Burnt Offerings plot hook for the Catacombs...what did you use?

[Sydeout]

So my party is about to enter the Glassworks and encounter Tsuto. I may or may not play him as the baddie in this encounter (I have read others who had him pretend to be captured by the goblins and then betray the party later...sounds more fun)

Anyway, RAW I don't see any reason for the party to explore the catacombs after they find the smuggler's entrance. There's nothing that has pointed them to further investigate down the hallway or think there might be more to the area. I can leave hints, clues in the areas, and they believe something bigger is at foot but at this point they believe this entire campaign is just a goblin invasion.

The catacombs is the first moment they fully realize there is MUCH more going on and I'd like it to be a moment for them.

What hook did you use to make this a big thing?

Did you add anything to flush out the lore?

How did you point the players to the runelords? And how did they figure out how to destroy the well?

I have ideas...but so many of you all have done this (some more than once) I am just hoping somebody has some things you added that made it even better.

Appreciate the community!

[Bellona]

(I've run RotR twice.)

For both groups, Kendra Deverin asked the party to map the newly-discovered tunnels underneath the town. "If the goblins got in that way, then the exit(s) need to be found and closed off!" (And it would be easier to do so from the inside if the outside of the exit is really well camouflaged.)

If you're referring the minor Runewell of Anger underneath Sandpoint, then neither of my groups' parties figured out how to destroy it. They didn't even manage to identify it really. Then they got distracted by Tsuto's notebook (which directed them to Thistletop). Then other stuff happened to them. :)

Brodert Quink is a good source of "wild" Thassilonian theories. I had a few of the PCs overhear him arguing with some of the more orthodox historians in town (in the bookshop's "café", but something like that can happen at other locations too).

As for the Runelords, the PCs' first exposure to the concept was the statue of Alaznist in the Catacombs. Next was Karzoug's damaged message underneath Thistletop. (I described the message as being like a hologram recording which was stuck on repeating a certain segment.) Of course, any mention of ancient artefacts (statues, etc.) would attract Quink's attention and he'd be ready to natter on about Thassilon until their ears fell off.

The only problem with Quink is that he doesn't know enough. Some things can be found out with higher Knowledge checks and good libraries. But it's been 10,000 years since Thassilon fell, and certain facts can only be found in actual Thassilonian libraries. Luckily for the PCs, they eventually gain access to one underneath Jorgenfist (which I re-named Jotunfist) during Book 4. (Unluckily for them, M. has already been through it and removed the details on how to find Xin-Shalast - much to the librarian's distress.)

I added some extra events to the Swallowtail festival, including Risa Margravi telling old Varisian folk tales to the kids. The more perceptive PCs noticed that the stories usually started with some variation on "An evil wizard lived in a tall tower ...". (This was a remnant of the time when the Varisians were oppressed/enslaved by the Thassilonians, but the truth was fragmented over 10,000 years of oral tradition.) If your group is already past the Swallowtail Festival, then they could hear Risa's stories either at her family's tavern (Risa's Place) or maybe during a story-telling contest at the Rusty Dragon.

If you haven't already found it in the community-created material thread, then you might get some mileage out of a selection of entries from an old diary of Nualia's (from before she set fire to things and fled to Magnimar). It depicts the miseries of her childhood, how she was seduced then abandoned by a scoundrel, mentions the sudden "outbreak" of anger in town, then her need to escape Sandpoint. I had my PCs find it amongst a pile of damaged books which had been rescued from the temple fire five years earlier.

For those PCs who had grown up in Sandpoint, I had a selection of pictures to show them what various NPC neighbours looked like. Among them was the picture of Nualia from Bastards of Golarion (the demure, shy teenager with a Desnan necklace). It made quite the impression when they met her in person later and I showed them the picture from the cover of Faiths of Corruption. (And the illustration of the Divine Scion from Inner Sea Magic.) "My goodness, Nualia, how you've ... changed." :D

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

My take on RotRL was rather unorthodox so my experiences are likely of limited use, but just in case:

* I played up the ancient and alien nature of the Catacombs, making sure to point out several sihedrons in the artwork.

* The PCs captured and thoroughly interrogated the quasit, which gave a few names but little else: Thassilon, Runelords, Wrath.

* the PCs were pointed to Mokmurain rather quickly through Nualia, and through him to Karzoug. I wanted a bit more of a connection between the early events ofthe AP and the later ones.

The rest of the lore and progression of events in my game was changed enough from the official that it will be useless to you, sadly. As a general piece of advice, once you get to the final battle I would encourage you to find as many nasty Transmutation spells as possible to give the impression that he really is a master of that school of magic.

[Askar Avari]

(I've run Rise once before)

I think Bellona's advice about how to get players into the Catacombs is a sound one - tunnels beneath the town can pose a significant threat, and that threat is greatly multiplied if local goblins have figured out how to get into them. If you're wanting to stick just to Rise, just ask them to identify the external entrance (how the goblins got in) and any other clear hazards. If you're wanting to use material from Sandpoint Campaign Setting Guide: Light of the Lost Coast, I'd recommend having Kendra or the city council commission the party to fully chart the Smuggler's tunnels, as well as try to discover how and when these tunnels were created in the first place.

However you run Tsuto, it's pretty imperative that they learn from him and/or his journal that he's working for Nualia who is currently at Thistletop. I do really wish the Catacombs could more effectively deliver this so it would have a more important connection to the rest of the adventure, but without too much adaptation on your part, that's Tsuto's job.

As for the Runewell: while my party learned what it did from Nualia's journal in Part 4, they didn't discover the method of destroying it until Book 4, when they got access to legend lore. People might have other ways of handling this, but most of my campaigns tend to become a lot more contextualized once legend lore comes online and allows people to start identifying any artifacts or ancient structures they've encountered. I don't allow essentially anything but legend lore, vision, or wish to provide that sort of information.

As for the lore... I did a lot for that. I recommend stopping by the Discord if you want to hear the various things DMs have done with that, but my angle largely involved the temporally displaced lamia of the campaign (Xanesha, Lucrecia, and Ceoptra, as well as my original creations) as well as a second Lamashtu faction opposed to Karzoug (who were more informed of the aftermath of the Thassilonian empire than its actual history, and included contemporary inhabitants of Xin-Shalast as well as a local witch coven). I also expanded on the Hellfire Flume quite a bit.

[Sydeout]

Appreciate the ideas!

I think I'm going with a dream sequence - different dreams for each player based on their personal sin count. (I have two very wrathful players that may be looked at as possible cohorts. Literally, one desecrates anything he personally defeats, and is playing a sociopath attempting to live like a "normal")

Others will glimpse past "late unpleasantness" atrocities and guide them to the bigger picture.

I love the idea of the Mayor conscripting them to chart the tunnels. it might be railroading a bit, but it'll come together.

It's all of our first time doing Pathfinder (technically doing Savage Worlds Pathfinder. 30 years of DnD lore is instinctual to us) so everyone is learning lore as we go. I don't want it to feel like homework however so many of the deeper histories are learned on the fly.

You all rock!

[Sunderstone]

A week or so late to this, sorry I missed this discussion.

As for getting Thassilonian lore to the players...
My group has a Bard who is a Sandpoint native that is also Quink's apprentice. As an adventurer, the Bard goes where Brodert can't. I'll leak stuff to the player as needed, etc.

Aside from that, they know nothing about the runewell below sandpoint besides how to render it inert via a great Sense Motive roll during the encounter with Erylium. Like Bellona above, my group got distracted with Tsuto and the possibility of a larger invasion coming. Belor (back from an unsuccessful plea to Magnimar for more guards) hired them as a further push to investigate Thistletop.
I'm toying with the possibility of filling in the blanks about some Thassilonian lore via Lyrie and/or Nualia monologues providing they get the chance. Also, Erylium escaped so depending on how stuff goes, I may have him squeal something like "They are the ones that ruined the Runewell" or somesuch to Nualia before battle. However, I'm a little worried about encounter difficulty of Nualia with Erylium (I'll have Nualia without Yeth hounds if the Quasit is there regardless but it could get deadly).
My Barbarian player had some use of the masterwork Ranseur from the statue in the catacombs before selling it to Savah's Armory. Behind the scenes I'll have Savah reach out to Brodert (while they are at Thistletop) about some of its markings out of curiosity or deciding on a resale value.
That will earn some of Brodert's ire towards his apprentice when they return, the Bard PC for not at least showing him the relic they brought up from below before selling it, but I'll use this to start a discussion with them with minor emphasis on the Sihedron symbol, Sinspawn, and some insight about the Runewell. If they don't realize that the time might line up with the late unpleasantness, I'll have Brodert suggest the possibility.