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The Emerald Spire module begins with the PC's arriving at a fort near the ruin, Fort Inevitable. The fort is incredibly detailed with over 40 named locations and even more NPC's each with its own history, description personality and goals. However, right after this the adventure jumps into the dungeon without much integration between the two. I understand Paizo's premium on page space and leaving the information on the fort for individual groups to utilize or ignore as they see fit seems like the way to accommodate a variety of gaming groups ...
buuuuttt ....
I'd like to see Fort Inevitable play a more meaningful part in the adventure path and have started utilizing some of the information from the Fort's write-up into the story when the PC's return there to rest and re-supply. I'll list some of my changes and ideas below but I'd like to see how others have chosen to run the module.
- As the PC's arrived they were questioned by the Kiera Wirt and given a three day pass to stay within the fort.
- The party spends some time in the Helmed Lady (a tavern) and overhears mention of the seven foxes, a group working to undermine and eventually overthrow the Hellknight regime. After the patrons quickly silence talk of the foxes the PC's chose to remain silent as well.
- After agreeing to explore the dungeon and provide descriptions and maps of its various levels (along with the sigil for each floor) Abernard Royst offers to provide the PC's with food and lodging in between their expeditions into the spire.
- The PC's forget about their three day permit and are nearly arrested by the Hellknights. Abernard is able to talk his way out of it but the PC's will have to adopt real jobs while they stay inside the city walls. One player choose to join the Salamander company, she had her initiation test out on the Bailey in full view of the Hellknights. The other began to work in the potion and reagent shop for Londor Sefurd.
- Upon return to Abernard's house after a dungeon delve the party sees a young half elf woman named Taeserle leaving Abernard's study. He says that she works with her father on a vineyard outside of town and was dropping off some bottles of wine that he ordered. This is true but the true purpose of this drop off was to arrange a short meeting. Taeserle is secretly a spy for the seven foxes and was meeting with Abernard to request spellcasting in order to help a member from their organization escape the city (a service that he will occasionally provide).
- Before entering floor 3 one of the PCs was approached by an unnamed hellknight and asked to follow him. He took the PC to Dandru Wolfhelm, a Maralictor for the order of the nail. Dandru told the PC that he believes there is a group of with a base located near or within the spire and solicited him to locate the bandits and return their location to him or rout them himself. For this he provided a warrant and offered a reward should the PC's provide proof of their deed and stated that this would make them allies of the Fort. Dandru is attempting to gather enough evidence of bandit activity to lead a campaign against the bandit stronghold of Thornkeep.
- Upon reaching the end of floor three the group chose to forge an alliance with the bandits in the dungeon to take down Klarkosh, a Numerian wizard who controls much of the upper floors and resides in floor 6. Tarrin Dars, the leader of the bandits is hoping to learn as much about the PCs as possible and will attempt to keep the alliance going after Klarkosh's defeat. She intends to use the PC's connections to the fort for her own nefarious purposes and will blackmail/threaten the group if need be. She has connections to individuals in both Daggermark and Thornkeep which she can use to benefit or hinder the PCs as necessary. They inform Abernard of this alliance and while he isn't against it, he warns the PCs not to trust the bandits.
- The group chooses to sell some of the poison that they acquired in the bandit hideout to Londor Sefurd. Later on in the game I am planning to have someone in the city killed with poison that can be traced back the this transaction. The PC's, depending on their standing with the hellknights at that point, may face a variety of repercussions.
- The group asks Abernard about the seven foxes, who provides minimal information and cautions them not to ask many questions about them around town or appear as sympathizers to their cause.
- As the group returns to the spire they hear noises and notice objects moved out of place. Upon investigation they discover a young boy rummaging through the remains of the first floor. He is Davon Stonde and lives outside of town with his mother and siblings. They have fallen on hard times after the Hellknights hung his father for alleged (but never proven) crimes. He had heard that there was treasure in the ruins and was looking for a way to help his family.
- One day when the group returns to the fort they hear that a local man is being put on trial. Drurn a half-orc who runs the tannery outside of town is accussed of beating a slave to death, lying to the hellknights about it and attempting to illicitly dispose of the body. He has been in trouble with the hellknights for mistreating slaves before and while his ultimate sentence is uncertain his tannery has been seized and will be auctioned off publicly the following week (slaves included).
- Before going to face Klarkosh (who the PC's have learned much of by now through their coversations with the various dungeon denizens) Abernard informs the PCs that he wishes to see the spire for himself and will accompany them as they clear floor 6. He does this mostly to protect the party, as he believes that the bandits will betray them once they deal with Klarkosh.
- One of the PC's expressed an interest in traveling to Daggermark in order to commission construction of a magical item outside the capabilities of those within Fort Inevitable. Depending on their behavior within Daggermark the PCs may involve themselves with more bandits. If things escalate with Thornkeep as Maralictor Wolfhelm is attempting to arrange then there could eventually be a siege of the fort, a bad situation for the Hellknights as they would be grossly outnumbered.
- As the PC's clear more floors important NPC's will approach the PC's with their own agendas up to and including the Lady Commander. Interest is especially high regarding the disappearance of a hellknight expedition into the tower.
That's about what I've had so far, my group has finished floor 5 and I've read all the way through floor 10. I know a little bit about the ending and it seems lacking. I'm planning on heavily re-writing the last three floors to give it a more satisfying finale. One possible idea right now is the have Nhur Atemon's phylactery meld with the emerald spire and the only way to destroy it is to defeat the vault keep at the emerald root. More as the story progresses.
Tldr; I've come up with some ways to integrate the plot hooks presented for Fort Inevitable to provide more depth to the module. If you've run the emerald spire before or have ideas on how to enhance the adventure I'd love to hear about them.
I appreciate you posting all of this PD Samila. I just purchased the Emerald Spire hardcover and plan to run it for my group, but I'm having trouble making up a way to intro the first 2 quests.
I suppose I could just have them come through Daggermark and give them a traveling merchant who just tells them the general info about the town and the power struggles, but I thought that might be anti-climactic. I also don't feel right just saying "to start, you have these quests that you'll get extra xp for..."
I like your idea of not even giving them the info until after they're in the fort though. My players are well-versed enough in Golarion to know who the Hellknights are, so I supposed I could assume their PCs have some general knowledge. Once they get to the fort they could see Hellknights in action at the gate, on the streets or even on the roads around the fort.
As for the Seven Foxes they would be a myth, a tavern rumor like in your game. I suppose some individual NPC could advise the PCs in character to make "Friends in the Fort."