[Spoilers] Sweaty's Curse of the Crimson Throne Minis & Campaign Thread

[Keith Robinson]

Spoiler Alert: I'm going to talk about Curse of the Crimson Throne, show some minis I've painted, etc. In doing so I will reveal the plot and the characters of the whole adventure path, so be warned. If you're ever planning on playing in this game, just go do something else instead

After something of a hiatus I have started DMing again and decided to play Curse of the Crimson Throne. I'd run half of the AP before and was going to just run the second half, but in the end started from the beginning anyway. One of the advantages of doing this is that my understanding of the AP is just that much greater this time around and I've tried to use that to create a better game experience - at least, one where the players have a better understanding of the plot and the NPCs.

In running this game, I also decided to pick up my paint brushes again. I've pretty much always used pre-painted DDM, but have always had an inkling to paint my own collection. When I ran this the first time around, I painted around 20 or so minis and they turned out better than I was expecting, so this time around I wanted to try and paint as many of the NPCs and monsters as I could. I'll be posting pics of those as I go too.

 

[Keith Robinson]

Some initial thoughts on getting Curse of the Crimson Throne started.

The campaign starts with the PCs going after a local hoodlam, Gadren Lamm. While they do so, the city erupts into violence with the death of the King. This opening scenario creates something of a problem for the DM, as the opening section itself isn't very long and is likely to be dealt with by the PCs in the course of hours, which makes the eruption of violence seem rather forced and unrealistic.

I dealt with this by making some initial changes. Instead of having the PCs go directly to the Old Fishery, I instead had them scout out a local market where Lamm's pick-pockets were known to be operating. After picking out the young urchins, they then followed them to a hide-out where there were a couple of Lamm's thugs. I used this opening not only to set up the first encounters with Lamm's gang, but also to start introducing the notion of the impending violence. Regular Spot checks revealed columns of smoke appearing from distant parts of the city. At first it was little more than probably a house fire, but as they progressed first with this encounter and then with their journey to the Old Fishery, with more fires breaking out, it was clear to the PCs that something was already amiss. By the time they had dealt with Lamm and returned to the city streets, the mayhem seemed far more organic and more in-keeping with the PCs expectations.

For any DMs, setting the seeds of the forthcoming anarchy before the PCs actually enter the Old Fishery makes for a much better flow to the story. Of course, you need to make sure that the focus is on Lamm (you don't particularly want them wandering off at this point, though if they do it would be a good opportunity to just keep building up the sense of tension) so there shouldn't be anything too explicit - but a little bit of planning in this opening section goes quite a long way to helping the AP get going.

 

[Keith Robinson]

I used this Reaper mini for Yargin, one of Lamm's thugs in the Old Fishery. I modified it slightly so that they encountered him with Lamm in the underbelly of the Old Fishery, along with Gobblegut. He managed to get off a couple of blasts from his wand, just to humiliate the party wizard!



http://www.keithrobinson.me/reaper-stieg-brinegrog-pirate/

 

[Keith Robinson]

One of Lamm's sidekicks was a vicious gnome called Hookshanks who liked to dress up as a child and bully the human children, as well as attack unsuspecting PCs of course...



http://www.keithrobinson.me/reaper-cadwalon/

 

[Keith Robinson]

Giggles was the third member of Lamm's gang at the Old Fishery - a lunatic half-orc who pretty much found everything amusing, especially when a couple of the PCs decided to forego the wooden platform and stairs and just threw themselves off it instead. Both failed their checks to avoid damage, much to Giggles' amusement!



http://www.keithrobinson.me/reaper-kanaag-half-orc/