Changing up The Dying Skyseer (Major Spoilers!)

[skotothalamos]

I'm going to be starting The Dying Skyseer in about two weeks. The problem is, about half of my group played in my online game which got as far as the fight with MacBannin at his mansion, so those three players know all about von Recklinghausen, "Detective Porter" and Reed MacBannin. They (fortunately) did not discover that Cillian Creed was the man they were after; they just know that von Recklinghausen did not kill Nilasa, "Detective Porter" is a shadow-powered changeling, and that Reed MacBannin is in charge.

As they were not very good at roleplaying people who did not know what was going to happen in adventure one, I'm going to throw them a curveball by changing up some of the three things they know.

Here's my angle. Let me know what you think.

Cillian Creed is behind the whole thing. Two choices here:

1. Reed MacBannin has been dead for years, with Creed taking on his identity to do everything ascribed to Reed in the adventure.
2. Reed MacBannin is completely oblivious to what is being done in his name by Creed, who takes MacBannin's face to set up all the Ob operations.

I really like 2, as I can have actual MacBannin talk to the group before they head up Cauldron Hill, and then Creed-MacBannin deal with them thereafter. Perhaps only one of them wears an Ob ring. Will anyone notice? Probably real MacBannin would have to be killed off/chained up when the constables get too close. I'll insert Creed into any spot in the future that should be taken by Reed. All it takes is one letter!

Additionally, the Porter / von Recklinghausen duel and pursuit: I'd like to switch this up quite a bit. What if Porter is now an actual detective and von Recklinghausen is Creed? Maybe Creed (in von Recklinghausen face, just stealing the face of someone he saw that day) gets the papers from Nilasa? I think that falls apart, as there would then not be a reason for most of the von Recklinghausen plotline (Creed could just face-change and go back to MacBannin's manor). At least making detective Porter an actual Flint PD detective, though, simply tracking down a murder suspect, could probably go a long way. The repeating players would be completely suspicious of him if I insert him somewhere (maybe vR's hotel?).

Not sure how much this would help. Looking for ideas, if anyone has them.

 

[Isklexi]

The switchup with MacBannin would work without you having to do much editing of the plot down the road. I say go for it.

I don't think you should switchup Recklinghausen. He is a recurring character in a later adventure and ties to another important NPC in "Always on Time". If you cut out the real Recklinghausen, it makes him less memorable when the PCs meet with him again later in the campaign, and it could cause confusion over whether NPCs are talking about the real guy or Creed in disguise.

 

[RangerWickett]

Well, if Macbannin isn't in charge of the operation, then the witchoil laboratory would almost certainly not be located within the grounds of his manor. But perhaps it could be elsewhere on Cauldron Hill.

Honestly, have you considered just skimming over this adventure to get to new content? Did the group already track down Gale and deal with the smugglers? Maybe you could combine adventure 2 and 3 (if that's not too complicated).

Start with the party investigating Gale, but have them forced to do security work for the arms fair. Nilasa could have died months earlier -- she might have not made it to the edge of the consulate grounds when she jumped, so the local authorities never got involved. There are still protests and fires going on, but that's in the background as the party gets pulled into the adventure of Digging for Lies. The golden staff of the Ancients just got stolen by one of the workers at Macbannin's laboratory, and . . . hm, this is getting more complicated than I thought.

When they reach the sunken ziggurat, one of the people working for Caius Bergeron can point them toward Macbannin, explaining that they delivered the items from the High Bayou ziggurat to him. It could fit together, keep the players on their toes, and avoid boring the people who are new to things. But it might be more work than it's worth.

 

[DonTadow]

I like Rangers idea. Changing the plot just for the shock value doesnt feel like its going to be worth the payoff if it complicates things later. (including the handout dosier). Perhaps starting out at the trial of mcbannon. You can begin with the pcs at the corthouse, forced to testif against mcbannon for what they know. (since hey've gone through i). Then the incident happens and that launches the next phase of the campaign.

Another idea, if your pcs are bad at role playing information they don't know, then why not allow them to know the information and play off of that. How many times has superman knew the "law abiding" lex luthor was up to something but had no evidence to back it up. Perhaps macbannon knows hat the three pcs have a hunch and in turn use his resources to keep them at arms length.

 

[RangerWickett]

Heck, it's The Dying Skyseer. Maybe he actually got in trouble because he publicly announced a vision that Macbannin was up to no good. It's not legally-admissible evidence, so perhaps the PCs (or the other RHC constables) are ordered to investigate him and find out whether it's true.

And of course, they don't find anything, because Saxby doesn't want them to.

 

[skotothalamos]

Honestly, have you considered just skimming over this adventure to get to new content?

I was actually thinking of just starting everyone with Digging For Lies, and folding the first play into the history of the game, but I didn't want the new players to miss out on saving the Coaltongue, meeting the Duchess and Lya, meeting Gale, Kell, Quital, and von Recklingausen, and the fight on Cauldron Hill. I like my players and their characters to have the same referents to call back to.

I like the idea of smooshing adventures 2 & 3 together. I'll have to look into how much work that will be. Fortunately, the spoiled players missed all the smuggler hooks the first time around, and I skipped the fight with the Cloudwood Brigands, so there are plenty of new things to throw in.

The three main things I want to avoid are making a false suspect of von Recklinghausen for too long, dragging out the "Detective Porter" scheme, and delaying the discovery that Macbannin is up to no good. Perhaps I'll just let the group catch up with von Recklinghausen quickly, and have PorterCreed show up just as they're questioning him. Could go smoothly (for Creed), but will probably turn into a fight.

Then I just have to drop some leads to Macbannin early so everyone is in on the "welp, this guy's up to no good, but we need to cooperate with him to get Nevard to the top of Cauldron Hill" game.

Hmm... we'll get it sorted.