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I have a character who will be worshiping Hastur in a low-key way in the AP, and we have already discussed party cohesion and that they would be working towards the same goal in the adventure path, so I'm not seeing any problems there at the moment (subject to change).
That said, knowing that he is doing that, I would like to find ways to add little bits that would interest him or allow him to pursue is goals (in a non-disruptive way), but am currently at a loss as to how I would do that, other than throwing The King in Yellow or references to it in the Sacred Archivist's hideout and perhaps turning the cult of Norgorber from the later chapters into a cult of Hastur, but I'm not sold on that idea. What are other people's thoughts? Where might I be able to add things, and what might I be able to add?
Why aren't you sold on the idea of switching the Grey Spiders' worship to Hastur? It seems the easiest way if you want to incorporate him. And it doesn't seem like a too far stretch that the cult would be based in Vyre, seeing as Decadence is in Hastur's PF portfolio. Just rename them the Yellow Spiders and you're (almost) good to go :)
If the reason for your hesitation is that the PC would logically rather join them than fight them, well, that's one of the problems you'll continually face when allowing players to worship Chaotic Evil gods in a Good campaign, so not feeling sorry for you there mate ;-)
Another, deeper change would be to switch Mahathallah out for Hastur, with Luculla Gens as the Kintargo cult leader - maybe give her a larger role and switch out her appearance in the Lucky Bones to an underling (so you can keep her as a mysterious adversary for longer). That would mean changing some of Golarions meta-story though, since Hastur would have to be responsible for the Soul Anchor. Might upset any Golarion encyclopedists among your players. In that case, just switch out the Soul Anchor to a Hasturite artifact by changing its name and look ("the yellow eye" etc.), and you can give the PC lots of spooky dreams and portents throughout the campaign (as the PCs won't find the place until Breaking the Bones of Hell). After the campaign ends the Hastur-hugging PC could become the new custodian of this artifact, or the like.
Or you do both changes, and have about every evil person in Kintargo searching for the Hasturite artifact/Soul Anchor - Barzillai being the one who eventually found it then (after Manghvune, of course). That would pit the Grey/Yellow Spiders and Luculla's changelings against each other, creating more conflict for your players to navigate. This might tip the campaign from 'Fight the Power' to 'Chase the McGuffin' though, so be careful not to overdo it so it doesn't become a change of theme.
Pretty much what Razcar said.
If this were my group, I really don't think that I would have allowed a Hastur worshiper as a PC for this AP. I don't think that such a character is appropriate for the themes of the AP.
In my 35 years of gaming, I find that chaotic evil PCs pretty much always become disruptive to the group, so I generally disallow them.
But it's your game, and you know the player, so do what you think works for your group!
Hastur-worship and PCs don't go very well in good-aligned games, which Hell's Rebels most certainly is.
That being said, if I were to do something with Hastur in Kintargo, it would probably be throwing in a few easter eggs in the Opera House.
Maybe Barzillai found a copy of the King in Yellow in the opera house, read it a bit to see if it was worth holding a performance of, and then wisely had it burned once he figured out what it was. :)
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Maybe Barzillai found a copy of the King in Yellow in the opera house, read it a bit to see if it was worth holding a performance of, and then wisely had it burned once he figured out what it was. :)
Guy keeps The Book of the Damned around. He's fine with unholy and profane knowledge, as long as it's reserved for him and not the unwashed masses.
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First off, I really like the suggestions (especially Razcar!), thanks for all the input.
A couple points to address:
- I have removed alighment from the campaign. The group I'm in (myself included) got a little fed up with the discussions after the Horror Adventures thing and went with the... Relative Alignment? From Pathfinder Unchained to sidestep that but disrupt things like spells as little as possible. The player and I have also discussed the idea of his character taking the long-game approach to his worship, recognizing the rebellion as a way to plant seeds rather than completely take over when eyes are already on him.
- I hadn't thought about the connection Hastur could have in Vyre, thanks for reminding me about that! Mostly my hesitance was that I didn't want to just cut and paste without it making much sense, but I will admit part of my thought was the idea that he would rather join than fight. [Tangent] Though we also had a Winter Oracle in Reign of Winter that almosy betrayed the party at the very end, so maybe I'm just a masochist when it comes to that thing :-P But that means we've already had the betrayal talk, and how to do it without fracturing the group. [/tangent]
- I like the idea of Barzillai having kept The King in Yellow after finding it in the Sacred Archive, not sure why that wasn't my next logical step!
Well, looks like I have my work cut out for me. Thanks for the ideas, and feel free to add more if you think of any!