So I was actually sad they removed any references to him from CRPG(..probably for really dumb reasons involving romance), but while I'm not sure if Hardcover version will include him more, I was wondering if any has actually increased stronger presence for the Count in the ap either through players or your own content (or continuing campaign past final boss and having Count show up?) :D
I'm only in Book 2 at the moment, but I'm thinking about bringing Count Ranalc into the story in some capacity. Not sure what I'm going to do with him, but I like the idea of having some Shadow Plane creatures thrown into the mix.
Legendary Games' "Faerie Mysteries" Plugin for the AP has a Dryad variant, the Blackthorn. It's basically a half-breed between a Dryad and a Kyton from the Shadow Plane, which inspired me to let Nyrissa have some kind of dealings with Kytons, letting her acquire the services of a Blackthorn. Ranalc, as basically a godlike being living in the Shadow Plane, could easily have influence there.
The question remains, what would Ranalc want? And end to his exile, after untold millennia? A way to strike back at the Eldest who banished him? Just petty revenge against the Nymph who was his downfall?
Was Count Ranlac specifically in the original AP, or was he only alluded to? I seem to recall the latter. Whatever their reason for not specifically including him might also be related to why he wasn't in the CRPG.
Well, since Count Ranalc has disappeared, possibly killed by Nex, and he hasn't been on the Shadow Plane in millenia, you would have to create an explanation for his disappearance. Otherwise, I see no reason not to expand upon his inclusion into the AP. His worshipers still draw spells from him, so incorporating them might be a way to foreshadow it.
I mean he clearly isn't dead considering he still grants spells(though Worldscape does give implication of what might have happened to him), but yeah he was only in background of one npc in the ap. Either way, this is pretty important AP considering it explains his backstory, so I'm curious to see if anybody wanted to work him in :D
also:
The CRPG ignores mentioning Ranalc existing at all, probably because they didn't think of it being okay for Nyrissa to have ex boyfriend for the Nyrissa romance they added for some weird reason :P
Or he's dead and Nex took his power, so it's actually Nex granting Count Ranalc's followers spells now.
Or Nex in some way bound Count Ranalc to serve him, or put him into some kind of permanent magical slumber.
Perhaps Count Ranalc spent so much time on the Shadow Plane he has become a Kyton Demagogue?
If you were to work him in, I'd do so by foreshadowing some sort of interest in the Stolen Lands. Work in some people worshiping him. Maybe add some shadow fey creatures using the Shadow Creature template, along with some Shadow Animals.
For more specific ways to work him in:
Spoiler:
You could tie his banishment to Nyrissa's death. Perhaps when the Eldest exiled him, they said his exile would last as long as Nyrissa drew breath. To that end, he has worked through his followers and agents to find a way to slay Nyrissa.
Perhaps Irovetti is a double agent - pretending to be working for Nyrissa but actually serving Count Ranalc. He plots to use Briar to slay Nyrissa, but then the PCs take it from him and kill him, disrupting Count Ranalc's plans.
Of course, they still end up slaying Nyrissa, and Count Ranalc's exile ends. To thank them, he decides to use his army of shadow fey to conquer their lands and bring his demesne to the Material Plane, turning him into a final boss after Nyrissa.
You could even tie the disappearance of House Rogarvia to him. He empowered Choral with what he needed to conquer Rostland and Issia, then 200 years later he transported the Choral's descendants to the Shadow Plane so they could be sacrificed to help fuel his plan to open a breach into the Material Plane from which his armies could pour forth.
He made one brief but memorable appearance in my campaign. Like a lot of others have suggested, I worked Realm of the Fellnight Queen into Kingmaker and made Rhoswen into the daughter of Nyrissa and Ranalc.
There was a lot of buildup to the invasion, so even though the players hadn't heard of Nyrissa at this point they were familiar with the concept of the Eldest. I had Ranalc's sigil appear on the wardings on the Golarion side of the FellNight, letting them find out a little about him. It seemed to make a kind of sense that he was behind Rhoswen's imprisonment for dabbling in forbidden shadow magic - the other Eldest would have outright killed her, so locking her up instead was his way of saving her life.
The Druid PC had found the cursed ring from Rivers Run Red, which was woven from Nyrissa's hair, and tried Scrying on it. I decided that this lead to a vision of purple eyes, blindness for looking on a Nymph, and a spontaneous Wall of Thorns around the scrying pool. When they met Rhoswen I described her purple eyes - aha, here's our hidden foe!, the players decided.
Once the adventure was over & Rhoswen had been killed, the PCs all went home to their families - and I had the mysterious Count of Nochtepose waiting for the Ruler, in his private quarters. He had a Brevoy accent, and asked lots of pointed questions about what kind of a man the Ruler was, what he was willing to do to secure the Stolen Lands, etc. Lots of loaded questions. He let the Ruler assume that he was from Brevoy without stating it. He established a bond by asking about the Rulers kids, and assuring them that he had no intention of harming them, despite turning up in his quarters in the middle of the night - after all, he had once been a father himself.
When this conversation had run dry, he got to leave, then said it was a little odd - one parent to another - that the Ruler hadn't asked him why he'd said he had once been a father. The Ruler took the bait.
Ranalc did a speech I spend quite a while preparing about how his child had grown overconfident and overreached, but when her enemies came for her then had burned her fortress, took all she owned as spoils and cut off her head. At this point the penny dropped.
Ranalc had to admit that he had no call for a blood debt with the Ruler, as Rhoswen had started the conflict. But that did not mean he bore no animosity, and that he was the master of traitors, and the Ruler did have so many, many people serving him...
And as he left he got in one last dig, which was to comment that his daughter had her mother's eyes.
When this conversation had run dry, he got to leave, then said it was a little odd - one parent to another - that the Ruler hadn't asked him why he'd said he had once been a father. The Ruler took the bait.
Ranalc did a speech I spend quite a while preparing...
Very nice... :D I've decided not to use Realm of the Fellnight Queen into my Kingmaker campaign, because there is so much story to go through already. But maybe I should take a look at a shorter detour into Rhoswen as a sidequest/minor adversary.
For my campaign, I've adapted Dudemeister's idea of King Irovetti - both the Clockwork Dr. Doom aspect, as well as have him be opposed to Nyrissa. In fact, he is the main reason Nyrissa is actively looking for allies in the Stolen Lands, whether they're the Troll King, the Stag Lord, or maybe the PCs - she is worried the Clockwork King will overrun all of "her" lands, murder the Fey, and cover everythin in iron.
In any case, there's no reason why he couldn't be manipulated by Count Ranalc to do this in order to kill Nyrissa...
My group is just starting book 3, but Count Ranalc is how I currently plan to continue the story if the Nyrissa defeats the PCs. Here's the outline:
After Nyrissa defeats the PCs, she discards their bodies on the Material Plane. She finishes her ritual and traps the Stolen Lands in the bottle. She merges with Briar and trades the bottle to one of the Eldest, giving her a massive power boost. She then sets off on her next goal - freeing Count Ranalc from Nex, who's got him imprisoned inside the Refuge of Nex.
Sometime later, the PCs are resurrected by their kingdom with the help of powerful NPCs like Evindra. Now the PCs have to escape the bottle and defeat Nyrissa before she frees her lost love.
Fun Fact: Teleportation circle lasts 10 mins/lvl, or at least 1,700 rounds. Your PCs can arguably send a decent-sized army through one. You know, if they suddenly have a need to, say, defend a city thousands of miles away against a massive invasion of evil fey...
