Adventure #2 and The Perfidious Devil... [SPOILERS]

[EugeneZ]

I read through adventure a week ago and ran my first session. Needless to say, it's excellent, but that's not what this topic is about.

So. Kazyk. When I first read the adventure, I skipped the Introduction and so missed the section on Kazyk. What I read about him in the story acts made me assume he was Kurychek the Imp from Scouring. I did a little mental "huh" at the change to devil but assumed I had misunderstood something. I was sure this guy was Kurychek.

Turns out he's not?! But his mission is NEARLY identical, he's ALSO on a contract, and to boot, from the SAME inquisitor (Guthwulf). What is going on here? If they are the same, why is one a devil, the other an imp? And why is no mention made of the connection? If they are different, why is there no mention of the sudden stack of contracts Guthwulf seems to be rigging up? Overlapping contracts, at that?

In Scouring, Kurychek actually escaped from the PCs after he tried, several times, and unsuccessfully, to obtain the case (even empty). So I'm going to turn Kazyk into Kurychek in this adventure. I'm going to pump his stats a bit from last time and basically make him into Kazyk in everything but name (and appearance).

I'd love it if Steve, or someone else close to the adventure path, could clarify the situation and maybe provide some helpful advice that you folks are so great at doing (my thanks for that). If anyone else has a good idea about what to do in this situation, I'd love to hear. Finally, if you haven't run Kurychek in your Burning Sky campaign yet, this thread should help you to bridge the gap as well and maybe prepare for Kurychek's escape. Him hounding the heroes in Adventure #2 is much cooler than getting killed. Imps are smarter than that. Escaping, dissapearing forever, and some other devil taking his place, is no better, in my opinion.

Thanks for reading.

 

[RangerWickett]

Well, in the original 3.5 version at least, I wrote adventure 1, and Jacob Driscoll wrote adventure 2 based on an outline I gave him, which I think just said "Ragesian pursue the party." He came up with Kazyk, and made him a great sort of sleazy enemy who acts like he respects you and wants to be your friend. (When I sent in the art call to Claudio Pozas, I asked him to make the devil look like a particular international political figure.)

I never thought of connecting the two devils. I wanted to set up Guthwulf as a recurring antagonist who keeps sending devils after the PCs. A low-level one in the 1st adventure, more powerful in the 2nd, and yet another in the 3rd, and so on until eventually the PCs finally encounter him in adventure 8.

The idea was, at first he doesn't care about the PCs, and he's just sending an imp to perform an easy mission. Then that falls through, so he contacts an infernal tracker to send after the PCs to complete the mission where the imp failed. When that devil screws up, he decides to go for subtlety when he tries to get the case one more time in adventure three.

After those three failures (assuming the PCs do actually manage to thwart the devils), the PCs officially show up on the Ragesians' radar as a minor annoyance. A few Ragesians would know who they are, but since the case has already fallen into resistance hands by that point, it's not worth sending more devils after them, so Guthwulf gets reassigned.

In the 3.5 version, adventure 6 has a scene where Kazyk might return if he survived his previous encounter with the PCs, but it wasn't actually my intention to have the devils be recurring characters, but rather to have foreshadowing for Guthwulf later on.

 

[merchantsteve]

Ah... The problem with Kurychek. I think I need to consult with Guthwulf on that. He's in a horrible mood right now, something about Seaquen from what I gather, so as soon as I am sure his claws are resheathed, I'll ask him.

 

[merchantsteve]

Whew!!! Guthwulf himself decided to answer!
I was actually going to mention the level differences myself. In adventure 3, if Kazyk is still alive, he gets some small treatment and adventure 2 discusses his pursuit after events are resolved in the fire forest. Kurychek may still be in Gate Pass (because he can't teleport), or causing trouble with some dwarves in adventure 1 and is imprisoned. The possibilies are endless...

 

[EugeneZ]

Thanks for the replies.

Hmm.... now you guys have me re-thinking making Kazyk into Kurychek. That does clear things up. I think it would have helped if the section on Kuychek and Guthwulf's summoning of him mentioned that Guthwulf was specifically replacing the previous imp, who had apparantly failed, whether he returned with an empty case, was killed, or escaped.

Speaking of which... luckily, I am not in this situation, but the PCs have 1,000 XP on the line if they figure out to give the empty case to Kazyk. What if they already did so in adventure #1? I'm guessing Kazyk's instructions from Guthwolf would close that loophole, making him a much less interesting character...