Hi everyone. I'm currently working on rewriting Book Two of Kingmaker 1E, Rivers Run Red. I have a couple of issues with the AP, though, and I'm in the process of rewriting different sections of it to address those problems.
Here there be spoilers on a 12-year-old AP.
The first problem is that Nyrissa sort of comes out of nowhere. There's a lot of stuff tied to her in the lore, but not a lot that the PCs will typically see. To fix that, I've invented a backstory in which the Eldest cursed Nyrissa by breaking her soul into three parts and imprisoning them in different demiplanes, each accessible from somewhere in the Stolen Lands. The Dancing Lady represents Nyrissa's desire for adoration, The Fellnight Queen is her hubris and desire to rule, and The Weeping Woman stands for her mourning the loss of Count Ranalc. Soulless Nyrissa herself lives on in Thousand Breaths. In Book Two, the PCs will encounter The Dancing Lady in place of the Giant Owlbear BBEG.
I also wanted to replace the trolls with a villain that's a bit more active. I settled on the Stroud Sisters, a coven of green hags from the River Kingdoms. They were called in by Nyrissa to pay back a favor. They'll be both more active than Hargulka and more subtle antagonists.
I've set it to allow comments but not editing, and I'm looking for feedback on the lore tweaks and on encounter changes. The two dungeons (Candlemere and The Court of the Dancing Lady) are still in the concept phase, but most of the rest of the adventure is ready to be looked at. Also, feel free to borrow ideas if you like it.
Thanks!
My version of RRR was greatly expanded as well, a few major changes.
Before I go into the changes, I should mention that I combined parts of the Ironfang Invasion AP into Kingmaker, and the module Down the Blighted Path.
The first change is that the Dancing Lady's tower lair is now Fort Ritsin from Fangs of War (Book 2 of Ironfang), and she has a much larger force.
I also wanted to add a dwarven presence to the region to add another race of allies to the fledgling kingdom later.
In a nutshell...
The Narthropple Expedition's only survivor Jubilost is looking to recruit help from the fledgling kingdom's assistance on behalf of his trade partners, the Dwarves of a far off Darklands town. The Dwarven outpost (area R) was overrun by Hargulka and his Trolls, forcing the remaining survivors to split into two groups. One group escaping into the Darklands, the other group, cut off from their kin, fled to the old abandoned elven fort (area G, see below). Their plan was to regroup and possibly seek help from the new surface kingdom they have heard rumors about through their contact and long-time trade partner, Jubilost Narthropple.
The dwarves managed to get a message to Jubilost, warning him off of meeting at their outpost, and that they were temporarily holed up at the old elven fort (area G, this site is replaced with Fort Ritsin from Fangs of War, book two of the Ironfang Invasion AP) until reinforcements were dispatched from their homeland to deal with the Trolls.
The dwarves that fled to the fort had no idea that it was occupied by the Dancing Lady and her minions. They also have no knowledge of any evil fey let alone Nyrissa or her plans for the region. Narthropple arrived too late, most of his Dwarven friends were killed (replace all the dead Cernasardo Rangers with Dwarves) and he was the only survivor of his own expedition to bring the survivors relief supplies. Narthropple wants the PCs to check the fort for survivors and drive away it’s current evil residents.
The Dwarves become a permanent ally of the kingdom (brokered by Narthropple of course) if the PCs liberate their outpost later from Hargulka as well and destroy the Dancing Lady and her agents.
*** extra notes- The Dancing Lady retains a precarious leadership role here because the Korreds and other Fey fear the Grimstalker and her Quickling, Rigg Gargadilly. She allows the Revel to continue as a reward for slaying the Dwarven refugees, as well as keeping Halk Grundlechar’s ego in check as he considers himself a "Fey Warlord".
The second large change was to be the dwarves that fled below into the darklands (Down the Blighted Path module) running into trouble with the earth fey Zohir that has taken over Firebrand's Redoubt which cuts off the dwarves from reaching their home city and getting reinforcements. In this case, it would be Hargulka's trolls just clearing the outpost for another fey commander's occupation (Zohir from the module). Basically the Dancing Lady is waiting on Zohir to further reinforce fey presence in the region. Furthermore, Rigg Gargadilly is the brother of Vashana the Swift (in Blighted Path module).
*** extra note- Down the Blighted Path skips the whole festival portion and starts when the PCs finds Erna Stoneheart alive as a prisoner of the trolls, or among the dead dwarves (possibly one of the Bone Legion reanimated dwarves). She will have a map pointing to Firebrand's Redoubt and a journal stating that the redoubt was taken and she had planned to temporarily gather the forces at the outpost (which the trolls sacked) to retake the redoubt.
Once the PC's freed Firebrand's Redoubt, the dwarves can help the fledgling kingdom as allies with the route cleared to their city below.
As a side note, I was using almost all of Ironfang #5 as well. I added a large, blighted forest to the map and I was using Arlantia as Nyrissa's younger sister helping the efforts but eventually turning on her by stealing Briar for herself to kill Nyrissa and rule in her stead. Also Rhoswen from the Fellnight Queen module (mixed with Varnhold as well), is a double agent pledged to Nyrissa but working for Arlantia, etc.
Irovetti would have a much smaller role if any, with the PCs heading to Prisoners of the Blight (Ironfang 5) after the tourney in war of the river kings to recover Briar.
Hope my tweaks give you some ideas.
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Thanks for the ideas! I haven't read through Ironfang Invasion at all, so it's new territory for me. In fact, the last time I was really focused on the Dancing Lady was when the author of Down the Blighted Path was making up Coryphae for RPG Superstar, or shortly after that, so I wasn't really aware of either as fae-heavy adventures. I'll have to check them out.
I really like how you used Down the Blighted Path. When I was reading it a couple of days ago, I wasn't sure how to use it. Thanks for the ideas!
Thanks, I just wanted to break up all the above ground exploration within the first two chapters with a quick darklands excursion. To balance out the added length, I removed some of the filler hex encounters and transplanted the loot elsewhere. Zohir being fey was icing.
Ironfang has a heavy fey presence. Books 2 and 5 in particular. Irovetti's castle is a little too tedious with a bazillion rooms, so after the tourney and abbey they head into Prisoners of the Blight (Ironfang 5). I'd use almost all of it minus any mention of the Ironfang legion, sardonyx shard, etc.
Happy to help. :)