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I am about to start a play-by-post Carrion Crown campaign, adapted from Pathfinder 1e to Pathfinder 2e Remaster rules. This campaign is something of a passion project for me; I was that kid who really, really wanted to play in a Ravenloft game growing up and in college, but never got the chance to. Carrion Crown has always whispered to me.
Let me apologize in advance, this is going to be a pretty long read.
To this end, I have lived vicariously through frequent visits to this forum, dozens of visits to F. Wesley Schneider’s blogs about this adventure path, reading games on the Paizo pbp forum (particularly Jamzilla’s crews), listening to multiple fun podcasts (especially the incomparable Hideous Laughter), and by making maps (some of my roughest of drafts have been posted online). I am aware that Carrion Crown, for all that I personally love it, has its flaws. Since I am an irreparable over preparer, I have tried to develop a two pronged approach to counter some of these issues. Most of the details to follow impact the first two books, but that is fine by me because it will take me forever to get through that material anyways, so I have plenty of time to figure out what I can change
I am planning on introducing some important NPCs at the funeral: Adivion Adrissant, Embreth Daramid, Horace Croon, Kvalca Sain, and Quinley Basdel. I have taken to heart the need to introduce the primary villain early in the campaign, and the funeral is the easiest opportunity to do so. However, I also do not want for Adivion to stand out too much, or it will basically be a giant red arrow screaming “Big Time Villain Here!” All five are former adventuring partners of the Professor at different stages of his life, so they know of each other but are not familiar with one another. Adrissant will also be a former student.
Adrissant and Basdel will speak at the funeral after Kendra Lorrimor, to add a little bit of interesting background for the Professor. Promptly following the funeral, Daramid will receive a brief communication via a Sending spell requiring her immediate return to Lepidstadt due to the arrest of a prominent wanted figure (the Beast). The other four will attend a brief reception following the reading of the will. The players will be able to interact with the four NPCs, and can also overhear interactions between them. Most of the NPCs will leave town quickly, the exception being Adrissant who will remain in Ravengro throughout the entirety of Haunting of Harrowstone. During this time, in the background, I plan on building a romance between Adrissant and Kendra.
The only foreshadowing I plan to provide about Adrissant will be a very brief snippet where Sain addresses him with respect, instinctively sensing on some feral level that Adrissant is a powerful predator in his own rights. To do anything more will likely result in him being identified as the villain, as I think my players will already be suspicious of the standoffish nobleman. I plan on him being a free “Aid Another” each day of the research process, which I am adapting to follow the Research Subsystem. Adrissant will continue to be a source of assistance in Trial of the Beast, where he will assist the investigation and even be willing to serve as an expert witness, a sort of “monster expert.” In my campaign, Adrissant will have been such a legendary duelist during his time at the University of Lepidstadt that he will given sort of a hero’s welcome, much like when a star athlete visits the campus of the college he once played for.
The amazing letters from “A” will start arriving at the end of HoH. As many other GMs before me, I am shamelelessly borrowing this idea. I, like many others, plan to do everything I can to lead my players to believe Auren Vrood is the mysterious “A.” Another letter will be delivered following the trial. After the events at Schloss Caromarc, a third letter will be found at the site of Adrissant’s burned down townhouse. It will look like both he and Kendra were murdered (I think it was Jamzilla’s games that gave me this idea, but if I am wrong, please, somebody, correct me). I think this idea is the best way for me to have the party lose both their helper and emotional anchor, while at the same time angering the player characters at the deaths of their friends. Adrissant’s story arc will largely carryout as published in the books, but with a steady stream of letters and the reveal that he is in fact “A” (and quite alive) at the end of Broken Moon.
I do plan on one of the members of the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye in Caliphas during Ashes at Dawn to reveal that Adrissant had just been in the city a short time before, and that he was accompanied by a “beautiful, pale lady, the child of a legendary member of the Order from out in the boonies.” This, of course, is going to be Kendra. I plan on her story following that of Arazni, with her being turned into some sort of undead creature. She will be a partner in Adrissant’s crimes, but is definitely a coerced partner. The party will discover in Shadows of Gallowspire that the only way to free her from her current condition is to destroy her. She will be all apologies as she fights viciously against the party alongside Adrissant. I think this will make her a tragically gothic character in the end.
The second change I intend to make is to increase the presence of the Night Heralds beyond the weird events of Wake of the Watcher. It is my vision that the first four books of the adventure path be a three way struggle between the Order (represented by the player characters), the Whispering Way, and the Night Heralsds. In HoH, Antrellus the Mad (a Legendary Games npc), the Piper of Illmarsh, and Hean Feramin will all be members of the cult, and the two of them that speak will make sufficiently creepy and vague taunts, both will hint at the Seasage Effigy already being liberated and soon to be returned to its rightful owners, and of the impending doom that will bring Golarion. I will also create research points for the Night Heralds, though they likely will be delivered slowly by Adivion as the party returns from visiting Harrowstone.
Vorkstag and Grine will be the local leaders of a Night Heralds cell. They have been harvesting souls for for decades. This supplements their cadaver stealing business. Their goal is to steal so many souls that Nhimbaloth or Xhamen Dor will become aware of Golarion for a moment, and that the majority of the planet’s residents will be insane by that glance. They have been using the Beast and the local dueling scene to conceal their own crimes. Vorkstag is no longer a Skin Stealer and will now be a Young Conspirator Dragon. The reason they did not ever steal the Seasage Effigy themselves is that it can be dangerous for an “awakened mind of insufficient power” to be in the presence of such an insanity inducing relic. Luckily for them, Auren Vrood has sufficient power to be safe. I don’t know what I am going to do to replace their mongrelmen servants, but I am currently leaning towards bugbears, as they seem the sort to join a serial killer cult. I might even be able to spin in the shrieking madness of Char Gar Gothakon, the beast that hath no name, into the story.
As an aside, I plan on there being a conversation at some point where Adrissant attempts to persuade the characters that the Night Heralds are the real problem, and that the Whispering Way are not that bad.
The Demon Wolves will no longer worship fiends and will now worship the Mythos. I do not have this fleshed out very much in my mind at this point, but I am years from needing a plan for this set of villains.
After Wake of the Watcher, I do see the Night Heralds as being reduced as a threat to the point they are no longer a serious menace to the party. They will be limited to a couple of petulant ambushes during books five and six. At some point, I do want there to be a fairly big three way brawl between the different factions in my campaign. I think it will be interesting for my players to watch some of the bad guys kill each other.
I also intend for there to be some give and take, where the players are offered information by the Night Heralds about the Whispering Way (and vice versa) for the party to mull over.
I feel like I am forgetting half of my ideas. I think I have the bones of an interesting campaign here, but I just wanted some feedback from all of you. Is this too ambitious? What are some ideas I could add to put some more flesh on those bones? Where are the glaring plotholes I am overlooking?
Any feedback will be greatly appreciated!
Ooh, there's some really neat ideas in here. As much as I liked Kendra growing alongside the party and following them (first to Lepidstadt, then joining the Esoteric Order and moving to Caliphas to study at the Quarterfaux Archives), I'm entranced by the idea of making her a tragic puppet boss fight that mimics Arazni's descent into the void.
I never spared much thought re: the Night Heralds, but connecting several minor villains together by affiliating them with a rival cult that's just trying to do its own business in the background with the Whispering Way's rise to power is kind of genius, actually. It carries the minor risk of muddying the waters re: what's actually going on and who is the main villain, but if you trust your players to follow, it also stands to make the world feel even more alive that the death cult you're fighting is also catching heat from a doomsday cult because they want to end the world in mutually conflicting ways and so have to work around each other. Especially Vorkstag and Grine as cultists works better to tie them to the overarching plot rather than just being a couple of serial killers on scene.
For the question of the mongrelfolk, an idea I've grown attached to is a creature from Bestiary 3. The umasi, also called harvestmen, are a people whose cursed bodies are immune to healing, so they harvest organs and appendages from others to survive. They're not generally malicious, avoiding killing and harvesting from dead bodies when possible. Only thing you'd need to adjust is dropping their level (from 6) and they'd make almost ideal henchfolk for V&G to have overpowered and pressed into servitude for their skill and menial labour, and they even share the patchwork appearance of the Beast. In canon they live in the Mwangi Expanse, but you could easily change them to living in the Darklands.
I can't see any glaring plotholes at a glance, although those always have a habit of showing up in the places you weren't looking. Only thing is I feel like Horace is very old and has an awful long way to go to attend the funeral. It's still a good idea to include someone from each book, but Illmarsh feels especially insular and isolated. That aside, without any better ideas, Croon or somebody representing him is as good as any.
Oh, this is a trivial plot question, but if the party do end up staying the full month in Ravengro per the will, it might seem strange that the situation was holding in stasis the entire time from when Daramid was called back. The university is still in shambles when the players get there, and the crime scene being held. This might make sense for a couple weeks, but would be harder to justify a whole month.
(Easiest way to fix this would be to change the timeline on the will, or else have Daramid stick around for longer and then leave later. Perhaps she was subtly fending Adivion off from Kendra, sensing he might take advantage of Kendra's grief to insinuate himself, but duty calls so she hopes that she held him off long enough for Kendra to have her feet under her)
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The idea with Daramid at the end is really good. And, I honestly had not considered the crime scene at the university. I know that real life crime scenes have been kept intact for prolonged periods of time, but, you are correct, a month seems excessive. I definitely need to put some thought into this.
I think I overlooked the university crime scene as part of my plot rewrite because, for some reason, the theft is not even part of the trial. I could always have Daramid stall the cleaning up of the scene, but, a month does seem like way too long. Thank you for finding this!
Part of my rationale for the time that passes between the funeral and the arrival of the party in Lepidstadt is that the prosecution is building its case, collecting evidence, and gathering witnesses over that time.
I feel like in the prosecution's mind, this crime scene is almost irrelevant. It's just how they caught the Beast, but 'stole a random artefact' is by no means a glamorous crime to indict the legendary Beast who has killed his own creator, menaced the poor burghers of Lepidstadt, and haunted the wastes for as long as anyone can remember (never mind that 90% of these stories are 'a friend of a friend' or spurious rumours that crop up every time a sheep goes missing for more than a day).
In any case, the AP seems to assume in general that the Whispering Way beat the party to each locale by about two weeks. Two weeks might still be a bit strange to keep the entire department of antiquities on lockdown, but it feels reasonable enough. As you say, the prosecution needs time to build its case.
Of course, it might come up that the prosecution isn't even charging the Beast with the break in, yet chooses to leave the crime scene up, but I feel like we can turn to the sheer spectacle again. Of course the prosecution is insisting on keeping the crime scene open--every single person who passes the university can't help but be reminded that they've finally caught the Beast. This is the administration that is going to prosecute the bogeyman that has haunted many people's dreams since they were children. Come gawk at the damage the monster inflicted and then come watch us burn it for its crimes
(of course, it might still be good to subtly remind the party of their obligation to stay with Kendra for the whole month when Daramid leaves--by week 2 they could very well be almost done Harrowstone and excited to rush off to Lepidstadt to see where this plot hook leads. If you feel your players would be too eager to rush off, you might waive the 30 day requirement and have Daramid leave within the first days as you plan (they may very likely be done the prison within a couple weeks unless you stall them) or you might simply try to time it so that Daramid's sending takes her away when you know they're almost done, but with enough time that they don't feel it's too urgent of a hook to ignore. Or on the mutant third hand, I suppose you could even implant some minor task after Harrowstone is done that takes the remaining weeks. Maybe Kendra needs help packing to move so there's no reason to rush to Lepidstadt when they're going there anyway.)