My players, GTFO. I doubt you know about this forum, but just in case. Angelhelm, Dimitri, Erabare, Les Aalmoste, and Therinzino... find something else to read please.
This is less of a ‘help, what now’ post, and more of putting thoughts together and explaining my group’s path in adventure 1. There’s a conundrum at the end, but first off, wonderful adventure path from RangerWickett and co, and thanks for always chiming in on these threads! I’ve gleaned a TON of detail from reading your posts. Ditto with Arkwright and Zeitvice. You both really helped flesh out the campaign world tremendously. Definitely looking forward to the new book in a few months. Took a while to chew through the full AP / Zeitvice / a few hundred forums posts… but I think I’ve got a pretty decent grasp on events. We started with 5 and currently have 4 players. Might pick up another player in a few weeks, but I’m enjoying 4 (but it gets iffy if anyone is MIA). It’s an online game through D&D 5e / Fantasy Grounds / Discord, so not quite as open as in-person, nor as insanely detailed as play-by-post. We're running weekly sessions that are two hours long, so things are slow going... but having a blast with the AP.
The first module was mostly played straight. I wanted a better way to tie the module into the AP, so a member of Nathan’s family ‘let’ him find hints that Danor was building powerful weapons on Axis Island, he warned the duchess and got her a key to the teleport circle. I expect they'll be some geas-trickery there so the player's can't delve too deeply into that plot point (they're treating it a bit like a red-herring, ha!). I introduced Nilasa Hume & the threat of Heward’s factory getting firebombed early, and one of the PC’s contacts mentioned the wand smuggling operation. Those two will develop once they return to Flint. Hopefully Adventure 2 doesn't feel as scattershot that way.
I did not kill the other team. Delft told them back in Flint the 2nd team would follow and help out, but that Lya had given the missions to the PCs, so they needed to do their bit. They also knew they needed to find the right spot to use the Passwall scroll (find a Danoran engineer). The other team followed them into the sea cave and were separated when the rocks fell. I gave the party 24 hours on the island before they needed to open the sea gate, so they tried to recruit some Danoran’s after meeting Nicolas. They saw a few sites, had a running fight with a massive golem which accidentally led them straight into a fight with a Duchess patrol (party and patrol fled, that Golem is nasty). They met up with the other team outside the Fort, where the other constables had discovered where to place Passwall (the player’s did a pretty bad job there). The other team decided they had to trap the teleport circle so the Duchess couldn't bring in reinforcements, and were knocked out by the existing trap while trying to disarm it. Gave them a chance to shine / took them out of the picture / and let the player's feel like things really hung on what they did.
The players had a serious love / hate relationship with Nicolas Dupiers. They went from wanting to break his legs at the end of the Genius Loci encounter to… as they left the island asking him to “help them mend ties with the Danoran’s on the island”. Lt. Hessar Marseine hopefully taught one of my players that laughing at other’s misfortune can seriously bite you in the rear… the player ended up apologizing for being so rude to a wounded POW after the Lt. goaded them into it. My players delivered their first coupe de grace to Gillie Dhu… I gave him his 4e ability for his melee hits to push players through hedges (wounded players do NOT like being split up and attacked while racing through a maze).
Amazingly, the player’s actually let the Asrabey conversation run through almost to completion (the Duchess never got her last paragraph out). They hid behind the door until Asrabey threatened the Duchess, but snuck in so everyone could keep talking (quite polite!). They toppled the telescope on Asrabey (seriously, the earlier versions are worth a read) who put his shield into play which scared the hell out of my players. One player took a death grip on the Lion-headed shield and decided to snap mage cuffs on it (I let them know that wasn’t how it worked… but rule of cool-wise it was clever enough I had it shut it down). They got the shield away from him, which lowered his AC enough they could actually land hits (OOC they knew plate armor meant his AC was high). Two players fell, Asrabey killed the Duchess, and one player decided to use their Hat of Disguise to look like Nathan and convinced Nathan to run away. Asrabey followed, took Nathan from the player (he never lost line of sight, so wasn’t confused), and the player shot / downed Asrabey as he ran towards the teleport circle.
The players (in their opinion) succeeded wildly and failed pretty drastically. The Duchess was dead, they had Nathan who they felt was pretty worthless, and a wounded Asrabey in cuffs. They had an hour+ long discussion once Asrabey fell and they got everyone stabilized. At first they were convinced it was a plot from the King to kill the Duchess, then they figured it must have been a ploy from someone in the King’s circle since the King wouldn't try to kill his sister, I doubt they’ll realize it was all Nathan's family anytime soon.
Rather than turning the island back over to Lya they decided to task Nicolas (they really loved that old guy) with telling Lya what happened while they fled the island with one player disguised as the Duchess, and Nathan and Asrabey in custody. They buried the Duchess on the island (convinced if people believed the Duchess was still alive it’d confuse whoever was pulling the strings in Risur).
They tried to question Asrabey on the boat ride home, who let them know he was married to Kasvarina who been MIA for a decade+, and he re-iterated why he killed the Duchess but I think they conflated his hunt for his wife & killing the Duchess, so will have to re-explain in the next session (It was getting really late). They really hated Asrabey at the end, but knew he was an ambassador and couldn’t seriously threaten him. They ID’ed all of his magic items knowing they’d have to return them in Flint, but couldn’t make head nor tails out of his sword (I will add Srasama’s other swords into the AP as we go along).
Onto my actual question! Sorry for the insanely long-winded post, and thanks to anyone still reading
The players hid the Duchess'es body in a hastily-dug grave on Axis Island (eugh), put both Nathan and Asrabey on the ship that was waiting to take them back to Flint after the rest of the navy evacuated the island. They did their level best to avoid any real conversation with the Risur Navy once the Duchess fell... They did not meet with Lya / learn that she was to marry the King / have Lya wish Nathan well and hope that she could meet him again at the wedding. The player with the hat of disguise did wander around as the Duchess enough that the navy believes she’s still alive… but that should all fall apart almost immediately. The higher-ranking officials in Risur will probably be scrying Axis Island to ensure the handover went as planned (they’re trying to stop a war, after all). What -should- happen sorta robs the players of their agency. Someone should sending them after a day or two telling them to free Asrabey. A retinue of the King will likely meet them on the docks, wish Asrabey well, and Saxby (introducing her early) will chew them out for causing a diplomatic faux paus and screwing everything up. Just… not sure I want to rob the players of what they’re trying to do (as silly as it will likely be). I can't imagine word won't get out that the Duchess has died before they make it back to Flint.
Anyone still reading, thanks again! I robbed blind a few fellow forum-posters newspaper clippings (thanks, and sorry Meigeall and others), and re-tooled them slightly for my party. Also made a Coaltongue guest list (all of which my players pretty much ignored). Since most are cribbed / robbed from others, feel free to use any of them if you like. I'll likely keep making / stealing newspaper bits going forward, and will try to post them as we continue.
This is less of a ‘help, what now’ post, and more of putting thoughts together and explaining my group’s path in adventure 1. There’s a conundrum at the end, but first off, wonderful adventure path from RangerWickett and co, and thanks for always chiming in on these threads! I’ve gleaned a TON of detail from reading your posts. Ditto with Arkwright and Zeitvice. You both really helped flesh out the campaign world tremendously. Definitely looking forward to the new book in a few months. Took a while to chew through the full AP / Zeitvice / a few hundred forums posts… but I think I’ve got a pretty decent grasp on events. We started with 5 and currently have 4 players. Might pick up another player in a few weeks, but I’m enjoying 4 (but it gets iffy if anyone is MIA). It’s an online game through D&D 5e / Fantasy Grounds / Discord, so not quite as open as in-person, nor as insanely detailed as play-by-post. We're running weekly sessions that are two hours long, so things are slow going... but having a blast with the AP.
The first module was mostly played straight. I wanted a better way to tie the module into the AP, so a member of Nathan’s family ‘let’ him find hints that Danor was building powerful weapons on Axis Island, he warned the duchess and got her a key to the teleport circle. I expect they'll be some geas-trickery there so the player's can't delve too deeply into that plot point (they're treating it a bit like a red-herring, ha!). I introduced Nilasa Hume & the threat of Heward’s factory getting firebombed early, and one of the PC’s contacts mentioned the wand smuggling operation. Those two will develop once they return to Flint. Hopefully Adventure 2 doesn't feel as scattershot that way.
I did not kill the other team. Delft told them back in Flint the 2nd team would follow and help out, but that Lya had given the missions to the PCs, so they needed to do their bit. They also knew they needed to find the right spot to use the Passwall scroll (find a Danoran engineer). The other team followed them into the sea cave and were separated when the rocks fell. I gave the party 24 hours on the island before they needed to open the sea gate, so they tried to recruit some Danoran’s after meeting Nicolas. They saw a few sites, had a running fight with a massive golem which accidentally led them straight into a fight with a Duchess patrol (party and patrol fled, that Golem is nasty). They met up with the other team outside the Fort, where the other constables had discovered where to place Passwall (the player’s did a pretty bad job there). The other team decided they had to trap the teleport circle so the Duchess couldn't bring in reinforcements, and were knocked out by the existing trap while trying to disarm it. Gave them a chance to shine / took them out of the picture / and let the player's feel like things really hung on what they did.
The players had a serious love / hate relationship with Nicolas Dupiers. They went from wanting to break his legs at the end of the Genius Loci encounter to… as they left the island asking him to “help them mend ties with the Danoran’s on the island”. Lt. Hessar Marseine hopefully taught one of my players that laughing at other’s misfortune can seriously bite you in the rear… the player ended up apologizing for being so rude to a wounded POW after the Lt. goaded them into it. My players delivered their first coupe de grace to Gillie Dhu… I gave him his 4e ability for his melee hits to push players through hedges (wounded players do NOT like being split up and attacked while racing through a maze).
Amazingly, the player’s actually let the Asrabey conversation run through almost to completion (the Duchess never got her last paragraph out). They hid behind the door until Asrabey threatened the Duchess, but snuck in so everyone could keep talking (quite polite!). They toppled the telescope on Asrabey (seriously, the earlier versions are worth a read) who put his shield into play which scared the hell out of my players. One player took a death grip on the Lion-headed shield and decided to snap mage cuffs on it (I let them know that wasn’t how it worked… but rule of cool-wise it was clever enough I had it shut it down). They got the shield away from him, which lowered his AC enough they could actually land hits (OOC they knew plate armor meant his AC was high). Two players fell, Asrabey killed the Duchess, and one player decided to use their Hat of Disguise to look like Nathan and convinced Nathan to run away. Asrabey followed, took Nathan from the player (he never lost line of sight, so wasn’t confused), and the player shot / downed Asrabey as he ran towards the teleport circle.
The players (in their opinion) succeeded wildly and failed pretty drastically. The Duchess was dead, they had Nathan who they felt was pretty worthless, and a wounded Asrabey in cuffs. They had an hour+ long discussion once Asrabey fell and they got everyone stabilized. At first they were convinced it was a plot from the King to kill the Duchess, then they figured it must have been a ploy from someone in the King’s circle since the King wouldn't try to kill his sister, I doubt they’ll realize it was all Nathan's family anytime soon.
Rather than turning the island back over to Lya they decided to task Nicolas (they really loved that old guy) with telling Lya what happened while they fled the island with one player disguised as the Duchess, and Nathan and Asrabey in custody. They buried the Duchess on the island (convinced if people believed the Duchess was still alive it’d confuse whoever was pulling the strings in Risur).
They tried to question Asrabey on the boat ride home, who let them know he was married to Kasvarina who been MIA for a decade+, and he re-iterated why he killed the Duchess but I think they conflated his hunt for his wife & killing the Duchess, so will have to re-explain in the next session (It was getting really late). They really hated Asrabey at the end, but knew he was an ambassador and couldn’t seriously threaten him. They ID’ed all of his magic items knowing they’d have to return them in Flint, but couldn’t make head nor tails out of his sword (I will add Srasama’s other swords into the AP as we go along).
Onto my actual question! Sorry for the insanely long-winded post, and thanks to anyone still reading
The players hid the Duchess'es body in a hastily-dug grave on Axis Island (eugh), put both Nathan and Asrabey on the ship that was waiting to take them back to Flint after the rest of the navy evacuated the island. They did their level best to avoid any real conversation with the Risur Navy once the Duchess fell... They did not meet with Lya / learn that she was to marry the King / have Lya wish Nathan well and hope that she could meet him again at the wedding. The player with the hat of disguise did wander around as the Duchess enough that the navy believes she’s still alive… but that should all fall apart almost immediately. The higher-ranking officials in Risur will probably be scrying Axis Island to ensure the handover went as planned (they’re trying to stop a war, after all). What -should- happen sorta robs the players of their agency. Someone should sending them after a day or two telling them to free Asrabey. A retinue of the King will likely meet them on the docks, wish Asrabey well, and Saxby (introducing her early) will chew them out for causing a diplomatic faux paus and screwing everything up. Just… not sure I want to rob the players of what they’re trying to do (as silly as it will likely be). I can't imagine word won't get out that the Duchess has died before they make it back to Flint.
Anyone still reading, thanks again! I robbed blind a few fellow forum-posters newspaper clippings (thanks, and sorry Meigeall and others), and re-tooled them slightly for my party. Also made a Coaltongue guest list (all of which my players pretty much ignored). Since most are cribbed / robbed from others, feel free to use any of them if you like. I'll likely keep making / stealing newspaper bits going forward, and will try to post them as we continue.
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