. I would go with bumping up Carrion Crown from CR 5 to CR 9.
Carrion "Hill" i mean
It is also possible to modify wake of the watcher into something more fitting. I can think of some interesting ideas. First, make it all about the Mace. The effigy is a distraction. Require that the mace is desired by both groups to get their own doomsday event rolling.
The main goal is to have the Way trick the PCs into recovering the mace from the Watchers. So the Way could have corrupted the Mayor and that's why he pushes the PCs to investigate the church. The Way attacks the town right after the PCs get there, leading to prisoners the church takes and then threatens violence if any PC tries to seek out the prisoners (who, according to notes in the church, were taken down to the Colour's sea caves).
Add more Whispering Way agents (and the corpses there-of) around the place to make it obvious they have been going after the mace for a bit now. They could have already reached the manor house and the PCs have to deal with undead creatures and insane Watcher members that were tortured by the Way looking for the mace and the cultists who attacked Illmarch.
I can think of a great scene in the final cave area. The PCs branch off to investigate one path (perhaps where the Gug is) and when they come back, they see signs of a group of undead have passed through. They come to the room where the Mace is stored to find a large battle between the mi-go and their friends against numerous Way minions (mainly undead as they can get to the underwater base with less trouble).
As long as you make sure the mace is identified easily (perhaps a powerful undead has already grabbed it and is trying to leave), the PCs should know to stop it.
More undead could be coming in behind the PCs, thus the only good way out is forward (there are many ways to make the PCs think there is an exit further in, including lying about it). Add an escape hatch to the final room, but block it with the Dark Young, which is there less to destroy the world as more as a final attempt to grab the Mace and use it to shatter the boundaries of realty so Momma Goat can come to visit.
I agree that the final fight isn't exactly related (at all) to the larger story. I played it up as a "the Whispering Way isn't the only group trying to destroy the world" kind of thing.
There are other ways to do it to. You could try for an uneasy alliance following the enemy of my enemy idea (teaming up with either side against the other's greater threat, though this is somewhat like book 5). You could style it as above, but more-so. The Way completely pulls the wool over the PCs and gets them to kill the Watcher threat through trickery and lies. The PCs get to feel all scummy for helping the Way and that should push them through some kind of revenge path.
I like book 4 as a stand alone story (though the insanity mechanics are meh and I handwaved a lot of that) and wish I had the time and energy to have and implement these ideas when I was actually running the game, heh.
I ran WoW and I think the group enjoyed it mostly. I did try to tie the events of the adventure a bit closer to the Way's grander plot.
My general idea was that the mi-go (I replaced them with mind flayers) were brought in to develop essentially a biological weapon to be used against the Ustalav populace. Adivion hoping this would ensure that the Way's plans were left alone while the powers that be fight this infestation.
Illmarsh is essentially a testing ground for this weapon. However, in my interpretation the illithid themselves not realizing the true power of Shub-Niggurath become infected and thus minions to Shub-Niggurath.
It still felt a bit of a side trek but tying the events to the machinations of the WW (at this point to in my campaign they knew who Adivion was) definitely helped.
I've been looking into this and thinking about making the Raven's head into a broken artifact or 2 halves of one artifact. The head(business end) can be taken from the university, and the other end can be had by completing whatever you decide to replace Wake of the Watcher with. I'm thinking of upgrading an old adventure and dropping it in. The bad guys could have been killed on their first attempt to get the other(handle) half. The PC's will be trying to get it and move on with the mission. I may or may not have the another group of bad guys show up depending on how fast they can get the handle. I am thinking of stealing something from AoW or SCAP.
Hi used in my campaign the Harrowing the flowing way:
The Harrowing replacing Wake of the Watcher
1 Hooks
This section shows how the Modules are normally connected with each other.
1.1 Broken Moon
After defeating Vrood, the characters find the Carrion Poem and some cyptic notes (Linguistic DC30) that instructs him to: “They also direct him to send the Seasage Effigy to the town of Thrushmoor as part of a trade for a second object whose nature remains undisclosed.”
In addition to that if “questioned” by the Ghost of the Inn keep they see the following Vision: “The chests are given to two riders in dark cloaks on pale horses. “Ride to Thrushmoor,” the PCs hear Vrood’s voice speak. “Our agent will exchange the Effigy for the relic we need.””
1.2 Wake of the Watcher
The Characters find the Ravens Head in G8 (Description Page 55).
The Note found with the dead rider (G11) and in his procession the letter that sais: “…join your partners in Caliphas..” and is signed A.A.
1.3 Ashes at Dawn
The PC’s are intercepted by the Headless rider that used locate Object on the Raven Head.
2 Changes to Harrowing
2.1 Summary
Adivion send the dark Rider to get the Ravens Head. The Ravens Head dosnt exist anymore in this realm but only in the stories of old. He found out that Sonnorae created a story realm and that object in that realm are real. So he came up with a plan. He knows from the stories that the Zassrion the dragon is always searching for the “Face of Dragon” (its actually Dagon in WotW) which is the Seasage Effigy (or so he hopes). He found that All-Seeing Hajeck holds the Sonnorae Deck and send a Dark Rider after her as to gain access to the Story Realm. However he didn’t realized that he Rider may not be able to get back.
Zassrion imprisoned the Dark Rider and he eventually died in his cell still holding the Ravens Head. The Seasage Effigy is still in Zassrion procession. As he is a StoryKin, he exchanged the artefact with the Dark Rider several times, however he forgot about it, leaving the Dark Rider to die in his prison.
2.2 Foreplay
To start off we will add some foreplay encounter to Harrowing to build a nice bridge. We will take the Encounter 1 from WotW and use it. As the characters arrive in Thrushmoor they will search for the Riders, and the PC’s should end up in the stables, where Encounter1 takes place. The same mods as disused in PartOne (WotW Page9 upper right) can be used to get information of the Riders whereabouts, however use the following:
DC Info
15 Two riders matching that description came through town a day or so ago, but they didn’t stay long.
20 The Riders left with different horses
25 The Riders Changed houses
After the ambush the PC’s find a Ticket to the Umbra Carnival in the pocket of Clanartus Viliras. With this the PC’s should be able to find out the following:
DC Info
15 The Carnival is a traveling show that was here but they packed up their tents some 2days ago
20 The where freaks and some funny acts, however the Harrower REALY gave me the shakes.
25 The Carnival headed west
30 I remember them saying that they were heading to Caliphas.
Award 6,400 XP to the PC’s finding the Carnival.
The Umbra Carnival can be found just half a day of hard Riding out of Thrushmore (towards Caliphs). If questioned about the Riders the Ring Master remembers that some people that match that description came to see the show, but where more interested in the Harrower (All-Seeing Hajeck).Now the rest plays out as written, with replacing Meloigne Garracy with the Dark Rider.
The Crooked Kin
Instead of using the Umbra Carnival, you can also use the Crooked Kin out of Trial of the Beast.
How they got here so fast?
Kaleb Hesse is very hesitating to tell them, but after the Trial they decided to get some magical boost to relocate instead of facing the harsh winter roads. This left them with a bit of financial problems, but they hope that they can make it good in Caliphas.
All-Seeing Hajeck
If you introduced already a Harrower to Crooked Kin then use that character, else the Kin found themselves a Harrower.
2.3 Main act
2.3.1 General
Convey somewhere to the Characters that objects exist here that are legends and either never existed in reality or where destroyed. This should make clear what the Whispering way is up to here in the Story Realm.
2.3.2 A1 – The Parade Field
Biyo Venna will tell them that the Dark Rider properly was ported directly to Zassrion in his Fortress.
2.3.3 I7 - Prison Tower
Replace Meloigne Garracy with a dead Dark Rider. The Dark Rider has starved to death as Zassrion forgot about him and the exchange. In his procession the PC’s find the Letter form WotW pointing to Caliphas as well as the Ravens Head.
2.3.4 I13- The Hoard
Add the Seasage Effigy.
2.3.5 Happy End!?
All-Seeing Hajeck will want her Deck of Cards back, if the PC’s wont give it back she threatens to put a curse on them, which is an empty thread (sense motive doesn’t work cause she believes she has the power, however she don’t). If the PC’s still don’t give it back se curses them with some wired words and the packs her thinks and leaves.