| Tormak |
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We started last March, and last night my group played out the final session of the Shackled City. I ran a heavily modified SCAP based off of the RPGenius wiki and the fantastic resources from delvesdeep and other members of this board, which meant my campaign included things like the Demonskar Ball, and the Siege of Redgorge.
We ran in a PF converted SCAP set in the Forgotten Ralms, taking place in the Chultan Peninsula. The game was run as a sequel to a previous game set in the Time of Troubles so we were already running a vastly different, cosmology wise, Forgotten Realms than standard. St. Cuthbert was replaced with Hoar, Pelor with Lathander, Wee Jas replaced with Jergal (and Ike Iverson and Embril being secret worshippers of Bhaal, who survived our ToT and went on to become Lord of the Dead in Myrkul's stead) and Kord replaced with Tempus.
My party was:
Ravok, NG Half Ogre Ranger/Mammoth Rider, mounted extraordinaire with lance, falchion, and his hippogriff companion
Atellus, LN Aasimar Inquisitor/Grey Warden/Slayer of Hoar, inheritor of Alakast, and as revealed later, a long distant heir to Adimarchus' line (which, due to delvedeep's changes, made him a great [x15ish] grandosn of Nidrama and Adimarchus)
Yaotl, CG Nagaji (lizardman) Bloodrager of Draconic Bloodline, and weilder of a scythe that one shot crit more bosses than one man should rightfully do
Aegir, CG Half Giant Cleric/Loremaster of Stronmaus, god of Thunder, who would unfortunately die at the hands of Ike Iverson as a Risen Martyr. He would be taken whole to the upper planes, and would be replaced by...
Maranwe, CG Elven Ranger/Wizard/Arcane Archer/Eldritch Knight, and not-so secret Harper Agent
We ended the campaign at level 18. Highlights along the way include...
Fumbling through Jzadrine but then managing to intimidate their way through the entire Malachite Fortress, concluding in a massive brawl at the slave market. Scythe crit kills the half-troll.
Desperately holding off the bugbear Vampire in Drakthar's Way while a charmed Yoatl snaps out of it, after missing his friend Aegir wth an attack. Next round he turns around and promptly crits the vampire, kiling him past his vampire DR.
Ravok the Ranger decides to take up bouncing at the Alleybasher's failing inn, and quickly discovers that the reason their business is down is because they're stealing from their customers. Ravok says if he can take over, he won't turn them in. He does so, and begins working on turning the failing tavern's reputation around, and into a gambling den, where sleight of hand can be put to honest work.
The PCs decide to bargain with Triel rather than kill her. A fight breaks out anyways, and she is taken up to the surface by the ranger, where he secretly tries to redeem her. A suspicious Kristoff spots them, and Triel is taken to jail. She later stages a break out but dies in prison. Skaven is let of the hook entirely as long as he hands over the wands, and Tarkilar is destroyed by cleric and inquisitor mojo.
The Demonskar Ball goes amazingly, with my players taunting me the entire time about how they're going to ruin it. Instead, the bloodrager Yoatl, who got Nabthatoron's invitation, takes it upon himself to pay off the band to do a special intro, pyrotechnics, and takes dancing lessons that put everyone else to shame. Meanwhile the rest of the group is dunking Todd Vanderboren's head in a toilet over trying to poison their drinks. The inquisitor makes fast friends with Vortimax Weer, oddly enough.
The PCs nearly meet their end at the hands of the Erinyes in chapter 4, but the ranger's flying mount saves the day. Yaotl crits Dhor'lot when he's at half life and quickly ends the encounter. Scythe crits are OP. The battle with Zenith goes strangely when two PCs end up tossed through the teleportation circle, and the remaining two, the half giant cleric and the half ogre ranger, realize Zenith has a lot more AC vs giant opponents than they were prepared for! The PCs are utterly taken in by ol' Boris Vhalantru, who swoops Zenith away so he can meet his dearly dying father.
The PCs refuse to go to Maavu's speech, and Maavu is assassinated, riots go out of control, war is declared on Redgorge, and Ravok's casino burned to the ground. Tensions against ogres, orcs, half and otherwise, flare.
Atellus the Aasimar ends up with Alakast, and in a desperate bid, uses it to defeat Nabthatoron and drive him away. Alek miraculously survives the encounter, and instead of coma-ing him as the module says, I have him touched with Adimarchus' insanity for the rest of the campaign, cementing his role as the crazed prophet and oracle. He accompanies the party on their trip to the Abyss, despite my best attempt to have a fanatical crazy paladin die to demons. ;)
Kaurophon's bid for trust fails from the very start, and he is treated like dirt and force to guide the PCs through the Abyss. He manages to convince the party enough that Occipitus is something that must be dealt with to stop the Cagewrights, and this alone prevents his outright death. Once the PCs pass the first test, and gain the Lantern of Guidance, Kaurophon is turned on. Kaurophon teleports away and swears vengeance. He returns at the end of the act as usual, and has a massive battle with the PCs in the center of the Skull. It was their first battle against a decently levelled sorceror, and it put them on the ropes for awhile. Good fight. The PCs take 2 weeks on their slow, slow journey through the abyss. All the while, the Blue Duke and a charmed Terseon Skellerang begin the siege. At the end, Atellus, the Aasimar, gains the Smoking Eye template after sacrificing himself.
When the PCs return, it takes 3 full game sessions over the course of the siege, doing all of the sidequests to prep Redgorge, as well as summoning Nidrama during the climax when the demons arrive. Nabthatoron rolls a 1 vs being Blinded and becomes a joke of a boss battle. He eats a scythe crit too. Poor bastard. Over the course of this, the PCs, who never quite aggro against the Stormblades despite my attempts, finally win the main three over as Todd abandons the group. After this, the Stormblades end up staunch allies with the party, aiding them mostly in offscreen ways, as I dislike having many NPC allies for the party, and having to balance encounters for them.
My PCs at this point decide to hold a massive pow-wow in their mountain fort thye've been building all campaign. They invite various NPcs, including Luthor Ultonis, a high ranking priest of Hoar. However, per delvesdeep... this visiting priest of Hoar is actually Shebeleth in disguise. They plan to break into Vhalantru's house, who they now suspect of being a beholder, or something worse, but due to Shebeleth now knowing all of their plans, their break in ends up being a deathtrap they narrowly escape from. The rest of Chapter 8 goes off fairly without a hitch, the House Party is broken into and the Last Laugh Guildhouse assaulted. Vhalantru is tracked down later when he tries to re-enter town using the Skinsuit to appear as Severin Navalant 'coming back from business in Sasserine', finishing the original lie about him He is defeated, and after this, with Lords of Oblivion finished, the PCs strike a massive blow against the Cagewrights. Revenge occurs shortly thereafter when the now all knowing Shebeleth collapses their fortress with a massive display of demonic magic and power.
Soul Pillars happens afterwards, and in this chapter wehas the death of Aegir the Half Giant cleric, who, having died and returned as a Risen Marytr after the battle with Vhalantru, is destroyed by a Harm spell from Ike Iverson. This presses Atellus into full on vengeance mode, and he swears an oath of revenge against the Cagewrights. The rest of soul pillars plays out fairly standardly, with the player's new Harper Agent helping the party at the Strider's behest. Yoatl crits and kills Virtiss Bale after he's weakened.. This is a pattern. The scythe user somehow crits more on bossfights than the keen falchion user.
Foundation of Flame goes down as scheduled, with all of the evacuation events going very well in the PCs favor. The meet many of the NPCs they've interacted with over the course of the campaign in set piece encounters designed to reinforce those relationships. They also meet the REAL Luthor Ultonis, not non-Shebelth one, who has made his way to Cauldron, barely alive, in an attempt to discover the truth about his attack on the roads.
Thirteen Cages occurs, and the PCs get the "eruption" outcome. They don't believe Shebeleth's notes about there being an alternate method to collapse the tree, they never find Tiirok Coalfire's room with the plaque regarding the wyrm and the collar, and they never find the magma vent room with Moltenwing himself! As a result, they decide the best way to handle the situation is brute force. Thy chop down the tree, narrowly escape the erupting volcano, and watch on with the refugees n Cauldron as the top third of the mountain explodes, destroying Cauldron and erasing it from the map.
The finally of the campaign concludes fairly quickly after that - I run the Haunted Village Sidetrek concerning a kidnapped Nidrama in the Dreamscape, and they claim the Dreamcatcher to use for Adimarchus. Upon breaking into the Asylum, the Ranger decides that an imprisoned antipaladin doesn't deserve to be locked up in there and frees here. This definitely has no repercussions on the setting later. ;D ... Yaotl crits the Warden and kills him near instantly.
They actually don't fight Adimarchus, and instead use Nidrama, and the Dreamcatcher, and a lengthy set of sequences involving reliving portions of Adimarchus' life, the same ones that the Smoking Eye has been giving to Atellus in the form of strange disjointed dreams. By interacting with the dreams and memories, they are able to 'change' how they occurred, Inception style, and remind Adimarchus of the virtues and goodness within him. The finale of the Campaign is freeing a no longer insane Adimarchus, and reuniting him with Nidrama. Adimarchus bequeaths Occipitus to Atellus, Ravok decides to head off to reconstruct his casino better than ever, the Harper Maranwe continues on her meddling ways, and the Bloodrager begins to fight a guerilla war against the Zhentarim to the north.
At the end, I give them a massive text epilogue of how their actions have changed the region, and give them a musical outro.
http://pastebin.com/35ECyAeN Here's the epilogue pastebin for anyone that's interested in reading it.
~~~~
The SCAP has its ups and downs, but it was an incredible ride, and I want to give a massive thanks to everyone who contributed content to the RPGenius Wiki, and especially to Delvesdeep, as without these resources that practically became my bible, I can't help but think my Shackled City campaign wouldn't have been anywhere near as exciting. With that, I leave this post with the last paragraph of text I read aloud to players, to the accompaniment of this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbaPqeCusbg
And so with Adimarchus redeemed, and the Prince of Madness dethroned, catastrophe is averted. No longer will tendrils of insanity creep through to the Prime and attempt to corrupt, and influence minds to its will. Adimarchus true fate is yet to be decided, but it will be one of newfound virtue and justice, rather than insanity. The Chultan Peninsula is safe from daemonic incursion, and the cult that tried to arrange it shattered, never to return. The Rising Tide stands at the forefront of all this, a beacon of hope in the darkness, but as for where they head now? That, my friends, is a tale... for another day. Roll credits.
...The speech was timed so that "Roll credits" would be said aloud just when the risng orchestral action gives way to to the rock intro. ;)
| Tormak |
Undead aren't immune to crits in Pathfinder, they changed how precision damage worked. As for test of the smoking eye, the RPGenius wiki has a lot of stuff on chapter 6, especially in regards for making the Abyss trip feel like a massive trek through the Abyss. I'd also recommend really reading the beginning of chapter 6, and maybe thinking of a better way to intro Kaurophon to the party, because it's sketchy as all get out... I ran it a bit rushed and although I don't think the chapter suffered for it (Rather I think it was improved by the constant paranoia dynamic...), it certainly didn't run "by the book".
I ran the Haunted Village sidetrek a bit differently: I replaced Alurad and his apprentice with Drow, keeping the Arcane Archer and Eldritch Knight duo from Shatterhorn instead, due to a Drow woman being part of a PC (the half ogre) backstory. I preserved the Nidrama kidnapping, and used thta to hook the PCs' interest in the adventure.
So the Haunted Village was actually no longer haunted, having been cleaned out by the Drow Arcane Archer woman, and her apprentice, a Pathfinder Magus. The PCs infiltrated the village and, after quietly defeating a few roaming patrols, came into contact with a simulacrum of the Arcane Archer. After a discussion, and a deep pry into why the AA even bothers to stay loyal to the cagewrights despite not seeming very 'touched in the head', the Drow agreed that if they left her and the crew alone, and let her take all the remaining resources of the Cagewrights, she would let them pass through towards Embril's ritual chamber, as a favor to the half ogre. She would then gather what's left and peace out back to the Underdark, since she had no interest in dying for a cause that was no longer going to be successful.
The Necropolis was filled with ravenous spiders and servants of Embril, the "Crimson Slayers", since Embril was secretly worshipping Bhaal, and not Jergal. They found oblique references to the Kopru-ized Adimarchus, and how the Cagewrights had ousted them and taken it over as a backup ritual focus area just in case they needed it. In the ritual chamber itself, they found the spellweaver ritually using the Dreamcatcher to rend a hole into Adimarchus' Dreamscape. After "aggressive negotiations", the Spellweaver was convinced to let them through, whereupon the group found a frustrated Embril, an unconscious and bound Nidrama, and a cabal of her Slayers, attempting in vain to contact Adimarchus. Due to being so far from his 'consciousness', they could only perform small whispers in his ear, so to speak, and although she succeeded in rousing him, she ultimately had little effect. A conversation and fight ensued with Embril, and in the midst of the Dreamscape, murkily seen and heard by Adimarchus, the PCs defeated the last of the Cagewrights and rescued Nidrama. With the Dreamcatcher in their possession, they now had the means with which to truly communicate with Adimarchus, rather than simply destroy him, sowing the seeds for redemption.
The Drow and her entourage packed up and left, the only Cagewright Master that was allowed to live. She took the resources and true to her word went back to the Underdark, since her part of the plans on the surface had failed catastrophically, and she wasn't about to become a martyr for a dead cause. In five years time, in our timeline, she returns to Menzoberranzan and performs a dramatic assassination, becoming First Matron Mother of the city. ;D
| delvesdeep |
Sounds like an epic campaign Tormak! I like how you changed and adapted the story to suit your group too. Keeps them interested and gives them plenty of ownership of the journey too.
I'm glad my ideas helped. What re you playing now?