Kingmaker: Weather Effects

[Devacorian]

SPOILER WARNING AHEAD! If you are one of my players, stop reading this thread.

So while rolling up random weather effects for the beginning of my group's Kingmaker campaign, the weather generator handed me a pure gem: an enormously powerful 5-day hurricane. Naturally, I have to use this—but how to best effect? I'm curious to hear both from those who know Kingmaker and those who don't, but know a bit about the effects of storms: what should my players be dealing with as ramifications of this storm?

For starters, I'm thinking that almost all of the rivers in the Stolen Lands flood, causing major disturbances in wildlife and the locals. The Stag Lord should be just fine, since his fortress sits on top of a hill, but a lot of the other encounters are certainly going to get disturbed. The trap-filled glen, the fairy's nest, the tatzlwyrm den, the Thorn River camp—these are just a small handful of all the encounters which would be seriously affected by the storm. This thing is going to stir up the monstrous hornet's nest like crazy, for sure, but what about the bandits? They'll be predominantly bedraggled and starving, with their numbers significantly thinned by the storm. Should I up the monster encounters but reduce the bandits?

What else should I include as aftermath of the storm? Ripped-out trees mean angry fey, flooded dens and nests mean angry tatzlwyrms, mites, and kobolds. What else? I'm open to any and all suggestions.

[Extra Anchovies]

Hurricanes require warm temperatures, moist ocean air, low air pressure, and tropical wind currents. The River Kingdoms are a far cry from meeting those conditions - they're well above Golarion's equator (and, assuming an earthlike axial tilt, well outside its tropics). However, the region is close to Lake Encarthan, which (being about as large as all five Great Lakes put together) could probably support a hurricane-scale storm if some magical or otherworldly force brought about the necessary temperature, pressure, air moisture, and wind patterns. Perhaps an unusually powerful confluence of magical energies at the Isle of Terror?

The River Kingdoms themselves are far enough inland that they wouldn't be directly impacted by such a storm - Tymon, the nearest of the city-states to the coast, is at least 50 or 60 miles inland - but the region would experience heavy rainfall and possible flooding, especially along the West Sellen River. A hurricane that made landfall near Thronestep would displace a large population and quite possibly be enough to topple Razmiran's already fragile government. The valuable trade routes across Lake Encarthan are too good to pass up, so a power struggle could emerge from the collapse of Razmir's dictatorship, perhaps between the city-state of Tymon, lingering Razmiran cultists in Xer, and the PCs (if they choose to get involved).

The bulk of the people displaced from Razmiran would most likely enter the River Kingdoms, and the sudden influx of refugees would be rather destabilizing. The city-states could take in some of them, but would eventually start shutting their gates to new arrivals, forcing the Razmiran migrants to set up farming villages away from the protection of the cities. These communities, being farther into the wild areas of the River Kingdoms, could well come into conflict with the region's fey, and bandits would both prey on and recruit from the displaced masses.

[Seerow]

Focusing more on the encounters of the module than on the politics that EA covered above...

I agree that the bandit camp gets basically swept away, and random bandit encounters are effectively gone. However, I'd definitely double or triple random encounter chances elsewhere, and stick some of the bandits from the original camp back into the Stag Lord's Fort.

As an aside, I always felt like the number of bandits in the adventure is ridiculously low. By default you have the couple you deal with at Odeg's, a small camp in the wilderness, and the Fort. Like less than 20 bandits, total. Yes it's a lot for a group of 4 to deal with in normal situations, but it is basically nothing to be terrorizing any significant stretch of land. (This sort of scale problem is a big problem I have with a lot of the adventure. When I ran part 1 I bumped up the scale of numbers up by a lot across the board, both increasing encounters and also giving the impression that what the PCs were fighting directly wasn't everything that was out there).

I don't imagine the fey being particularly disturbed by trees being torn up by the storm. Yes nature is being destroyed, but it is being destroyed by nature, totally fair game. They may even be celebrating the storm, have the PCs see a number of nonthreatening fey just dancing and playing, enjoying the aftermath of the storm.

Actually now that I think about it... EA mentions that a hurricane is highly unlikely given the climate/region. Work that in. Any locals the PCs talk to will talk about how a storm like this hasn't been seen. Have the storm actually sweep through the entirety of the forgotten lands, and disrupt the other colonization attempts going on (which are generally further along than the PC's) simultaneously. Behind the scenes, the magical nudge that made the storm actually happen comes from Nyrissa (who happens to have 9th level druid and 8th level arcane spells, so should be doable for her) This feeds into the fey celebrating (it's a great victory for them), and ties a random event into the overall story.

[Devacorian]

Fantastic ideas, EA and Seerow! I figured that a storm of this caliber would need some sort of magical catalyst, but having that catalyst being Nyrissa is perfect. It also works to foreshadow the true power manipulating events in the Stolen Lands all the while.

I've been thinking of upping the bandits in the Stolen Lands myself for the same reason, and having them mostly clustered behind the safety of the Stag Lord's walls is a great way to make the climactic battle a little heavier and more difficult.

I also really like the idea of the storm destabilizing Razmiran's government and sending refugees fleeing up into the Stolen Lands. It gives a good explanation for a mass migration into the new kingdom, with the PCs offering protection and lodging in exchange for work. Plus, being able to plant that seed of political intrigue for a little later will mean a more robust political landscape for the PCs to maneuver in and deal with.

Now that my random weather generator has created something so memorable, I'm wondering if I should postpone the hurricane's arrival until the PCs go to confront the Stag Lord, or if I should have it happen on a random day like my generator wants. What do you guys think? Should I keep it in my back pocket for driving the plot forward? Or should I drop it into the campaign on the random day it popped up to demonstrate the wild chaos of the environment?

[Seerow]

I'd say drop it when it seems most appropriate to you. Going with the random chart could work out, but if it's going to land on a point when the PCs are back in town anyway, it will reduce the impact of the storm to them. Ideally you want them to get caught outside in it, make a whole encounter just out of surviving the storm and finding shelter; then emerge 5 days later and see the havoc that was caused while they were forced to ground.

[Geddy2112]

Second flooding out the stolen lands and surrounding. In addition to the floodwaters displacing people, fresh clean water is going to be much harder to come by and disease will be on the rise.

Also, consider moving your bandits into the city and having looting and similar civil unrest.

Hurricanes are not always 100%, they are wild guesses and change at the last minute. People who can cast read weather and any ranks in survival should see the storm coming 2-5 days in advance, but they won't be 100% accurate. That said, it should not catch the town off guard-hurricanes are too slow moving and even Joe Blow is going to see a storm rolling in. Having the city prep for floods/wind/aftermath could be a challenge for the party in an of itself. Maybe they have to go out into the bandit lands to get supplies or something...

[Devacorian]

That's another question. I do want to allow a Survival check to see the hurricane coming, provided we have someone making Survival checks to predict the weather, but this storm is also going to be of magical origin (as described earlier in this thread). How much warning should I allow them, provided they are actively making those checks?

[legomaster00156]

Even magically created, the storm will take time to gather (though much less time than usual), and then to properly hit the River Kingdoms. I'd say 48 hours' notice is appropriate.