Those other three groups...

[Trufflehound]

I'm GMing for the first time, and we're currently playing through the Stolen Lands. It mentions early on that there are three other groups of explorers that were commissioned to chart the lands out, too.

In any of the books, do your players ever encounter those groups? Are they scripted at all?

[Aestereal]

Yes. The scripted parts of them are as follows.

Maegar Varn becomes lord of Varnhold and the Nomen Heights, where he wages a war against the centaurs there before a hapless explorer accidentally unleashes an ancient cyclops lich on Varnhold. Varn himself dies to set up Book Three: The Varnhold Vanishing.

Baron Drelev is a sort of almost accidental enemy in Book Four: Blood for Blood. He doesn't seem to do much aside from launch an attack on one of the PCs towns and then wait to die in his town of Fort Drelev.

The Iron Wraiths are wiped out (almost? can't remember) to a man/woman by King Irovetti of Pitax sometime between Book 1 and Book Five: War of the River Kings. They're the least important group, and they only exist to make westward expansion sound scary when they (supposed badasses) drop off the face of the earth.

I've seen a lot of threads that show the GM how to forge a relationship with these other would-be lords. It's possible that you could take the Venture Capital thread and add Varn/Drelev to it as competing factions, or have Varn pay their baby kingdom a visit sometime.

[Philip Knowsley]

As Aestereal said basically.

The Iron Wraiths are mentioned in book one, but pretty much not after...

However, what your question does answer for most of the DMs who have run/are
running this AP, is that you need to do more reading.

In order to do the AP the most justice, you should read all of the books ahead,
but if you can't do that - you need to have read at least the next book.
Lots of what is happening in each book is explained in more detail in the book
after, so if you haven't already read the book after when you're running the
book you're in...you'll miss out on knowing the story & being able to pass on
good stuff to your players.

These forums provide soooooooooo frikken much information that will make your
life easier as a GM, and the game more enjoyable as a player - you should read
as much as is humanly possible.

I wish you good luck padawan - you'll need it for this AP! :)

[Trufflehound]

Thanks for the input. It was really helpful.

Yeah, I though that that each book within an AP could stand alone as its own module, but now I'm beginning to see the problem with that. It's like I'm flying blind. I'll pick up the next couple of books tomorrow and get caught up.

Thanks again!

[Philip Knowsley]

If you can't get them, at least look at the thread on each book.
You can learn heaps of things other DMs think you'll need to do. :)