| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
As the title above implies, stating up Varnhold is something I have to do since in my Kingmaker Campaign, there is actually more than a year between each book.
That being said, it's a long process (I am only into halfway through Year Two of Kingdom Building for Varnhold), but I have to confess something at this point:
However, in true macabre fashion, Varnhold in my campaign, according to the dice rolls, got hit with a Plague Event in month 4 of the first year. Month 4! Then a few months after that Plague Event was finally put down (it persisted for 3 months), Varnhold got nailed to the wall with the Inquisition Event. It has not even been 2 years, and this poor kingdom of Maegar Varn required the building of Graveyards, Dumps, Crematoriums, and Houses. Lots and lots of Houses.
At this point, the Kingdom suffered more than 12 points of permanent penalties to Stability and if I had to add in all of the Unrest that they suffered, it would probably exceed 20 points. Their Treasury hit the negatives twice! Kingdom Leaders had to sell off their most expensive magical items to deposit BP in the Treasury just to save the Kingdom.
Truly, the dies are malicious and terrible in their sentience.
Misery aside, has anyone else developed Varnhold according to the Kingdom Building rules (I use Ultimate Rulership from Legendary Games, along with additional buildings from Jon Brazer Enterprise and the Wayfinders magazines)?
How differently is your Varnhold, or even the Varnling Host?
Cheers!
CB out.
maybe this is why a certain someone went looking for valuable items...
I thought there was some fluff in the module that says pretty much what Philip said? But maybe I picked that up on these boards somewhere.
I wrote a fairly long piece on decisions I made in the run-up to playing book 3 and why: https://daddydm.wordpress.com/2016/05/03/kingmaker-prepping-varnhold-vanish ing/
I discuss this in the link above, but the adventure wants Varnhold to be a hamlet - there's less than 50 people living there - which doesn't really add up, especially if it was founded around the same time as the PC kingdom. And by the kingdom rules, if you build Varnhold with the buildings that the adventure says it has ("Annexing Varnhold", page 51), its population should have been around 5,000. Which has some big repercussions on the Vanishing.
Anyway, in my campaign, the PCs met Maegar's daughter at the start of book 2, when they went to Restov to get their charter. That was their first introduction to the colony (they also met Drelev's wife, and her dog), and they learned that Varn's mission was dealing with the dirty scoundrel centaurs.
Later, they made an agreement with Varnhold that they (the PCs' kingdom) would contribute forces to the Varn's war against the centaurs. They were happy to do so in exchange for an agreement that Varnhold wouldn't expand into the Greenbelt and wouldn't go too far west of the Tors. I did make a map of the Varnhold kingdom and its hex improvements, but I didn't actually "stat" it up, it was just me deciding where they had spread to and what they had built.
Later still, the Ruler was being pressured to marry and produce heirs to ensure the stability and future of the kingdom. He ended up marrying Maegar's daughter under some duress (his heart belonged to another) as a political marriage that united the two colonies.
While the daughter was pregnant with her 2nd child, Varnhold vanished. The Ruler has been keen to find his father-in-law.
Sorry I have not replied earlier, I am interested in hearing more from everyone who chimed in and from those who are just lurking at the moment, ;).
I did consider simply adjusting it as whatever I liked or what the story calls for, but since my players put a lot of time and effort into their kingdom to make it as organic as possible, I felt inclined to show them via the results of the other kingdoms that their hard-work was vindicated.
Of course, I was also curious and stubborn enough to try the kingdom building from scratch. Sometimes my curiosity and stubbornness pays off, sometimes it doesn't and it looks like I wasted hours for nothing, lol. But that's fine for me, I greatly enjoy the creation/tinkering aspects of being a GM. :)
Obviously I might just forgo doing this for Fort Drelev, but I am considering substituting the city of Saltmarsh or the Styes for Fort Drelev. I want that that city to exude hopelessness when the heroes arrive, ;).
As an aside, I have been using a vilderavn to foster and foment chaos in the Stolen Lands on the behalf of Nyrissa. Makes it easier to explain why the other rulers were so horribly incompetent in some cases.
Cheers!
CB out.
I wrote a fairly long piece on decisions I made in the run-up to playing book 3 and why: https://daddydm.wordpress.com/2016/05/03/kingmaker-prepping-varnhold-vanish ing/
I discuss this in the link above, but the adventure wants Varnhold to be a hamlet - there's less than 50 people living there - which doesn't really add up, especially if it was founded around the same time as the PC kingdom. And by the kingdom rules, if you build Varnhold with the buildings that the adventure says it has ("Annexing Varnhold", page 51), its population should have been around 5,000. Which has some big repercussions on the Vanishing.
Anyway, in my campaign, the PCs met Maegar's daughter at the start of book 2, when they went to Restov to get their charter. That was their first introduction to the colony (they also met Drelev's wife, and her dog), and they learned that Varn's mission was dealing with the dirty scoundrel centaurs.
Later, they made an agreement with Varnhold that they (the PCs' kingdom) would contribute forces to the Varn's war against the centaurs. They were happy to do so in exchange for an agreement that Varnhold wouldn't expand into the Greenbelt and wouldn't go too far west of the Tors. I did make a map of the Varnhold kingdom and its hex improvements, but I didn't actually "stat" it up, it was just me deciding where they had spread to and what they had built.
Later still, the Ruler was being pressured to marry and produce heirs to ensure the stability and future of the kingdom. He ended up marrying Maegar's daughter under some duress (his heart belonged to another) as a political marriage that united the two colonies.
While the daughter was pregnant with her 2nd child, Varnhold vanished. The Ruler has been keen to find his father-in-law.
Nice work! :) I wonder how will the Ruler react when he finds out that his father-in-law is dead after having his brain eaten while permanently paralyzed?
Cheers!
CB out.
Nice work! :) I wonder how will the Ruler react when he finds out that his father-in-law is dead after having his brain eaten while...
Late reply I know. Anyway, this was one of the parts of the module that I never really liked (mainly I like to at least give my players the chance to affect outcomes). As such, when I run it, they PCs will have a chance to rescue Maegar Varn -- though not a guarantee. I'll simply run a silent timer of sorts that determines whether or not the party gets there in time.
As such, when I run it, they PCs will have a chance to rescue Maegar Varn -- though not a guarantee. I'll simply run a silent timer of sorts that determines whether or not the party gets there in time.
I think VV in particular would benefit from something akin to a Dungeon World Front... Vordakai's to-do list of world domination, which he'll slowly chug through unless the players come along and upset the apple cart (or at least distract him with their antics into spending his time watching them through his familiar).
- Start interrogating souls in soul jars at random.
- Learn about the world according to Varnholders.
- Capture Xamanthe.
- Start raising an army of dead Varnholders as dread zombies.
- Identify the senior Varnholders from his interrogations, feast on their brains.
- Learn about the Linnorm skeleton from Xamanthe.
- Acquire a large enough piece of onyx.
- Raise the Linnorm skeleton.
- Break Xamanthe's mind completely, begin the process of turning her into a grave knight.
- ...
- Profit!
As such, when I run it, they PCs will have a chance to rescue Maegar Varn -- though not a guarantee. I'll simply run a silent timer of sorts that determines whether or not the party gets there in time.I think VV in particular would benefit from something akin to a Dungeon World Front... Vordakai's to-do list of world domination, which he'll slowly chug through unless the players come along and upset the apple cart (or at least distract him with their antics into spending his time watching them through his familiar).
- Start interrogating souls in soul jars at random.
- Learn about the world according to Varnholders.
- Capture Xamanthe.
- Start raising an army of dead Varnholders as dread zombies.
- Identify the senior Varnholders from his interrogations, feast on their brains.
- Learn about the Linnorm skeleton from Xamanthe.
- Acquire a large enough piece of onyx.
- Raise the Linnorm skeleton.
- Break Xamanthe's mind completely, begin the process of turning her into a grave knight.
- ...
- Profit!
Aye, this is exactly the kind of thing I was thinking. If nothing else, it gives the PCs a chance to feel particularly heroic, or particularly guilty if they dilly dally.
I like that sequence.
"Dominate Maegar Varn and use him as a front agent" might also be on the list (though maybe eating his brain is preferable).
And I definitely agree that having some prior interaction between Varn and the PCs makes all of book 3 much more interesting.
And I definitely agree that having some prior interaction between Varn and the PCs makes all of book 3 much more interesting.
Absolutely, foreshadowing was one of the bigger weaknesses in the AP in my opinion (or rather, the lack thereof). My KM campaign kicks off next weekend and I'm planning on having the party meet the other three groups before even heading off to Oleg's. Then between books 1 and 2, have another meeting with all the groups where they get the new charters (though there might be a certain group missing at that time). Basically I want the disappearance of Varn to mean something extra for the party. I plan to, for the most part, set him up as an ally to the party and at least give them the opportunity to exchange communiques back and forth, etc.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm very pleased that my players are currently en-route to Varnhold during module 2, to enlist Maegar Varn and his mercenaries to help against the troll armies they know are coming.
The players' realm's armies aren't ready - they have a Tiny army of rangers, and a Medium army of soldiers who are still in training and won't finish boot camp for another fortnight. They're worried the trolls will attack before they're ready - they snuck in and rescued all the River Kingdom slaves from the trolls just at the start of the winter, and know the trolls are starving and becoming desperate.
When they originally learned about the Monster Kingdom they wrote letters to Varnhold, Fort Drelev and Mivon warning them of the threat, and Varn wrote back offering his cavalry as mercenaries if they needed, at very reasonable rates. Battle-ready soldiers and an experienced commander who all are ready to go right now are suddenly very attractive.
In order to save time, the party decided to try to go overland directly to Varnhold, despite not knowing the lay of the Tors of the Levanines and the lands beyond. A good couple of Knowledge (Geography) rolls has led them to the river valley of Varnhold Pass, so they've now discovered the watchtower and are just meeting up with the Varnhold soldiers posted there. I'm very much looking forward to having them meet some of the Varnholders and look around the town while it's still a going concern.
I am thinking of building a second "meeting" between Varn's group and my players' group. The first time they met was during a mix of The Venture Capital mod (from Dudemeister, I think) and The Wedding Knight (a Song of Ice and Fire adventure by Green Ronin, I think).
There was initially a sense of friendly competition between the two groups (the PC Spymaster was trying to seduce and pump the Varn's General for information, which over time became a long-distance pen-pals relationship where they just teased each other with bits of information that might be useful or not).
However, the PCs have heard that numerous skirmishes broke out between the Varns and the centaurs over the course of a few years, resulting in a current lukewarm armistice. Thus, the PCs are now viewing the Varns with suspicions. Hence, why I want to do a second type of meeting between the PCs, the Varns, and the other group to the west (I forget their name at the moment). The Varns will attempt to garner an alliance with the PCs via promising one of the Baron's daughters to one of the PCs so that they can present a more united front to the centaurs to buy the extra time they need to rebuild.
Alas, little do they know that all is being threatened by the machinations of a certain fey raven. ;)
I almost feel bad for messing with their kingdom like this right after throwing the Realm of the Fellnight Queen at them. :)
Cheers!
CB out.