This is a spoiler-filled resource thread for the Wardens of Wildwood: Shepard of Decay Book 3 of the Wardens of Wildwood AP.
We have done a total of 30 hours of prep work between all 3 books now. It's finally over, and I for one am relieved. It's been quite a journey, and the discussion I've shared with the community here on the forums as well as on foundryvtt discord and pf2e discord, and others have been uplifting. Thank you all.
I am extremely interested to see what other DMs have been doing to prep the adventure, please find below our joint prep sessions with Ironbear and Niktorak
Chapter 1: For the Rootweft!
https://www.youtube.com/live/OWd-VrIUMGs
Chapter 2: Cradle of Knot
https://www.youtube.com/live/eyF9U0NOeG4
Chapter 3: Ruin and Renewal
https://www.youtube.com/live/e_c1MTW_d-Y
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Andrew White Okay! I have to start with the usual disclaimer that everything I have to say here only reflects my personal opinion unless specifically noted otherwise and is absolutely not Paizo-official in any sense. That being said:
Writing the first volume of a three-part Adventure Path is a little weird, because part of your job is to lay the groundwork for a much longer story that may or may not play out in later volumes the way you’re imagining it might, and that’s even before taking into account all of the different choices that the players could make. All three of the writers for this AP were provided with a basic outline which laid out the main events in the story before any of us started writing, and we did have a couple of conversations while I was writing my volume and theirs were in their planning stages, but I don’t know anything about what specific instructions they might have been given that weren’t in that outline, or what could have been in their original turnovers that ended up needing to be changed significantly or cut for space. In other words, when it comes to talking about the story of this Adventure Path as a whole, all I can really do is provide insights based on how I personally envisioned everything playing out, which is not necessarily how it actually did, or even how it was intended to. (This is absolutely not a value judgment on any choices the developers or the other authors made, by the way; the stories contained in those other volumes were theirs to tell, not mine, and I think they all did an awesome job.)
As I saw it, Wardens of Wildwood has a couple of major themes:
This is civil war, with everything that implies. This a story about a society of people and creatures who were deeply divided on a specific issue but who mostly managed to function harmoniously in spite of it – until they didn’t. One thing I wanted to make sure I incorporated was the whole brother-against-brother trope which is a classic component of civil war stories, which is why I gave the PCs the opportunity to gain reputation with and potentially befriend NPCs who were destined to become villains later in the story or just end up as collateral damage. I originally had notes in the section about Inrik Vanderholl recommending that GMs go out of their way to encourage the players to like him, just so it would hit harder when they potentially had to fight him at the end of the book.
This war was always going to happen, and the circumstances that actually started it are barely important in the grand scheme of things. I mentioned in my original response that I had intended for the inciting incident that killed Valenar to be driven by a personal grudge that had nothing at all to do with the Verduran-Andoran-Taldor conflict, similar to the way World War I was effectively started by some random idiot who had nothing to do with any of the global powers that would eventually go to war over his actions. (In retrospect, I wish that I had emphasized that more; it might have been interesting to suggest that each GM running the adventure make up their own lone nutjob instead of scattering breadcrumbs pointing to a story resolution that, as it turned out, would never actually come.) The whole point of the Greenwood Massacre is that there is no immediately obvious perpetrator, and that by the time the PCs figure out who’s actually responsible (if they ever do), everyone has already picked sides and there’s no way to stop what’s coming. A whole lot of people were already looking for an excuse to fight, and now that they have it, there’s no going back.
Everyone thinks they’re the hero. The original outline was a little hand-wavey on exactly who or what was responsible for Ruzadoya’s return other than implying that it was somehow “primal” or “elemental” in nature, but in my mind, she was never Zibik’s Chosen, or Nature’s Vengeance, or anything other than just another undead monstrosity reanimated by her own hate, and despite the fact that her graveknight armor is made of wood, she’s just as much anathema to the natural world as any other undead being. Because she died meaninglessly in a random tragedy before she could act on her strong convictions regarding the Treaty of the Wildwood, though, she’s unable to accept that, instead choosing to believe that she must have come back for some Greater Purpose and blinding herself to the reality that her actions are wreaking more destruction on the forest she supposedly champions than Andoran or Taldor ever did.
Alliances matter. One of the reasons there are so many influenceable NPCs in Chapter 1 and assistable NPCs in Chapter 2 is that I envisioned opportunities for the PCs’ relationships with them to factor more into later books, with their willingness or ability to help being affected by how effectively you had assisted or influenced them. What I didn’t take into account is that this becomes a problem in execution, because it’s hard to justify devoting much page space in those later volumes to relationships that the PCs might not actually have established in the first place. (I don’t know for certain that this is why most of those NPCs didn’t play a larger role beyond Book 1, but it would make sense.)
Bramble The thing that sticks out in my mind the most looking back at the story is that Vandalya Swiftmane, who is introduced with her sister, shares such a minor role in all of the story. This to me was such a missed opportunity…
Andrew White Vandalya wasn’t in the original outline; I made her up because I thought it would create some cool story/roleplay opportunities and tie into the whole brother-against-brother theme (sister-against-sister, in this case), but I didn’t actually have any concrete plans as to how that would play out – in fact, when I wrote the sequence with her potentially joining the PCs at the end of Chapter 3, I included a note saying that I didn’t actually even know whether she was being truthful or would eventually betray the PCs, and communicated as much to the author of Book 2 when we were talking about NPCs that could carry over. I do agree that it would have been cool if she’d played a larger role, but since she’s not guaranteed to join the PCs at all, I can understand why she didn’t (see “Alliances matter”, above). There’s certainly nothing stopping GMs from using her however they want, of course.
Bramble Zibik already knows Ruzadoya is undead but still talks with her anyway. He knows she isn’t part of the cycle and that he didn’t have any connection with her, and her forces are killing his speakers. I saw your response that they were never meant to be associated with one another, yet she seeks him out directly to convince him to come and destroy the two countries.
Andrew White I wouldn’t necessarily claim “they were never meant to be associated with one another” so much as say that the outline we were all working from was fuzzy on the details of what their relationship was supposed to be, and didn’t provide much beyond stating that Ruzadoya would have learned about Zibik from the Ghoran artifacts she’d uncovered and decided to seek him out in order to try and convince him to destroy civilization. I can’t speak for the intentions of the other writers, but I do feel like the finished result is still pretty vague on that point if you’re willing to recognize that a lot of the NPCs in this adventure are unreliable narrators. Ruzadoya wants to have a special connection with Zibik because that fits neatly into the hero narrative she’s created for herself. He’s a powerful demigod of nature with the power to level the civilization she’s sworn to destroy; surely he’s the one who brought her back, probably as part of some grand plan which just so happens to dovetail with what Ruzadoya herself wants.
As for Zibik himself, I feel like he largely just … doesn’t particularly feel strongly one way or the other about mortal affairs. Additionally, because he’s so strongly associated with the cycle of death, decay, and rebirth, he doesn’t even particularly see the killing of his speakers as a dealbreaker because, well, it’s all part of the cycle. Ruzadoya is obviously not a part of that cycle, but Zibik doesn’t seem the type to get bent out of shape over that the way, say, Pharasma would. Similar to when the PCs encounter him at the end of Book 3, he seems like the type to at least consider what just about anyone has to say, as long as they’re not openly hostile and willing to show him some measure of respect.
Bramble I feel like this was an attempt by an editor to try and tie things together at the last moment to justify that part of the story. Was the production and finishing of the module offset by the all hands on deck rush for the ORC and what was happening in response to get the remaster out?
Andrew White I wasn’t part of the development process, but I doubt it. There are a few mechanical oddities here and there that may have been a side effect of the books having been originally written with OGL material and then converted to ORC compatibility later, but I don’t think there’s any reason to think it affected the overall story. I think a few things may have been cut for space that might have provided some additional context or clarified some lingering questions, but that’s unfortunately a necessary evil of trying to fit a lot of material into a predetermined page count.
Bramble The connection is mentioned between Ruzadoya and Zibiki too many times to dismiss at the end where it says there was nothing to connect them, characters mention that they are connected, reinforcing it throughout the story and the descriptions of the chapters keep mentioning it. It feels like an editor had a hand in misleading the DM constantly for the sake of keeping us invested in something that never pays off or sees a satisfying conclusion for that major story beat. I’m just confused at this point.
Andrew White Yeah, I get that. (I definitely don’t think it’s something to lay at the editors’ feet, though; they’re great at what they do, and what they do is edit TTRPG material.) I do agree with you that it would be narratively unsatisfying to outright dismiss the connection between Ruzadoya and Zibik after it’s been such a major theme of the rest of the story, but that’s not really what I’m suggesting. I think it’s equally powerful, if not moreso, to have the villain’s great and meaningful destiny built up over the full length of the adventure, only to discover at some pivotal moment that it’s all a lie. Think of the revelation in “The Last Jedi” that despite all of the hinting in the previous movie that Rey had some mysterious and powerful lineage, she’s actually just the daughter of two random vagrants of no importance whatsoever. (You know, if they’d stuck with that and hadn’t immediately undone it in the next movie.)
Bramble The back matter of book 3 is an absolute wealth of possibilities, but knowing it will take a year or more to reach this point of the campaign a lot of them seem like let downs. Having the entire campaign restart was mentioned, and I just shuttered at that one. What is in your opinion the absolute best ending for Wardens of Wildwood?
Andrew White If we’re willing to accept my “Ruzadoya isn’t special and is in fact the antithesis of everything she believes she stands for” premise, my ideal headcanon ending would involve the PCs forcing her to face the truth and driving her into an existential crisis, resulting in her destroying herself – which, as you may recall, she promises to do in her big speech to the Conclave in Chapter 3 of Book 1 (foreshadowing!) The PCs still need a boss fight, of course, so the final encounter would remain more or less the same, only instead of dying at 0 hp, she makes a last-ditch attempt to channel the blight from the labyrinth around her in order to restore her strength, threatening to corrupt the conduit she and Zibik have established between the Plane of Wood and the Universe in a way that would spread Ayzrul’s Blight into the Verduran Forest itself. This would provide the PCs (or potentially Vandalya) with an opportunity to leverage their prior relationship with her to make her see what she’s become – or, alternatively, to convince Zibik that she’s a dangerous abomination that needs to be stopped even if what she’s told Zibik is true, whereupon he destroys her himself.
Once Ruzadoya’s gone, I’d play things out as written, only without the loose end dangling of what happens to her armor. All Adventure Paths do have a canon ending, and I don’t know what this one is supposed to be (it may be one or more of the PCs assuming control of the Lodge), but having someone like Vandalya take over would be an interesting development, assuming she’s had some time to develop as a character.
Bramble Was there anything about Ruzadoya you would have added now that you’ve seen the adventure complete?
[/b]Andrew White[/b] In retrospect, I wish I’d found a way to give the PCs more opportunities to forge a relationship with her while she was still alive. I’d also probably have tried to flesh out Vandalya a bit more and allowed her both to distinguish herself as a character and to provide some deeper insight into Ruzadoya’s motivations. Mostly, though, I’d have liked to explore the idea that she was so desperate to attribute some purpose to her own meaningless death that she’d deluded herself into believing she had some grand destiny, and was failing to notice even as it destroyed everything she’d held dear in life. There are a lot of ways we could have foreshadowed that, even while continuing to feature NPCs who believed Ruzadoya’s own hype.
Bramble Why would the Druids obey this order knowing full well they’d lose their powers in doing so? They really feel helpless depending on someone who is so obviously against the things they are meant to protect and conserve. My personal feelings aside from everything else, the anathema is the one thing I cannot overlook.
Andrew White One of the goals specifically mentioned in the outline we all received was to dig a little deeper into why it’s forbidden for druids to teach Druidic/Wildsong to non-druids, with the implication being that it’s just flat-out dangerous to do so, as detailed at the end of Book 3. As to why the druids in Book 2 would violate their anathema to do it anyway – it seems entirely plausible that they’re just true believers who are willing to sacrifice their own power for what they consider to be the greater good. After all, they’ve already compromised some of their ideals to join Ruzadoya in the first place, and compared to some of the atrocities they and the rest of her followers will have already been party to by this point, this one’s pretty minor in the grand scheme of things.
Bramble Because of your effort in reaching out to us and answering our questions made the experience that much better, and gave a lot of us clarification on things that constantly came up that we were confused with. I really hope Paizo does something where you or a position can come to fruition that the community will stand to benefit from having more transparency like this, even if it isn’t in an official capacity. You’ve been a champion sir, thank you for everything you have done for us.
Andrew White I’m glad I could help! I put a lot of work into writing my volume and thinking about the overall story of the Adventure Path, so I’m definitely motivated to do what I can to help anyone who’s playing through it get more out of their experience. I don’t think it’s really something that’ll likely ever become official – especially in the case of an Adventure Path, since no one person can ever reliably speak to the intentions of three writers, a development team, and all of the people in our creative department who were responsible for the idea behind it in the first place – but I’m certainly happy to share my own insights on projects I’ve worked on, as long as it’s understood that they’re just personal opinions that don’t necessarily reflect those of the company as a whole or any of the other people involved in the creation of the adventure. James Jacobs, one of our Creative Directors and the original creator of Golarion, has a whole thread on our forums where he answers questions like this, and while even his answers can’t be considered official lore until they show up in a print book, they’re still a lot of fun to read!
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Andrew reached out via Discord after my Book 1 written review went up to provide extra context then left us an open channel to ask more questions as needed. This is one of the three responses we got back.
Huh is that an interview or ama? :O
I reached out to Andrew after completing the entire prep so I had a complete idea of what else to ask him. I couldn't see wasting his time with all he was willing to help the community with, and the questions I had asked in Book 1 were enough to go on with Valenar the Green's assassin not being named.
I was looking for the ideal ending for the campaign from his standpoint as well as some other details. Learning Vandalya wasn't even in the original outline hit me pretty hard as she was among all the npcs who stood out to have an impact on the plot.
I did ask for an interview on the stream, but he turned me down saying that he didn't want to be regarded as an expert on Wardens of Wildwood AP, and avoid people misconstruing his unofficial answers for official ones like the kind that appear here on the forums in he who must not be named lore's thread. The guy who keeps telling people about his secret project, that isn't so secret.
These are great. I think we should keep the feedback of the information we get from non-Paizo workers rather possitive to encourage them in the future, it is amazing to have this insight. Thanks for taking the time to do this and post it.
I wish the framework for this AP had had a little more possibility to bring all their ideas to fruition, definitely interesting read and helpful to those that want to build upon it.
As someone who has taken other APs and built from them long, more ambitious campaigns any crumbs go a long way!
Interesting thoughts from Andrew White. If he's the same person that is responsible for working with Sigil on the premium foundry modules, my compliments to him and the people he works with!
This adventure path tied in nicely with Howl of the Wild, but during the development stage, someone should have set the context of this AP to come from the Taldor or Andoran point of view. That is, of securing peace by exterminating radical druidic and fey elements disrupting the flow of lumber to their nations.
People are attached to Golarion and want to participate in the "hard decisions" nations have to make, and if that means sacrificing a few people to prepare for a global war, that's just how the cookie crumbles!
Failing that, I suppose a more straightforward premise of defending the Verduran forest from the "uncaring societies" would have met some people's expectations of the AP.
Personally, I appreciate the nuanced storytelling, and the unpredictability of conflict and democracies. The AP was original, and that's what matters.
I will always push for more connective tissue between product lines, and for future rulebooks, I'd like more context, flavor and background for the Adventure Path it's associated with. For example, loved how Impossible Lands had these Geb generals that we didn't meet in Blood Lords but a GM could sprinkle in. As long as the content doesn't repeat itself but instead complements each other, I appreciate the effort and coordination.
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Interesting thoughts from Andrew White. If he's the same person that is responsible for working with Sigil on the premium foundry modules, my compliments to him and the people he works with!
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He is! He's splendid to talk with, and because of our feedback to him we got a map for Tern Hill that doesn't appear in the printed module despite the massive battle that takes place there. It's a really well done structured map too that lets you have the entire battle take place in each section or use as a big RP map. He's put a level of care and dedication into the foundry modules that deserved the 5/5 stars I put in the review of his work of Book 1. He really went the extra mile to listen to all of us and respond to our feedback.
Unlike some others who stated our feedback would not see the light of day, and then derailed our criticism and discussion with excuses; Andrew was the first to tell us, unofficially of course, the OGL did not affect this product months ago. I'll happily post that conversation as well if Niktorak doesn't get to it first.