Ryan's Carrion Crown campaign journal

[The Lesser Evil]

I'm enjoying reading this a lot. It seems like you're quite skilled at tying things together, both with adapting Carrion Crown to Ravenloft and bringing the PCs motives into play against the cult (the Whispering Way as a heresy for the Eternal Order is a stroke of genius). I also like the addition of Professor Lorrimor coming back from the dead, very nice.

I have a question for you though, how are you handling the Trust mechanic from the first book? As I recall, for several groups it was particularly troublesome as written.

[Ryan Naylor]

Simple: I ignored it.

I judged how the townsfolk would react to the PCs based on their actions (and what else is going on in town): at the moment, they're indifferent, but as things get worse, and the PCs start being more disruptive, things'll get more hostile for them. Kendra managed to convey how important it was to keep you head down in town, so in part they're doing it to protect her.

It's more organic and involves less bookkeeping. And the mechanic didn't work as written anyway.

[Zilfer]

^This is probably the best way to do it. I agree and have read up on it multiple times even though I've yet to run it for my Ravenloft group. Though I'm waiting until we get a "stable" group for that. One that i'm sure isn't going to end up doing anything crazy. xD

[Joël of the FoS]

Ah yes, the return of the Professor as a zombie. I wasn't sure I was going to do it as one of my player said in joke that it would happen (after the two "drunken" encounter).

I also ignored the trust mechanics. It is broken anyway, and a good DM can simulate its result.

We're going to finish Wake of the Watcher tonight. PCs vs the God Brain (sort of)!

So you played #2 and #3 as well? Can't wait to read that later

I salvaged many parts of #2 (the intro) for my game, but I don't think my PC would save a golem from justice. Won't work. Not sure I will DM this.

On #3, I'm not sure I like the Ascanor Lodge part, and it's a bit chaotic after with the packs, not sure. I might rewrite this for my campaign with a run after the heart of the leader, with may be Duskpeace Lodge, and parts of Calling to Verbrek in it. And end in Feldgrau.

Joël

[The Lesser Evil]

I had another question since you mentioned Wake of the Watcher. What are you doing with the insanity mechanic? Have you kept it, replaced it with Ravenloft's madness system, designed your own thing, or abandoned it altogether?

[doctor-evil]

I found the time lines for the first two modules far too slow. My players figured out many of the clues really rapidly, and they basically short circulted a lot of the pre-planned sequence of events.
For trial of the beast there were some clues that were effectively impossible for my players to get as they assume knowledge of monster game mechanics e.g. golems have darkvision etc. Such intimate knowledge of the monsters is very un-Ravenlofty.
But despite this they managed to persuade the court that the beast was innocent more easily than I expected.
I did some tweaks making mongrelmen in the Chymic works kidnapped patients of the sanctuary that were alchemically altered (the TV show American Horror Story: Aslylum was very inspirational for tweaking the plot to make it a bit more gothic and less high fantasy).

They are about to start on Broken Moon and it looks like it will be technically difficult to DM, and I'm betting that they will quickly sidestep the proposed sequence of events. Like others I've put the lodge in Verbrek, and I haven't decided whether to place the finale in Richlieumont or Mordentshire. So I'm interested in any advice.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

(the TV show American Horror Story: Aslylum was very inspirational for tweaking the plot to make it a bit more gothic and less high fantasy).

Yay! another AHS fan... come discuss:

http://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/vi ... 90&start=0

[Ryan Naylor]

Ah yes, the return of the Professor as a zombie. I wasn't sure I was going to do it as one of my player said in joke that it would happen (after the two "drunken" encounter).

I ran it instead of, not after, because it's obviously a better idea. In some ways, when my players make jokes about what's going to happen, I sometimes like to give it to them - as it says in the wax golem in CotN:C, "give 'em what they want"

Anticipation is part of the pleasure.

But only sometimes.

On #3, I'm not sure I like the Ascanor Lodge part, and it's a bit chaotic after with the packs, not sure. I might rewrite this for my campaign with a run after the heart of the leader, with may be Duskpeace Lodge, and parts of Calling to Verbrek in it. And end in Feldgrau.

Broken Moon is definitely the weakest so far.

Wake of the Watcher is the player favourite; I really like the Haunting of Harrowstone.

[Ryan Naylor]

I had another question since you mentioned Wake of the Watcher. What are you doing with the insanity mechanic? Have you kept it, replaced it with Ravenloft's madness system, designed your own thing, or abandoned it altogether?

A hybrid of the Pathfinder insanity and Ravenloft madness rules. When we get closer to the part of the campaign, I'll probably post them.

[Ryan Naylor]

A few points I noticed I’d neglected to mention earlier:

The tomes Lorrimor asked the PCs to take to the University of Rivalis (right back in the first session) were the Revelations of the Prince of Twilight (liberally sprinkled with the Professor’s notations), one volume of the Madrigorian, On Verified Madness and the Manual of the Order of the Palatine Eye (neither of which I changed from the description in the adventure. Upon hearing descriptions of the books, the players did begin to wonder what exactly Lorrimor had been into...

I also spread out the journal passages based on what the PCs told me they were looking for. Obviously, the first place they looked at was the last entry, so I read that out and told them the date had been circled. Then they started reading backwards, so I asked them how far back they wanted to go (bearing in mind he filled in 3 or 4 books a year – there were literally shelves of the Professor’s diaries to go through). Once they started to learn a bit more, they wanted to go back further, so that ate up more and more of their game time.

Doing that, and reminding them that Kendra needed them to help get her house in order and catalogue all of Lorrimor’s other stuff (and keeping the diary from them for the first week) stopped them from rushing off to the prison. In fact, I didn’t even mention the prison (why would you – it’s just a ruin of the hill) until they started to investigate why the warden’s statue was being vandalised. Generally, they were quite happy to play along with the slow pacing, and I didn’t draw it out in real time - “There are so many books in the house that three days go by before Kendra, Eudora and Albert have finished cataloguing the books in the sitting room. In the mean time, Julian busies himself with repairing and whitewashing the fence, while Ignatious sees to the running of the house by buying supplies and chopping wood.”

Now:

9/7/775

Professor Lorrimor’s diary makes reference to a supply stash held by the Eternal Order in the graveyard. We attempt to retrieve this stash, but are stopped by the Sentinel, Father Vudran. He is none too pleased with us. We are banished from the cemetery.

This was one of those scenes where GMs – even warm, supportive, collaborative GMs like me – secretly revel in the downfall of the PCs.

I made it clear that the priests of the Eternal Order probably couldn’t be trusted with the knowledge that there was a cache of magical items hidden in the graveyard. Since the downfall of Azalin, the Order had collapsed into in-fighting, corruption and embezzlement, and Ignatious couldn’t be sure that Vudran would be helpful. (Vudran’s NE here). So they went to the graveyard to see what was there, on the sly. Just at twilight, when Vudran and his acolytes would be busy conducting the nightly service. In fact, to burn a little more time, I said his acolytes often conduct the daily services, but Vudran always does the Friday night one himself, so you should wait until tomorrow (the 8th) to be sure he’ll be busy.

And of course they went about this like a SWAT team: Ignatious hid in the graveyard as a lookout, since he had some authority as an Inquisitor. Eudora decided she wanted nothing to do with grave robbing, and stayed at home with Kendra (while Matt the player just laughed at them). And Julian and Albert went into the tomb to see if they could find the treasure.

I try to make normal animals behave like animals as much as possible, so I don’t see the point in them rushing out to attack any and all intruders. Most animals try to avoid creatures bigger than them, so I try for an element of bad luck or fate or reasonable animal behaviour in these encounters. They’re also more normally sized. Let’s face it – a spider or centipede the size of your hand is a giant arthropod. They don’t have to be 2 m tall to be horrifying. Change the description but don’t change the stats.

So, the centipedes didn’t attack them until the PCs were trying to open to tomb (very, very quietly – we don’t want to attract attention). From the crack in the ceiling where they’d made their nest, the centipedes slowly unwound above the unsuspecting PCs, bodies thick as bootlaces and writhing with legs, and then one fell down the back of Albert’s neck and half over his collar. Playing his role to the hilt, Albert leaped up with a shriek of revolted terror, and the second centipede fell at his feet. They tried grappling with them, stomping on them, and otherwise utterly incompetently trying to kill them. Julian finally whipped out his pistol and tried to finish them off (“The shot rings out cacophonously in the enclosed tomb, deafening you both”), and even that took several shots.

Realising the jig was up (and they hadn’t even got the tomb open yet!), they fled. I said that Ignatious could see Vudran emerging from the church – essentially just to add a bit of tension to their flight, but Ignatious decided to pull rank and face him down (possibly to allow the others more time to get away, possibly not). So Vudran (NE Sentinel of the Eternal Order) saw a group of people fleeing from an opened tomb and an Inquisitor sent from Nartok to interfere with his territory trying to detain him and – what’s worse – pull rank on him. I think “This is none of your concern” may have passed Ignatious’ lips. So Vudran insisted that it was his concern, that this was his territory and how dare Ignatious stick his prying nose so disrespectfully into his business, and knocked him cold with an inflict medium wounds spell. And then had his acolytes deliver him back to Kendra’s house in a wheel barrow. And wrote a letter of complaint to Ignatious’ supervisors in Nartok.

So they didn’t get any of the stash, which delayed them going to the prison even more. (Which is good).

Ignatious also wrote a letter to his supervisors, explaining himself and demanding that Vudran be removed from his position for disrespecting the Inquisition.

[Ryan Naylor]

11/7/775

It is market day, and the whole town seems subdued. A piper inadvertently summons a pair of stirges. Fortunately, we are able to dispatch them.

Later that day, I send a letter to Father Vudran explaining our actions and requesting his assistance.

Just before nightfall, Eudora and I are assaulted by a dead townswoman (Maria). Fortunately, Julian and Ignatious rescue us.

Incensed, Eudora and I pour ourselves into research. Eudora catalogues and maps the prison. I re-read Prof. Lorrimor’s diaries:

• There are strange runes in and around the prison.
• The Way are after a specific prison inmate.
• Vesorianna oddly burned to death in the prison – why was she there?

Market day was a good opportunity to use the children’s skipping rhyme and the stirge attack. The second zombie was essentially the drunkard encounter (she was drunk after the market day, and possibly her way home from a church service – Albert and Eudora had decided to play nice with Vudran and go to his church service to show they were decent people. Vudran wasn’t impressed and ignored them.) I also used the extra ominous events – Ignatious found the tombstones when they were after the stash yesterday (he was most upset about Eudora’s death, because he had been growing closer to her, despite insisting on calling her god “the Harlot”). The wagon tracks I used in a few days time when they were staking out Gibs’ house. Eudora had the dream at some point as well – I think after they’d been to the prison for the first time.

The zombie nearly killed them, which I didn’t expect, which is why Julian and Ignatious “heard the sounds of the struggle” and ran to the rescue.

Maria was also the last person before Lorrimor to be buried in the graveyard – they seemed to be reanimating in order of freshness. Older ones were going to be skeletons not zombies, but we never needed to go there so it didn’t eventuate. And this time the PCs got the Constable to deal with the aftermath.

[The Lesser Evil]

Wait, when did Eudora die (you reference her death as Ignatius being most upset about it) or was that from seeing a vision/omen of it happening?

[Ryan Naylor]

One of the set pieces in the adventure is that the PCs go to the graveyard and one of the PCs sees headstones for all the other PCs as though they had died in the prison fire. By the time they draw attention to it, the headstones are so corroded with age that the ominous sight has vanished.

So, Eudora hasn't died. That comes later.

[Joël of the FoS]

Yeah, the wagon track haunt is quite cool, but I never got to play it. My players hesitate to go out at night

But I took your advice and ran the "return of the professor" zombie encounter, who was hungry for his delicious daughter (but couldn't really make him speak because his jaw is broken!).

I don't know about you, but I'll keep Lorrimor's diary as possible adventure hooks, or sources of info for a later quest. The players loved searching in it.

Joël