Running City of Locusts as a standalone

[Gratz]

Hi guys,

For a while now I've been thinking about running a high-level Worldwound campaign. The idea came to me quite a while ago, so let me give you some history about my campaigns:

I've been running APs with the same group for years now, starting with Kingmaker, then moving Iron Gods and from there we moved on, to the Hell's APs (Rebels and Vengeance), so there might mild SPOILERS for these APs.

In order for you to understand where I'm coming from, I think I need to tell the tale of Leonard Thompson, royal assassin of Lakecrossing:

For a long period of time, Leonard was a loyal soldier to the kingdom, often having to go on the most dangerous missions, behind enemy lines. But one night, during his sleep, the Kingdom's assassin got possessed with insanity, when the Nightmare Rook appeared in his dreams. He started killing randomly citizens of the kingdom, but after a few nights, he was identified as the murderer of dozens of people. He managed to flee the country, just before his party members closed in on him. In his exile, a Glabrezu (who was also spawned by the Nightmare Rook) came accross his path and offered him a deal: "I'll make you sane again, if you bring chaos to your old home, by killing the King!".

Leonard in his madness accepted and set out to kill the King. The assassination attempt ultimately failed, because of Leonard's ability to control himself, even though he came close. Leonard had to flee again his country, but this time he started biting and inflicting lycanthropy (he was an infected wererat, so I think technically he couldn't spread the curse, but I ran with it, because I thought it was creative) to innocent farmers and travelers. The leaders of the kingdom had to take care of the mess, before it spread further and Nyrissa was knocking at their door, so they weren't able to pursue Leonard Thompson.

The Glabrezu was impressed enough to make him a new offer: If Leonard serves the Demon, his life will be spared and his affliction cured. Leonard, who saw no other option, accepted. Both of headed towards the Worldwound, to help to tip the scale in favor of the demon invasion.

Leonard Thompson's story is the reason I want to venture a campaign to the Worldwound. He has been a recurring villain through all of my campaigns over the years, even if only as a little side note. Either has he been chased by other Kingmaker PCs, trying to capture the traitor, or has he been seen doing work for the demons, helping them destabilise neigboring countries of the Worldwound, or has he been spotted stealing ancient tomes and preparing vile rituals, to first become a permanent hybrid-wererat orc (he was once reincarnated by his group) and later to become a half-demon hybrid-wererat orc.

I left breadcrumbs through all of my campaigns leading to the Worldwound, where I want to bring together different PCs from all of my campaigns, to chase Leonard Thompson (I imagined him having become a loyal adviser and mortal servant of Deskari, who worked himself through the ranks) into the Worldwound and then fight Deskari.

So enough backstory let's get to my questions:

- Does it make sense, from a story point of view, to run City of Locusts as a standalone?

- Could Leonard Thompson be integrated into the main storyline?

- What knowledge from the previous books is essential for the finale and to pass on to my players?

- Is it feasible for five to seven, level 17, point-buy, non-mythic PCs to survive and even succeed in this book?

I know it's a long story, so thanks to anyone who is reading this and giving me advice!

[j b 200]

No non-mythic group will be able to survive this AP w/o some other HUGE boost in power.

One example: When Khoremzadeh dies, he has a 200ft burst of 200 points of damage. This will drop almost any PC. A Fighter with 20 Con and Max HP and toughness will only have 280 hp. God forbid KZ hits the fighter before dying.

Many of the high level fights in mythic, your monster have to kite the PCs to stay alive for more than one round, meaning not taking full attacks. This is because a Mythic PC can get at many as 6 attacks in a full round (or more). The Action Economy is weighted WAY on the side of the PCs at this level.

A Mythic Balor getting to take full attacks on normal PCs is going to drop one or two a round.

A better idea would be to use Herald of the Ivory Labyrinth. It's a much more manageable level, with most of the "boss" fights around CR20 instead of CR25.

[Gratz]

j b 200 wrote:

No non-mythic group will be able to survive this AP w/o some other HUGE boost in power.

One example: When Khoremzadeh dies, he has a 200ft burst of 200 points of damage. This will drop almost any PC. A Fighter with 20 Con and Max HP and toughness will only have 280 hp. God forbid KZ hits the fighter before dying.

Many of the high level fights in mythic, your monster have to kite the PCs to stay alive for more than one round, meaning not taking full attacks. This is because a Mythic PC can get at many as 6 attacks in a full round (or more). The Action Economy is weighted WAY on the side of the PCs at this level.

A Mythic Balor getting to take full attacks on normal PCs is going to drop one or two a round.

A better idea would be to use Herald of the Ivory Labyrinth. It's a much more manageable level, with most of the "boss" fights around CR20 instead of CR25.

Thanks for the advice!

I see that you recommend "Herald of the Ivory Labyrinth", but that leaves me with some questions:

- It says the adventure is designed for level 15 mythic characters. Would my characters starting at level 17 non-mythic be up to the challenge?

- At least one of the characters will be ported over from the Hell's Vengeance AP, but in "Herald of the Ivory Labyrinth" the PCs are supposed to save a herald(?) of Iomedae. Can a character work, who has fought the Glorious Reclamation and killed countless Iomedae followers, in this context?

[j b 200]

I would say level 17 would be hard, but not undoable. Most of the encounters are 16-18 CR, with big fights being 21, so level 17 is just about right. The only fight really out of reach would be Baphomet himself, but you could cheat, saying if they destroy the ball of twine and glaive in front of him, he is staggered or uses poor tactics so he is easier to defeat.

This AP is actually underpowered for the PCs. I had my group a level and tier behind and they still curb stomped the whole thing.

The one character may be an issue, but since you wanted to include your evil NPC, that PC could just be along for vengance. Also, the fact that it is Iomedae's herald isn't really that important. You could reskin it to be any herald. Since you aren't doing the rest of the AP it is even less important.

[Gratz]

j b 200 wrote:

I would say level 17 would be hard, but not undoable. Most of the encounters are 16-18 CR, with big fights being 21, so level 17 is just about right. The only fight really out of reach would be Baphomet himself, but you could cheat, saying if they destroy the ball of twine and glaive in front of him, he is staggered or uses poor tactics so he is easier to defeat.

This AP is actually underpowered for the PCs. I had my group a level and tier behind and they still curb stomped the whole thing.

The one character may be an issue, but since you wanted to include your evil NPC, that PC could just be along for vengance. Also, the fact that it is Iomedae's herald isn't really that important. You could reskin it to be any herald. Since you aren't doing the rest of the AP it is even less important.

I don't worry too much about the character motivation, because he is a Hellknight of the Chain, so if he gets told to capture a criminal, chasing him through dimensions and planes, he will do so. I was more worried about him meeting Iomedae, as he fought her followers and will probably kill hundreds of them...

But everything else you've written so far makes me hopeful, that I can adapt this into a great high level challenge for my PCs! But I guess, I will have to give them special perks, if I want to transition from "Herald of the Ivory Labyrinth" to "City of Locusts", like maybe raising their stats and giving them max HP, if they defeat Baphomet.