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View Full Version : DM Help Changing Rise of the Runelords Ch. 1 Plot



Keante
2018-08-22, 03:26 PM
Hi all!

I find myself GMing a play by post game of Rise of the Runelords for a bunch of players who have done plenty of GMing themselves. Most of them have GM'd this Adventure Path themselves in the past. I want to change things up to make it fresh. So, spoilers ahead if you haven't been through RotR.

I'll try to translate setting specific names, because you don't have to know Pathfinder's setting to be able to help me with plot.

My big thought so far is to make Nualia (Chapter 1's villain who grew up in the friendly town of Sandpoint but has now become a cleric of the demon goddess of beasts, Lamashtu) a follower of the Green Mother instead of Lamashtu. The Green Mother is one of the Eldest (fey near-deities), she is neutral evil (versus Lamashtu's chaotic evil), and her shtick is carnivorous plants, manipulation, and betrayal (versus Lamashtu's portfolio of beasts, twisted fertility, and being a demon lord).

In the normal plot, the goblin raid on Sandpoint that brings your party together is a cover for other servants of Nualia to retrieve the bones of Nualia's father, which she later makes into a burnt offering to Lamashtu for the beginning of her transformation into a demon. I don't see the Green Mother wanting a burnt offering of one of Nualia's family members, so I need to come up with something different to kick off the AP, and I'm mostly coming up dry on ideas.

I see a natural development being Nualia wanting to transform into a fey plant creature (what I see as the Green Mother's analogue to Lamashtu's demons), but I still need some way to get all this started.

Any ideas?

Beardedoone
2018-08-23, 03:17 AM
She may need the bodies to bury at the unholy site to feed the plants growing there instead of burning the bodies. It might also be a neat idea to replace the goblins all together. Nuallia may be pushing against the goblins, because from what I know of goblins they are pretty destructive and like to set things on fire. so you could find some kind of plant monster you could use instead of just find a cool picture and fluff the goblins as some kind of plant creature. They could also sprout from the ground during the festival because they could sprout from the sin well under the town. I also know in some edition of either D&D or pathfinder (can't remember which...) There is a tree monster that doesn't attack people itself but it feeds on blood and decay but it sprouts fruit that grows into these red blobby ork like creatures that go out and brink people back to feed the tree. That could be what is under thistle top castle instead of the original creature, who's name i don't remember off hand..... But there should be a bunch of different plant/evil druid stuff you can toss at them. Just imagine how surprised they might be when that goblin riding the goblindog casts a druid spell on them or to buff its friends

I'm also typing this up at work on my tablet during lunch so please forgive any mistakes..

Keante
2018-08-23, 07:35 AM
She may need the bodies to bury at the unholy site to feed the plants growing there instead of burning the bodies.
Oh, yeah, that's good. I wasn't sure whether to look for some alternative motivation but maintain the raid during the festival, or to just not have a raid plotted by Nualia and come up with something entirely different to bring the party together. Of course, the second option is so open-ended as far as what you could do to accomplish it, and I tend to get option paralysis. So this would be a good alternative motivation for the raid.


It might also be a neat idea to replace the goblins all together. Nuallia may be pushing against the goblins, because from what I know of goblins they are pretty destructive and like to set things on fire. so you could find some kind of plant monster you could use instead of just find a cool picture and fluff the goblins as some kind of plant creature. They could also sprout from the ground during the festival because they could sprout from the sin well under the town. I also know in some edition of either D&D or pathfinder (can't remember which...) There is a tree monster that doesn't attack people itself but it feeds on blood and decay but it sprouts fruit that grows into these red blobby ork like creatures that go out and brink people back to feed the tree. That could be what is under thistle top castle instead of the original creature, who's name i don't remember off hand..... But there should be a bunch of different plant/evil druid stuff you can toss at them. Just imagine how surprised they might be when that goblin riding the goblindog casts a druid spell on them or to buff its friends.
Yeah, there are some cool monsters out there like the yellow musk creeper (with its yellow musk zombies--plant type, not undead), and the gallows tree (with its gallows tree zombies). I'm not familiar with the red blobby one, though.

Beardedoone
2018-08-23, 11:28 AM
I remember what the tree was now. it was from 3.0 monster manual 2 and it was called an Orc Wart....the orcish monsters are not red though so i don't know why i thought that....but anyway. dont be afraid to switch out every thing and anything really. even if you keep the stats and just change the fluff. the other thing to consider would be Tsuto, Shalelu, Erylium, Sinspawn, and the other mercenary's whose names elude me right now. they do/say/ are where they are because of Nuallia in some way and some of them have some specific information and even handouts that would have to be changed or edited. also would you be keeping the change through out the whole 6 books or just change the first one and flow it into the others.

I am currently running runelords for my players and they just finished the glass works. we are also using the 2E rules so im currently converting it over along with recording the sessions for a podcast.

if you don't want to convert that much you could have tsuto in charge of the goblins and he is using them to fulfill Nuallias plans as best as he see's fit. and drop in some hints of the different plot. that might be a nice surprise for them. every thing seems like the same old RotRL and then they find a clue that proves differently. then just watch them rack there brains trying to figure out if its something new or something they just missed in the AP.

Keante
2018-08-23, 01:25 PM
I probably won't make any post book 1 plans for a while--but I don't remember Nualia really affecting anything in later books, does she? I've actually never been through the AP, only read it--and I may be forgetting things.

I'm doing some converting as well--we're using Spheres of Power (replacing the whole standard magic system) and Spheres of Might (which makes martial types more fun, in my opinion) from Drop Dead Studios. I also have a large party of 7 PC's. It should be pretty easily manageable because it's a play by post game, so you avoid some of the problems of a large group in a face to face game. I'm considering making significant villains as gestalt characters so they have more oomph in the face of so many PCs. We'll see what happens.