| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
I have a problem that might resonate with a few people here: my players know the story. Between playing the game and hearing stories about this classic adventure, they know everything Nyrissa has in store for them. Of course, they're great players, and aren't going to metagame with that knowledge, but my favorite part of GMing is player theorycrafting and end-game payoff when they realize you had something planned the whole time. So, I'm going to homebrew a lot of changes, and I'm hoping the people here can help me!
The below is inspired by several dozen posts from the 1e Kingmaker forums and various blogs, some over a decade old, so many I can't credit all of them - but I'd like to shout out DaddyDM's post mortem, Erik Freund's Venture Capital, Dudemeister's Monster Kingdom, and Redcelt's Game of Thrones. There's one post I couldn't find that suggested the Golushkin dwarves were in on the Vanishing, but I can't find it. Additionally, a looot of this is inspired by the various tips and hints hidden around the Paizo books intended to inspire your own creation.
My intentions with this are:
1. Deprioritize Nyrissa and make her less of the sole catalyst. Rewrite Chapters 10 and 11.
2. Bring back Choral the Conquerer, and solve the Vanishing and Skywatch's closure.
3. Upgrade Vordakai and Irovetti to be more integral (Vordakai more entrenched, and Irovetti less tied to Nyrissa).
4. Play up the civil war in Brevoy, the Mivonese Aldori, and more of the River Kingdoms.
5. Involve Yog-Sothoth's cult more directly.
6. Because one PC is a Golushkin dwarf/Garess scion, I want to involve Toval and the missing Golushkin clan, potentially related to Hargulka's dwarven ruins.
7. Because one PC is a changeling who wants a Calling storyline, I want to involve the Knurly Witch.
8. Potentially remove the entirety of Chapter 5 due to player lines/veils about diseases.
9. Tie the companions' adventures more directly into the plot.
This is...a lot. Maybe (definitely) too much. But I'm gonna try?
1. Deprioritize Nyrissa
She's going to be less of a final villain and more of a mid-game villain. She lives in the Thousandvoices forest rather than Thousandbreaths. Rather than the plotline of the Apology, her heart (Briar) is merely being held by Irovetti, and immediately after the players retrieve it, they can return it to Nyrissa or attempt to slay her with it.
So what is Nyrissa now, what're her actions and whats her motivation? I...don't really know, to be honest. As mentioned in point 8, I'm removing the Bloom entirely (very cool but not a great fit for my players). She's influenced the Stag Lord and Hargulka, but I'm not sure to what end.
2. Choral the Conquerer
Rather than Thousandbreaths, I want the ultimate extraplanar threat to be the return of Choral. Based on several clues in the books, and fan theories in several threads, I'm ruling that the Choral is indeed himself a red dragon. His original disappearance a century ago was to create his own demiplane in the Lake of Mists and Veils (similar to Thousandbreaths). For whatever reason, the demiplane is crumbling now (as evidenced by the Rogarvian artifacts appearing in the Lake, as of Lost Omens Legends)
To try and keep his demiplane intact, he uses ancient cyclops magic which requires him to sacrifice suitably royal blood, which is infused with the divine energy of those who are ruled. Ruthlessly, he sacrifices his own bloodline, thus causing the Vanishing of House Rogarvia. But because the Rogarvians ruled through fear rather than by respect, the ancient ritual didn't hold together long. By the time the players' kingdom has become a nation itself, he needs another sacrifice, one of royal blood who's subjects love them (a sort of parasitical divine magic), and turns to the player kingdom to sacrifice (though whether or not the players are playing noble heroes or tyrants doesn't matter).
As for Skywatch's closure, I'll list my ideas more in point 6.
3. Vordakai and Irovetti
How do we make these guys more integral than single-chapter villains?
For Vordakai, I think he's been awake for longer than the start of the campaign, over a century. He's trapped by Choral's magic, kept bound to his lair and magically restricted until Choral needs him. The ancient cyclopian magic that Choral uses was taught by Vordakai under duress. By chapter 6 though, Vordakai has gained some more freedom, enough to take over Varnhold. It seems like Varnhold's Vanishing mimics the Rogarvian Vanishing, though the whole town is taken rather than just a bloodline - perhaps only the Varn bloodline was used in the magic, but the rest of the townsfolk are just phylactery fodder. We can use this as hints for Choral as the final boss.
As for Irovetti, I...don't know. He's already a menace. Maybe the Rushlight Treachery could happen much earlier, staking him as military events earlier on so the PCs can use their armies. I will need to read the chapter more closely. But I do want to keep him in hold of Briar, and use Chapter 8 as a climax for Nyrissa's story. Perhaps afterwards, even Nyrissa could become an ally.
---
I've got some more notes to get out my brain and onto paper, so I'll continue this another time. I'd extremely appreciate any notes, opinions, ideas, or links to threads for anything above! Thanks!
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Thank you so much phntm, I think that's a great idea putting Nyrissa in a bit of an ally side. My party has already met faeries that know of her, and the baron seems interested in asking her about marriage, and even mentioned to me after that he didn't mean for it to be a joke. I might actually work on a sort of using-romance-as-manipulation subplot.
---
4. Civil War
Since Chapter 5 as written is not great for my players, I'm going to use that time to play up the civil war in Brevoy. It's pretty interesting to me, and it'll give me a chance to keep some elements of war in my rewrite.
Essentially, I'm going to use the materials in Game of Thrones and Venture Capital (both linked above) to have the players meet and get opinions of the noble houses in early Chapter 4. Angered that the Swordlords are sending the PCs into the Stolen Lands and hoping to gain a flanking position over the Aldori, the noble houses try to overtake the PCs by sending war parties, spies, and other plots.
What are these plots? I...have no clue. Depending on how the PCs ally with the different personalities, I can see a number of different ideas.
* Enemy Surtovas send spies to try and hobble the kingdom, and assassins to take out key members, aided by Lodovka torturers. They then try and send their own invasion force, despite the concequences with the neighbouring Aldori or Orlovskys.
* Toval Golka of House Garess tries to befriend the party regardless of alliegences; they're using the party to capture Hargulka's dwarven stronghold, which holds secrets to the whole Choral thing. More about this in point 6.
* House Medvyed wants peace. Enemy Medvyed use their druidic magic to spy on the kingdom and...well, I'm not sure.
* Same with House Lebeda, not sure what they're really gunning for.
* Enemy Swordlords send another group to begin a kingdom of their own, this time loyal to the Swordlords and enemies of the PCs.
As for the actual meat of Chapter 5, I'm imagining murder mystery plots, armies entering ther Stolen Lands, mercenary attacks, the beginning of wars happening in Brevoy that require player intervention, as well as stuff in the next point.
5. Yog-Sothoth's Cult
Yog-Sothoth is an Outer God of gates, space, and time. The fact that Candlemere exists in the campaign makes me want to weave this in, despite being kinda outta nowhere?
My idea: Choral the Conquerer is a worshipper of Yog-Sothoth. Or at least, he is now, as he saw an aspect of Yog within the Skywatch observatory. Canonically, we don't know who built the massive observatory, nor do we know ultimately what happened to the nearby cyclops, but for my game those are linked. Choral got the ability to create his own demiplane on the Lake of Mists and Veils from that event.
I'm still piecing everything together in my mind, but in general I want Candlemere to be a more important location. The rites at the bottom are what the PCs use to challenge Choral's return.
In addition to the above in Chapter 5, I'm going to take some of the plot with the Cult of the Bloom and instead change it to the Yog-Sothoth's cult, doing something to try and find and take over Candlemere. Nobody knows that Candlemere is where Yog's cult is centralized, including any Pharasman allies the PCs might gain. The Black Tears additionally are linked to Yog's cult (replacing the Cult of Gyronna that the Black Tears bankroll in chapter 4)
6. Golka Clan
As listed in Game of Thrones (linked above), Toval Golka has a long term plan to take over the duchy. He's going to assassinate Duke Garess and frame House Lebeda, and attempt to ally with Swordlords left over in Lebeda territory.
In addition, I think the clan is planning more of a major thing. They're also seeking Hargulka's dwarven stronghold, believing it to hold some of the secrets to Choral's disappearance. It's possible they're going to be a big player in Choral's return - either as an ally or enemy of the players.
This is something else I haven't yet thought of entirely. I'll try and think more before next post.
|
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
While Hargulka's Monster Kingdom is an awesome addition. For stories regarding Candlemere and Yog-Sothoth, I recommened checking out my Varnhold Vanishing additions and changes which a kind poster named plober has collected in PDF form www.drive.google.com/file/d/0B-cUeHm0w4XQQ2R2MnAzMFBua1k
I also created a short adventure set in the tower the Rook of Talon Peak is nesting on.
Hopefully you can take some inspiration from there.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Dudemeister, these are amazing! Thank you so much for bringing these to my attention, I must have completely missed them while browsing the original forums.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
While Hargulka's Monster Kingdom is an awesome addition. For stories regarding Candlemere and Yog-Sothoth, I recommened checking out my Varnhold Vanishing additions and changes which a kind poster named plober has collected in PDF form Varnhold Vanishing Additions and Changes
I also created a short adventure set in the tower the Rook of Talon Peak is nesting on.
Hopefully you can take some inspiration from there.
Fixed the links.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Good to has both links, DM_aka_Dudemeister, for both the Varnhold Vanishing additions/changes pdf that you did- which got later 'pdfed' by plober- and the Rook of Talon Peak short adventure out there... both of them available for PF1e. :)
PS. the Rook of Talon Peak did have an issue of needing to sign in to download but the printing option worked just fine. ;)
When I click on these links it just takes me to a Paizo shopping page that says my shopping cart is empty. Can someone help? Thanks
I tried to fix them, but they keep not linking correctly. There must be a code issue from earlier in the thread. Even Dudemeister's 2nd post where he said he fixed the links has at least one bad link.
These forums are so old, y'all.
To reach the documents, copy and paste the links in Dudemeister's first post in this thread into a new browser window.