Skinsaw Murders Help

[evil homer]

My party doesn't have any connection to Aldern at all for a couple of reasons. We started this in 5e and then switched to PF with the intention of heading back that way after they reached 4th level again in the new system with their new characters. They were engaged with the story and still are but now I find myself in a situation.

The real hook for Skinsaw is supposed to be the relationship with Aldern driving the action and potentially framing the party. That just isn't going to be possible.

What I'm thinking about now is to have them head to Magnimar with the prisoners they have. Turn them over to the Judge, Council of Justice. Ironbriar will then engage them to stamp out some local cult issue (probably something from the PFS line, short) and then him having word of the murders and sending them back to Sandpoint to follow up. Using the party to stamp our competition for his own cult is appealing to me.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

[Lagernoggin]

You could have the PC's save Aldern on their way to Magnimar along the Lost Coast Road. Aldern, and his one-eared manservant Rogors Craesby, could be returning to Foxglove Manor from Magnimar with the cages (one week after the campaign starts, according to the timeline) when they are attacked by Licktoad goblins who wandered farther south than usual, or maybe some of the remnants of Shaz "Redshiv" Bilger's bandit gang. The PC's show up just in time!

Then you could just skip the Boar Hunt, or, better, mash it into the rescue by doing a bit of RP with Rogors and Aldern: they go on about how thankful they are, and how lucky they were that the PC's happened by, yada, yada. Have Aldern interact with his future obsession in particular, to impress him on the players so they know who he is.

Then have them part ways after much thanks, and have the PC's continue to Magnimar and do your Ironbriar interlude. Maybe give the PC's a month of downtime to make magic items or whatnot (and opportunity for Aldern to take things from his obsession...). Then they are up to speed.

[Latrecis]

I'm a little confused - what does 5e have to do with not meeting or interacting with Aldern?

Also, not to be that guy (okay, too late, I'm that guy) but this should be in the Skinsaw Murders GM thread or spoilered - the discussion reveals key elements of Book 2.

Spoiler:

I would disagree that the book is critically dependent on Aldern obsessing with one of the pc's. I did not feel I could adequately pull off the obsession nor that my players would be much interested in such a plot line. The mechanics of missing items was also problematic - if I mentioned missing personal items, my players would assume it was a MAJOR clue and obsess over it and if I didn't mention them, it would seem cheap if Aldern had several - why weren't the items described as missing? Instead I had the pc's be the only people in town Aldern respected - his venom was directed at the whole town who he blames for the death of his wife, the delays in repairing his house, really his whole miserable existence. I had him use the wrath notes and reference leaders in town, such as the Mayor and the leader of the carpenter guilds who both refused to order workman to repair his house. "That might be how they do it in Korvosa, but not here in Sandpoint. You want workers, you pay them enough to get their interest." Indeed (in my version) the little part of Aldern that has not fallen to the Hunter or the Skinsaw Man is desperately hoping the pc's will save him.

As Lagernoggin suggests you can also introduce Aldern after Thistletop just as well as before, especially since you have planned some Magnimar adventures in between. Plenty of time for misfortunate to overtake Aldern after the pc's interact with him. Besides on the road to Magnimar, he could also be in town for any celebration post-Thistletop and to try to recruit more workers.

Lastly, you can also introduce him obliquely - while my players did interact with Aldern pretty much per AP, I also had Madame Mvashti invite the pc's over to her house (this was facilitated by having one of the pc's be Varisian but I don't think that would be absolutely necessary.) She can do a prophesy or card reading for them and ask them to be on the lookout for Iesha Foxglove, a Varision girl who's gone missing and has a particularly evasive and distasteful spouse - Aldern Foxglove.

[Hythlodeus]

Erm, why exactly is Aldern not an option?

[Meangarr]

I'd like to echo Latrecis's observation about the stolen personal items, one of my PCs obsessed over the stolen possessions of another. Even while using the downtime rules with random events popping up it stuck out to that player. I ultimately stonewalled his investigation, which obviously isn't ideal.

I think you could still do Aldern though, with a slight adjustment to his character. In some ways it could work better, as written he's somewhat overbearing, depending on how quickly you're making your way through the adventure path it may be a pretty obvious leap from the target of the obsession back to him. Instead what if this whole time his obsession with the PC has mostly been in his head. He's been watching the object of his obsession for much of their time in Sandpoint quietly, completely beneath their notice. When the party begins asking about the Misgivings around town the townsfolk identify its link to Aldern and are surprised that the PCs don't know him, they've seen him around them so much they thought they were friends.

This culminates beneath the Misgivings when one of the PCs find the shrine to Aldern's obsession. Suddenly the PC is confronted by the grotesque extent of his pursuit without ever having any awareness of his existence. That seems much creepier to me in a lot of ways.