The Fall of Plaguestone (Complaints and Spoilers)

[Ushnux]

Hi all! First-time poster but long time player of Pathfinder. This is the first time I have ever had a problem with anything Pathfinder related. This being Plaguestone's whole concept. So I had just started playing the game, currently running as a Hobgoblin cleric of Abadar. What I expected was a town that might be limping but far from the hovel we actually came upon. To begin, the town is essentially run by one person, that being the mayor's daughter. Fine I can understand if she is running the administration of the town, BUT SHE RUNS EVERYTHING. There is no town blacksmith, no carpenter, and from what we've been through so far no form of town priest! How can this one person do all this work? How is this town operating? MOREOVER, WHY IS EVERYTHING TURNIP RELATED? WHY ISNT THIS PLACE JUST CALLED TURNIP TOWN? WHO IS THE LORD OF THIS TOWN, BECAUSE ABADAR BE PRAISED IMA NEED SOME SERIOUS INQUISITION! LIKE, I GET IT, PLAGUE KILLED MOST, BUT COULDNT THE LORD SEND SOME PEOPLE? OR I DONT KNOW SOMEONE LEARN SOME FORM OF TRADE? WHO MAKES THE PLOWS? WHO MAKES THE NAILS, AND THE HORSESHOES? ***breathes*** Sorry, I am just concerned about this town and its existence.

Final Civility Rating: -4, one for every job the innkeeper's daughter does.
Sincerely,
Ushnux

[Malk_Content]

Whose to say the town doesn't have a smith? No where in the book does it mention one way or the other. Its a GMs choice not to have one I guess.

[Salamileg]

The fact that everything is turnip related became a running joke in my game. "We have to save the town, because I can NOT spend another day eating turnips."

[NemoNoName]

Same for me, my players have a love/hate relationship with the turnip by now. It's both a bit of comical relief, but also a sign of just how run down and abandoned the town is.

[Biguds]

Hello there!

I'm GMing Fall of Plaguestone, and I can say that she just run the village inn / tavern / general store, and, some spoilers down bellow:

Village spoilers:

Delma's family is is related by blood to the village lord, that died just after the founding in a fire.
There is about 300 people in the Village, but nowhere is said that there is no generic shops or npcs that can make something if asked for.
The last priest died at the plague and the local Erastil shrine was left alone.
Lastly, the village main produce is turnips, as the bitter, corrupted soil is slowly killing the plants there.
A great deal of infos came from the hooks in the adventure backgrounds and minor quests and interactions with the npcs.

[Barnabas Eckleworth III]

I assumed the blight around the forest was keeping the dumpy village from prospering.

[Salamileg]

Barnabas Eckleworth III wrote:

I assumed the blight around the forest was keeping the dumpy village from prospering.

Partially, but that's a rather recent thing. The plague killing off half the population and scaring away a bunch more is one of the primary reasons.

[Puna'chong]

Yeah, I think the point is that you should be concerned for this town, and that it subsists off of turnips but is extremely reliant on passing caravans to survive. Those who remain are the ones too stubborn or broken to leave, or who think there's something salvageable.

It's basically one of those tiny towns surrounding a gas station in the middle of nowhere that doesn't do much more than have a couple farms and sell you gas.

[Misko]

Ask your GM if your cleric can set up a church to Abadar in town?

When I ran this one of my players played a champion of Cayden and was determined to build a tavern and brewery to encourage more caravans to stop at the town and to take some weight off of the general store.

[Greybird]

Historically, tiny towns like that usually relied on traveling tinkers to handle repairs and would buy specialty goods - like horseshoes - from traveling merchants. They'd buy enough to get by until the next merchant came through. If something broke, they make due without or their neighbors help them out. In extreme cases one person might make a trip to a nearby town to place an order for the whole town.

This is not historical, but the basis is, and still explains how a small village could function.

[JackieLane]

Also to be noted that elements of the adventure specifically call out that Bort goes to meet some crafters and that there is a market (though nothing mentions exactly what is in there and how many people frequent it). Therefore, I assume basic, non-magical, everyday items, especially ones that need to be replaced more often, must be available somewhere. That's at least how I'm going to rule it when I GM this adventure.