Return of the Runelords

[James Jacobs]

Since we realized that we didn't want to "use up" the seven swords of sin in an early and somewhat experimental adventure.

[Ed Reppert]

I'd be more interested to learn how (or if) the seven swords in the current canon have "degraded" — that is, lost much of their powers — since Earthfall than whether the module makes canonical sense any more. But I suppose one would have to know what's going to be going on in Return of the Runelords with respect to these swords to know whether the module can still make sense in context.

[Elegos]

Are we going back to Kaer Maga in this AP? Love that city

[edduardco]

Getting late to the party but this are indeed awesome news, Varisia, Thasilion, and the Runelords are some of my favorite themes in Pathfinder Golarion.

Mr. Jacobs, if what I read in another thread is true there are going to be some sort of time travel involved, so, any chance of encountering Xin? What about getting a statblock of him? I wish you the best of lucks for this project.

[James Jacobs]

edduardco wrote:

Getting late to the party but this are indeed awesome news, Varisia, Thasilion, and the Runelords are some of my favorite themes in Pathfinder Golarion.

Mr. Jacobs, if what I read in another thread is true there are going to be some sort of time travel involved, so, any chance of encountering Xin? What about getting a statblock of him? I wish you the best of lucks for this project.

Spoiler:

Unlikely; this is more focused on the runelords, not what was BEFORE the runelords. We've pretty much told Xin's story in Shattered Star. Which will have ripple effects in this Adventure Path.

[Cole Deschain]

So... not gonna lie, I'm VERY glad we're getting our Runelord Return on before 2nd edition hits. It'll provide a nifty sense of closure- I may well sit on it to be our last AP under PF1 rules...

[dmchucky69]

Is it confirmed that Return is going to use the legacy Pathfinder rules?

[Rysky]

Yes, 2E doesn’t come out till 2019.

[W E Ray]

That's why I came back to this Thread, too -- will we be able to playtest this AP with PF2; will PF2 be introduced in some fashion for these six volumes, that kind of stuff?

[James Jacobs]

Return of the Runelords is 100% 1st edition Pathfinder.

I suspect many folks will convert it to the playtest rules or eventually to the next edition's rules, but that'll be a job for them, not us.

[Ed Reppert]

Wait, what?! When/where was PF 2.0 announced?

[Brother Fen]

Well, I suppose it's fitting that this be the last true Pathfinder Adventure Path.

[The Purity of Violence]

It's not the last, there will be one after it. However it always felt that this was going to be something of a swansong.

[DM Papa.DRB]

I was thinking of running Mummy's Mask as a PbP when one of my three current PbPs finish up, probably early fall, however, with this AP coming out, and PF2 coming out, I will just convert this AP to PF2.

Glad I happened on a thread that mentioned this AP. Gotta love me some Runelords.

-- david

[Kalindlara]

Given what we know about the future, I have some... interesting theories about how this will end (and the importance of "New Thassilon").

[MaxAstro]

I am so stoked. But this will be an impossible AP for me to run. XD

You see, my campaign setting ALREADY HAS a New Thassilon. When I ran Shattered Star, I played First King Xin as a more tragic character, drawing inspiration from the King of Zeal in Chrono Trigger.

The unexpected result was that he convinced my party his vision of the world was right and they joined forces with him. XD

So I imagine that will make this AP much harder to fit in... >.>

[James Jacobs]

MaxAstro wrote:

I am so stoked. But this will be an impossible AP for me to run. XD

You see, my campaign setting ALREADY HAS a New Thassilon. When I ran Shattered Star, I played First King Xin as a more tragic character, drawing inspiration from the King of Zeal in Chrono Trigger.

The unexpected result was that he convinced my party his vision of the world was right and they joined forces with him. XD

So I imagine that will make this AP much harder to fit in... >.>

Maybe not as hard as you might expect. This AP has built in elements to handle the fact that there are already high-level PCs (and that would include high level NPCs like a Xin become an ally) in the region, and there are elements at play to justify why the heroes of this campaign need to be a new group.

[DM Alistair]

I know one of my players is super excited for this. Me? Not so much. I've yet to even run a proper RotRL campaign...

[Leingod]

CorvusMask wrote:

So what is Vancaskerkin family tree anyway?

Orik, Verik(iirc I know it was Ve at least), Saul, Natalya(iirc how to spell name), the one from 100# bonus npc for giantslayer?

Saul Vancaskerkin's first wife was a beautiful Varisian harrower from Magnimar named Adreea Valitrosa. Unfortunately, she was a member of the Sczarni, who didn't approve of this relationship, and a month after Natalya was born they tried to kidnap her. Saul was warned thanks to his criminal contacts and the three fled to Riddleport, but Adreea took a poisoned crossbow bolt in the back and died.

In other words, Natalya Vancaskerkin is Saul's oldest child; or at least his oldest legitimate one, I wouldn't be surprised if he'd fathered a few bastards in his time. I'm allowed to use that word because I'm one myself ;)

Saul mourned the loss but eventually married his second wife; said wife was the mother of Orik and Verik. It isn't stated what happened to Saul's second wife and she isn't named, but when Orik and Verik left Riddleport, Natalya was left alone with Saul and his third wife Bertrida, who hated Natalya and eventually drove her away.

Saul has at least two brothers. One brother is Damon Vancaskerkin, younger than Saul by five years and barely a teen when Saul formed his first gang. Saul looked after Damon when he was growing up, but as Damon grew older he chafed at the company of people and found honest work as a caravan guard. He didn't like being connected to Saul's criminal reputation and grew distant from his brother, but still dropped in for a while and tried to keep Orik and Verik on the straight and narrow (no mention of Natalya, though). As Saul's criminal ventures failed him and his sons fled the town, Damon was permanently estranged from his family and left Varisia altogether.

Saul's other brother was the father of "Lullaby" Vancaskerkin, who hates her "awful" birth name and doesn't answer by it anymore. Lullaby left home when her parents split as her mother left her father for her uncle, Saul, meaning that Lullaby is either the half-sister of Orik and Verik or her mother was Bertrida, the woman who drove Natalya away. Lullaby wants to rebuild the Vancaskerkin family in Riddleport, hoping to follow in Saul's footsteps rather than the "equally shady legacy" of her father, who moved on to some small town on the island of Kortos. I'm not sure if this is a reference to some other adventure like a Pathfinder Society thing.

That is, as far as I can tell, the extent of what we know of the Vancaskerkin family tree so far.

[Dark-Jedi]

Ed Reppert wrote:

zimmerwald1915 wrote:

Nathan Nasif wrote:

One map I really want is Thassilon before Earthfall.

That exists.

Unless you were talking about something more detailed, or with the inundated lands filled in properly.

Nice map. I'd been down for more detail, including proper fill-in. :-)

I don't see Xin-Shalast on that map. Did I miss it?

I answer late :)

this map is from the book Lost Kingdoms. I just saw that link comes from the wiki related to my part lol, if you can't see Xin-Shalast, it's normal i have modified the map because i used it when my players were looking for the city.