Shmoop is the technical term for changing from homebrew to published. Look it up. Don't look it up it's clearly bull.
I started a homebrew campaign and, after several weeks of coming up with mediocre adventure ideas I picked up my Runelords book, that I bought years ago and never got to play past the first few sessions, and remembered why I bought it.
Would the board be so kind as to offer ideas for working the important bits of burnt offering into the current homebrew shenanigans I have going on?
The party was hired to guard a caravan as it traveled through the creatively named Feywoods. Guess what's in the woods. Thus far they have cleared out a kobold warren (and met a weird giant rainbow snake god thing because *shrug* I like that sort of thing) and secured an abandoned tower in the center of the woods. Which was handy since soon after, the road disappeared. Turns out the only reason there was a road was because the Lady of the Forest (Archfey) had an agreement with the Caravan leader.
That's what the party knows about. The plan was for There to have been a demonic cult corrupting the local tribe of lycanthropes (the party knows the lycanthropes exsist but haven't met them) who are trying to steal/corrupt/destroy the heart of the forest, which is underground. The fey can't get near it because, thanks to their connection with the lady, the corruption that's messing with the forest corrupts them as well, so they ask the party to wade in blades-a-swinging.
Oh, the party is currently already level 4 (we started at level 3). I have no issues scaling encounters and slowing the leveling a bit though. We're doing milestones.
Ideas I've had to aid the transition: Introduce Aldern as a noble who was travelling with the caravan. One of the PCs is a noble's son named Aldryn (ohoho coincidences!) which sets up the envy badoodle pretty well I think.
Have the path to the heart of the forest lead through a Thassilonian ruin. I was thinking Mines of Moria style: Old dwarfish mine that uncovered the ruin and accidentally unleashed a ____. I'd be pretty clear that its dangerous as heck and the party should run and hide if the ____ finds them in there (lil survivor horror). They could find a runewell etc. This could even be scribbler's haunt. Or maybe not. The siege of Sandpoint is super cool. I don't want to change it too much.
The party is already getting chummy with the caravan NPCs so I'll slot them in to various Sandpointer roles.
I mean, I feel like I have an OK idea of how to do it, but I have maybe a month yet before we get there and I like hearing ideas for stuff like this. Someone always thinks of something clever that makes me go "Aw yeah!"
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(I may, later, if I remember and have time... sorry for lack of immediacy!)
If you've only played one level with those characters I'd suggest re-rolling. The first book of RotRL is an important time to get the PCs connected to Sandpoint, I wouldn't miss it out.
If not, you'll have a heap of work to do to connect your story (which you sound not to happy with anyway) to the main campaign story, and +CR all the encounters to balance starting at level 4. And then to modify Varisia to fit your Feywoods in somewhere near enough to Sandpoint, etc. Why not focus your energies on working with RotRL as a foundation and building your (new) PCs backstories into it?
I appreciate the suggestion, but I'm just not keen on that idea.
My players are pretty in to the characters they have at the moment and they've all let me know they're not big fans of playing through the low-low levels.
I figure: Make the Feywoods part of Sanos Forest. The caravan, all ugh'd from the ordeal in the forest, will take a break from the trek in Wartle or Nybor once they get out of there. That's where the murders will start.
Like I said: The caravan NPCs can make good replacements for a lot of the Sandpoint NPCs. My players already really like them.
I understand that they should be nice and invested in order to want to defend the place from the Giant attack, but they all like being noble heroes anyways so I don't think that'll take much convincing despite.
That makes sense then, as long as you have a reason to get them to Sandpoint, and to have them be connected to the town. Is there anything lurking in any of their backstories that might help? A distant relative? A mentor? You could perhaps have them discover a Thasillonian artefact in the ruin you mentioned, and have an NPC suggest that Brodert Quink of Sandpoint may be able to identify it.
They would arrive in Sandpoint just prior to the Skinsaw murders. Perhaps even have the artefact have a symbol on it that relates to the murders (7 pointed star...), which raises suspicion... of the PCs. They just showed up in town with an odd artefact, and then murders. Rather suspect! This could require them to investigate to clear their names.
I'd throw in a few days of social stuff prior to the murders, to get them into Sandpoint. Some of the mini events in book 1 could be used with some tweaking.
I appreciate the suggestion, but I'm just not keen on that idea.
My players are pretty in to the characters they have at the moment and they've all let me know they're not big fans of playing through the low-low levels.
I figure: Make the Feywoods part of Sanos Forest. The caravan, all ugh'd from the ordeal in the forest, will take a break from the trek in Wartle or Nybor once they get out of there. That's where the murders will start.
Like I said: The caravan NPCs can make good replacements for a lot of the Sandpoint NPCs. My players already really like them.
I understand that they should be nice and invested in order to want to defend the place from the Giant attack, but they all like being noble heroes anyways so I don't think that'll take much convincing despite.
Could you elaborate on what you're thinking? Just so we know when we're taking you far afield, etc.
Are you planning on transferring your campaign to Golarion and looking for a place to start the pc's off? And you're thinking of having the "Feywood" be in Sanos? Or are you transplanting part of Varisia to your homebrew world?
The pc's would finish their current adventure in Wartle or Nybor? Are the murders taking place in one of those villages? Or still in Sandpoint? Where will Misgivings be located?
I know that language in the AP itself suggests Book 1 is not directly tied to the rest of the AP but that's not really true...
The first book provides several key elements to support the rest of the AP:
- introduces Runelords, specifically Alaznist and Karzoug
- introduces a Runewell and Sinspawn. The timeline of the Late Unpleasantness coincides with the minor runewell's awakening which in turn ties to Mokmurian starting his interaction with Karzoug.
- provides the pc's with their first Sihedron medallion - the fact Nualia has one ties her to Xanesha
- gives the pc's a stronger tie to Sandpoint, introduces key allies for later such as Ameiko, the Sheriff, etc.
- foreshadows the existence of an ancient complex beneath the town, which also explains why Mokmurian and Karzoug are searching for something in the town later in the AP.
- introduces Aldern and justifies his obsession with the pc's
- pc heroics in Book 1 justifies the people and leaders of the town trusting them and looking to them for leadership/assistance in later books of the AP.
I suggest trying to capture as many of those elements as you can in your version. Perhaps exiting the "Feywood" puts them in Nettlewood or Mosswood outside Sanpoint - paths into and out of the First World are notoriously fickle and unpredictable, not always going where you thing they do. As the pc's and caravan (?) try to figure out where they are, they are attacked by goblins and yeth hounds and maybe they are led by Malfeshnekor? With no pc's about, Nualia's plan continued unopposed. The pc's can repel the attack and follow the goblins back to Thistletop - that'll need some upgrades in CR but let's them deal with Nualia, the goblins, etc. Maybe the pc's come upon the goblins attacking Aldern (and others) on the road. Aldern is in the area north of town because he's been forced to harvest his own wood to repair his manor - perhaps he's accompanied by a handful of put upon and terrified workers from Sandpoint who he had to pay a fortune even to work with him? If the pc's won't be in a position to be stalked by Aldern - perhaps they are the only ones he trusts and after he dies, he's angered at the leadership of Sandpoint (Mayor, Mill, Carpenter's Guild) for not helping him repair his family home. Use the wrath option but address his notes to the leaders.
Since the pc's never did anything about the Cathedral of Wrath, what if Xanesha directs Aldern to work with Elyrium and her sinspawn? And the old pirate tunnel is the path he uses to sneak into town to do his killings/sacrifices? Again, you may need to upgrade the place some, but the pc's still get to deal with and get information from the adventure areas of the first book.
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Excellent!
Latrecis: I will be plopping them into Golarion. The original plan was to call Sandoint Wartle and rearrange the geography to fit, but I relize there's no real reason I can't just handwave the distance once they leave the woods. Either how you suggest or just with "Then nothing happens for awhile and now you're in Sandpoint."
Here are my revised ideas, taking into account the advice presented so far:
Aldern will be introduced in the woods as per my original post.
The abandoned tower is an old Thassilonian ruin (I was rather vague in describing it previously) with a runewell deep below.
The corruption of the woods is being caused by an agent of Karzoug: A third Lamia named something-that-ends-in-esha(or etia). She wants to use nasty magic to bind the fey to her master's will and is looking for the runewell as a little bonus. She has a sihedron medallion.
They will arrive at Sandpoint just in time for the swallowtail festival (just for a fun RP and games session) but there will be no goblins. Instead, the festival is ruined when Tsuto tries to burn down the everything! Probably with a couple demons or sinspawn helping him out.
Turns out he found the dungeon of wrath and Erylium put the magical whammy on him so now he's all wrathful and junk. I dunno I'll figure out the specifics later.
No Nualia in this scenario. The runewell in the dungeon, matching the one they found in the feywoods, connects it to the Lamia and thus the medallion.
He's dealt with and the PCs can hang out as heroes for a bit but minor demons/sinspawn (I like demons) keep popping up which leads to an investigation of the glassworks and the dungeon of wrath. Call clearing the dungeon the end of part one, go straight in to the murders after a few more rest days. From there on, we follow the book.
Granted, I also really like the scenario Latrecis put forth (except I may change goblins to something else. They already trounced kobolds. Doing goblins right after feels kinda "Oh more weak tiny things ok.")
Good thing I have awhile yet to decide!
These are great. Any other suggestions?
if you're changing this to match your setting which is a real shame as Sandpoint, Varisia and Golarion are really richly developed, then just swap out a few Golarion ideas for your own.
Replace mentions of goblins with kobolds.
Replace mention of Mosswoods/Nettlewoods with Feywoods.
Replace all mention of the skinsaw cult and Norgorber connections with your own cult and the werewolves.
You could possibly replace any mention of the Sandpoint Devil with some lycanthrope variant or just change the legends to match your Lady of the Fey.
There's your shmooping.