In the stuff that happens around Sandpoint, the Valdemar family is present but doesn't seem to do much.
Has anyone developed any of the Valdemar family more? In what way? I'd like the family to be more involved and am looking for new ideas.
It took me some time to piece the scattered information together, but here's the "shadow plot", as I name it, in the background of RotRL:
Valdemar family in essence is a Intellect Devourer front. Patriarch of the family is lying comatose at their mansion in Sandpoint from taking too much Midnight Milk drug. Youngest son takes care of him and local family interest. Oldest one in Magnimar is now a vessel for an Intellect Devourer who supplies Midnight Milk to a local drug den (can't remember the name of the place). Also he plots with a ghast-alchemist/follower of Kabriri Kanker from the Pitt in Sandpoint Hinterlands to make the drug deliverable through water supplies (possibly kodlak bugbears from the Pitt are Kankers guards, and the latter has second "home" at Paupers Grave graveyard). Intellect Devourers plan to infect Magnimar so they can have more hosts and probably win at last their long war with neothelids in Orv.
Wow, that's pretty wild. I recall something about that from the Magnimar book.
Is there a published adventure that uses this?
How would you use that in a RotRL campaign? As a red herring?
There isn't any published adventure, but a framework for an Ilvarandin Campaign exists in Lost Cities of Golarion. All the Valdemar plot can be incorporated for low and start mid-level adventures.
How would you use that in a RotRL campaign? As a red herring?
Well, I must say that I discovered Ilvarandin and another one (Pazuzu-Lamashtu) plot, in the background of RotRL, too late to include them in any way without derailing the main story of AP.
To be honest, I think its better to separate the Ilvarandin plot and run it independently with a new set of heroes, which may or may not have connection with RotRL party/events. Or the first 2 story arches of RotRL can be cut and used as a base for Ilvarandin plot.| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yes I added a sub-plot and some extra details, based on RotRL and also the Magnimar - City of Monument expansion.
Key people:
- Ethram: sick aged father, in Sandpoint
- Belvin: son in Sandpoint. Good.
- Kaleb: son in Magnimar. Occupied by an intellect devourer.
The details are partly covered in this, in the Valdemar and Sczarni sections.
Summary:
- Ethram Valdemar previously had an addiction to midnight milk. He's quit but is in very ill health as a result
- The Sandpoint Sczarni have records of Ethram's drug buying and are blackmailing the family over it.
- Belvin is a very good guy, and knows about his father's problems. He asks the PCs to help out.
This ended up with my PCs 'recovering' the documents from the Sczarni and using it to gain political support from Kaleb in the Council of Ushers in Magnimar. Kaleb played along, not wanting to blow his cover.
In my campaign this extended into Magnimar, where my PCs got to know Kaleb Valdemar. See Magnimar - City of Monuments p.8 and p.46-47 for more. How it played out was very story specific to my campaign based on particular PC choices. My PCs never realised Kaleb wasn't who he seemed to be, at least not yet.
Okay, interesting. Dod you tie it into the Skinsaw cult at all?
There is additional information in the Magnimar book on the workings of various things.. including the Skinsaw cult. The contents, though, are adventure seeds and not fleshed-out encounters or mini-adventures.
Is all the information listed in the second post from the Magnimar sourcebook, or are there other sources?
I do not remember all of the sources exactly. However, beside Magnimar sourcebook, information is scattered between Sandpoint Hinterlands overview from RotRL (3.5+AE) and Jade Regend, Pathfinder Comics (the part with lore and encounters at the end) and, maybe, Lost Cities of Golarion (part about Ilvarandin).
I am pretty sure most of it is in the Magnimar book.. certainly the parts about the Valdemar family and events IN Magnimar. There may be repetition and expansion in the other sources.
I had no direct connection with the Skinsaw cult and the Valdemar family.
I did feel the cult needed a bit more prefiguring, so I introduced the NPC Jonal Medor (in my guide linked above). He was spending time around Sandpoint looking for anyone particularly greedy to inform Xanesha / Aldern about. Since the Valdemar family are not greedy types, they're not interesting to the cult.
My PCs encountered him in passing a couple of times, but no major confrontation happened. It was mostly so they could hear about the Brotherhood of Seven early on.