| BulgarianFirstborn |
Hey there, folks. I thought it'd be nice to share some of the cool and creative moments from my run of Reign of Winter campaign. I tend to customize and change a lot of things, so hopefully you find something of use here. I'll start by copy-pasting some info I've already shared about my party @ at the Snows of Summer general thread:
Suan, the Half-Elf Sorceress (Cross-blooded Fey/Celestial)
Cocidius, Human Rogue (Knife Master/Relic Raider with a Legalistic Oracle curse added)
Silphi, the Snowcaster Elf Investigator (Spiritualist, but can still make potions)
San De, the Human Monk (Qinggong)
Absoleth, the Human Warpriest of Desna (Arsenal Chaplain)
All the players are first-timers.
I also use some DnD 5ed elements in my game, such as a Background (just as a way to create well-made characters), the Inspiration mechanic (a token that can be used to roll a second d20 in a time of need. Rewards excellent roleplaying), and, of course, the random trinkets!
First of all, I'm particularly happy with how I managed to tie all the players to the story. A good amount of them had some pretty legitimate reasons to be in Heldren, either temporarily or permanently, and I tried to tie each and every player with at least one NPC in order to give them that extra dose of attachment. The Spiritualist Investigator, for example, was one a job - she was hired by local authorities to investigate a massacre at a Taldan military outpost by speaking to the dead soldiers' spirits. Lore-wise, the encampment was swiftly defeated by some of the first waves of creatures from the portal, but the local authorities are trying to pin it on the Qadirans. When she was taken to the mausoleum with all the remains of the soldiers, all the remains were missing. (Stolen and animated by Rokhar). She was staying with Old Mother Theodora, who I decided was going to be a relatively powerful and Good-aligned ancient Hedge Witch. The statue in Heldren was dedicated to her. The Rogue was visiting Heldren to interrogate the Butcher of Jalrune, the sorceress was working at the lumbermill, doing some accounting and gambling on the side.. etc.
From the get-go, the players were terrified of the zombies at the massacre site. I wanted to make things extra creepy and had one of the horses still alive, but very injured. They were very cautious of it, and as soon as they were done with the zombies in the carriage (Rogue was on top of the carriage and managed to very swiftly dispose of them..), they were very hesitant on what to do with the horse, thinking that it might turn into a zombie horse. Cleric raised it, and with some pretty good Handle Animal and Ride checks, they were able to use it to drag the wagon forward (completely forgetting about the frozen captain up top... it was a fun scene when they went back to Heldren with the frozen body on top of the carriage).
The spiked log trap almost 1-shot the Investigator with a nasty crit. She was very close to dying.
The Tatzlwurm was easy, but it almost killed the sorceress.
The players got Yuln's masterwork cold iron longsword.
One fun little encounter I added to the game was a single Winter-touched Tooth Fairy. It ambushed the party while they were resting in a cave and managed to put the meditating monk standing guard to sleep. Then it went to the sorceress who had the highest Charisma, and got one of her teeth. The look of sheer horror as the player woke up numbed (staggered), and paralyzed.. Priceless. They managed to kill the fairy in like a round, but they didn't have the magical healing to put the tooth back. I added this encounter with Angus Goldtooth (the barger/surgeon/dentist ... and jeweler (that's my addition) of Heldren), hoping that they'd go back to him for some much needed dental work. The players also found a gold tooth.. which eventually turned out to belong to Angus Goldtooth.
They went back to town and Yuln told them that they could keep the sword if they find the lost scabbard (conveniently, it's the scabbard with the decorated filigree of deer, located in Teb Knotten's cave) they could keep it
Down the line, the players fought the Giant Weasel, and the sorceress (who is purely a support, low-magic caster), attempted to cast Magic Weapon from a scroll. Back then I wasn't 100% sure on how casting stuff from a scoll worked and assumed that she'd have to do an Use Magical Device check since the spell was not a spell she knew (turns out no UMD is needed as long as the spell is on her spell list of spells available. Not known. Oh well). She rolled a 1. I rolled on a random table an said that the spell worked on her weapon and on the fists of the monk she was casting it on, but it did some nasty fire damage. I also secretly gave her vulnerability to magical weapons as a hidden flaw.
Then they fought Hammelstaub and the air elemental... Same thing. Sorceress cast Magic Weapon on the masterwork cold iron longsword given to them by Yuln. Natural 20. I ruled that the previously "rewarded" vulnerability to magical weapons was removed... and made the sword permanently magical.
They completely destroyed Teb Knotten by bombarding him with alchemist's fires. They almost split the party in front of his tree shape, but at the last moment the Investigator did a DC30-ish Knowledge (Nature) check and I just had to tell her that the big tree in front of them was not typical for the region...
THEN! The Black Rider! AND A BIG REVEAL.
As part of the Monk's backstory, he is searching for his parents and we decided that though he was raised in Tian Xia, he was not from there. Secretly, we also decided that he knows of the potential existence of the planet Earth and that he knows he is from there.
Anyways... the Black Rider turned out to be his grandfather. A warlord from the Land of the Linnorm Kingdoms who was well on his way of becoming one of the Kings who succumbed to temptation when Baba Yaga asked him to be her Rider. He joined with the hope that when he is done serving her, he'd use all his new powers to lead a rebellion in order to free Irrisen. Baba Yaga allowed him, as a boon, to sire a child after he had served about 30 or so years.. but his child grew to be resented by his peers in the Linnorm Kingdoms who knew of his father and called him a traitor and a turncoat. Eventually he started hating his father and redoubled his efforts to defeat Baba Yaga. So when the Black Raider's son had a son, the Black Raider (with his mother's approval), stole the child in order to break the circle of hatred, and dropped him off at one of the most peaceful and serene places he knew of - a temple in Tian Xia.
It was a very epic encounter full of joy, some answers, and even more questions. And when the Black Rider gave his grandson the artifacts to operate the Dancing Hut and slit his throat, there was definitely a very emotional outburst from the group. I actually made my Monk player tear up...
His last words were "Though you have accepted the Mantle of the Black Rider, you still have to prove yourselves worthy of carrying it. You will be watched and judged whether you succeed or fail. But I'm sure that you will succeed in this, my grandchild. Go forth, but never repeat the mistakes I've made. Farewell, <insert Monk's actual birthname which he got to hear for the first time!!!!>...
..and then, I transported the players to do Kobold Press' Challenge of the Fang quest (from their Tales of the Old Margreve adventure path). One big change I made to the environment is that I said that the Old Margreve forest is of The First World.
On the Black Rider's Mantle - I gave all players their choice of a +2 to one attribute, but they couldn't pick their highest attribute, nor could the same attribute be chosen by more than one person.
Based on how they fared with The Challenge of the Fang adventure, I also awarded them an additional trait of my choice, plus the Signature Skill feat for a skill of my choice.