Story Hook for my Druid?

[Derry L. Zimeye]

Hey everyone! I'm currently GM'ing for a group of three, and so far, they're adoring Kingmaker. However, one of my favourite things to do while running Adventure Paths is to give characters personal ties to the story. I've been able to do this nicely for 2/3 of the party, but I'm a little lost as to what I should do with the third one.

Story hook number one, for the Fighter-

Spoiler:

He's experiencing dreams during which a young girl calls out to him for help, asking to be rescued, in the middle of a dark forest, while a malicious presence seems to be searching for her. The girl, when found, is in fact a Nymph- one going by the name Briar. She doesn't give him other details, only that she's afraid, and she doesn't want to be found by "her". As the story continues, knowing my player, he'll become very attached to Briar, adopting her like a daughter in his dreams. You can imagine how he'll react to find she's in fact a legendary intelligent sword who's been calling out to a worthy hero to rescue her!

Reason this Hook works:
This gives the Fighter a reason to want to stop Nyrissa on a personal level, other than "she's gonna destroy our kingdom". He wants to protect his 'daughter', and it'll validate him in his eyes as a true hero, completing the idealistic young man's story arc as a kid who grew up idolizing the Aldori Sword Lords and other adventurers like them.

Story hook number two, for the Bard-

Spoiler:

The Bard is the estranged bastard son of Castruccio Ivoretti, who was denied linkage and forced to live a life of poverty with his mother, mocked and humiliated by the nobility of Pitax. His aim is to succeed to spite his father and avenge the treatment his nation gave to his late mother.

Reason this Hook works:
As well as foreshadowing Pitax early on in the campaign, the bard's realization that his father was part of something bigger will drive him to want to personally end his father's legacy. As well as upping the tension in Book 5 dramatically, he'll be very involved in trying to undo Nyrissa too.

And now I'm left with the last character, a Half-Elf Druid. I need to give her a personal reason to want to fight the BBEG- something to lose or gain that's specifically close to her heart that nobody else has, the same way the others do. Her backstory is that she grew up on a farm on the border between Restov and Greenbelt, and her family suffered greatly when famine swept and they were unable to provide food, losing both money and credibility (A druid who can't even grow food?). She now roams Greenbelt, hoping to make money back for her family (and unwittingly, become a leading figure in a fletching kingdom!) alongside a rescued wolf pup. She doesn't currently seem to want to run the kingdom much, so giving her motivation to care for it soon is a good plan, as we haven't started Book 2 yet but the PCs know of the charter.

I'm considering toying with having an important, primal, almost deity-like figure of the Green Faith approach her and have her promise to keep this growing kingdom in balance with nature... but this doesn't seem pungent enough. Additionally, what kind of figure would I even use? The Grim White Stag? He's more closely linked to Erastil, and the Fighter is the Erastil worshipper here. Has anyone any ideas on how to improve this idea and make it a heartwrenching plot device the ways the others work? I don't have a Ruler chosen yet- my Bard would certainly like to be Ruler, but if the plot needs the Druid to be divinely chosen, I'll work with it. Basically: help!

[Andostre]

It might be too late, but there's a unicorn at the beginning of book 2...

Spoiler:

He's dead. It's assumed he was killed by Nyrissa.

If you can fabricate some tie between it and the druid, that might motivate her to investigate the unicorn further. If you're interested, there's a 3rd party module, Horns of the Hunted, that expands on the unicorn since it's really only mentioned once and then immediately forgotten about.

Another idea is to tie your druid to the Old Beldame who is pretty much a blank slate other than she's a crotchety old hermit with ties to the land. She could be a conduit/messenger to a greater nature power.

You said you wanted relatively immediate ideas for motivating her, so that's what I've given, but I'll point out that these two ideas might have much sooner gratification rather than anything involving Briar or Irovetti.

A more in-line idea is to tie the druid's family's misfortunes the marauding Tiger Lords. Actually, it might be easier to create new misfortunes for her family caused by them. The druid could receive word that her family has been capture and forced into slavery.

[JiaYou]

I added in part of the Cold Mountain add-on in Book 1, placing the waterfall where the Barbarian Cairn was. I don't remember off the top of my head ALL the details, but basically the grave at the top of the waterfall was an ancient barbarian and his fey bride, who I rewrote as a young norn (basically one of the most powerful fey). You could have her spirit guide your druid and act as a conduit between the fey forces at work in this AP and her world.

[chunky04]

The Unicorn is actually in Book 1 within the area needed to explore, so that tragedy could trigger the Green Faith manifestation you're talking about. You could also make the famine that occurred be some sort of experimental weapon Nyrissa has had a hand in, and some of the Fey NPCs hint at it but are unwilling to cross Nyrissa unless the Druid befriends them.

Alternatively, she could get some info from either of the Erastil related areas in the Greenbelt - letting her know about some sort of connection between the Fey and the famine.

As a bonus, I don't believe you've covered any of these areas yet in the podcast.

[Andostre]

chunky04 wrote:

The Unicorn is actually in Book 1 within the area needed to explore

Oh okay, thanks. My group didn't discover it until after they took down the Stag Lord, so I must have put it in book 2 for that reason.

[chunky04]

My players encountered it on Saturday, so it was very fresh for me :) Might want to reduce some of the DCs for finding out info about it if you were to use it this way.