I'm running a session zero (on Foundry) for some old high school friends this Friday, and I've been playing around with a better hook than the one given in the AP to get them to care about Otari.
I've seen lots of suggestions about starting with the beginner box or a Founder's Day Festival, which both sound really fun. My concern is that we will probably only get to play a couple of times per month, and both of those options feel like they will take a couple of sessions to even start the AP. (I may incorporate the festival later between chapter 1 and chapter 2.)
Instead, I was thinking about stealing from Carrion Crown and having them find Wrin Sivinxi's body somewhere (or having it found by an NPC). I'm thinking that Wrin saw the Gauntlight and went to investigate and got killed in the ruins. That would give players a clear hook to Gauntlight and maybe a reason to ask around town and get to know some of the NPCs.
Can you think of any big consequences to not having Wrin around for the rest of the adventure? (I could also have another NPC like Oeseph die). Also, any ideas on what it is that killed her? I was thinking that the Flickerwisp might make sense, but I also love the idea of making her more knowledgeable about Gauntlight and Nhimbaloth (again, riffing on Professor Lorrimor)-- so maybe she got to the chapel and was killed on the way out?
I also appreciate any other thoughts or suggestions you have on how to start out the campaign!
Wrin's fortune telling is a good benefit that the players will miss out on, but maybe they can take her Harrow deck and get the same benefits (similar to Curse of the Crimson Throne). She doesn't have much of a role beyond the beginning of the adventure.
When I started the campaign, I had each player contacted by an Otari NPC at the behest of Wrin, who called them together at night at her shop, did an ominous Harrow reading, and showed them the "glow" of the lighthouse. I had the glow be visible only to PC's with darkvision, to explain why everyone else in town thinks Wrin is a bit of a crackpot. That was enough of a hook to get the PC's on the trail, and let me seed in connections to the NPCs with sidequests!
Another take could be having Volluk kill her. Tie it in to the subquest searching for Lasda (the dwarf Volluk is using as an anchor for the Gauntlight).
The PCs get hired by Lasda's tavern-owning mom to find him, told that Wrin might be the last to see Lasda, and then they find her worm-eaten body (Volluk cleaning up witnesses). Asking around and someone might have seen a cloaked figure with a lantern skulking around her shop, in fact looking very much like the figure Wrin reported seeing walking away with Lasda awhile ago (they might find a note or diary in her shop). Where did they go? Well, they took the road to this old ruin just outside town..
Volluk is a great villain and using him as catalyst for the whole AP could be cool.
Oh, I love the idea of setting Volluk up early! He's so spooky in a way that could really draw the players in (and make the payoff for Lasda better).
I do really enjoy the Harrow/astrology angle from Wrin though-- she just seems like a fun character. I'm a little intimidated to run a Harrow reading online, but maybe I can use that to foreshadow Volluk instead, and then the characters can see him snooping around somewhere looking for a back-up in case Lasda wears out as an anchor.