I've seen mentions by several people of how certain careers can have a dramatic impact on the running of The Gathering Storm - notably Priests and Wizards. I thought it might be useful to have a thread where all of these potential issues could be discussed to help GM's cope with the 'game changers'.

My issue is with the Swordmaster in my party. Not only is he an Educated High Elf and able to translate the stones but there's other questions I have about his possible impact on events:

• Would his training at the White Tower give him an insight into, or knowledge of the Winds of Magic (limited Witchsight?)
• How much of the history of Tempest Knap is he likely to know or guess?
• Do College mages know anything about the role/background of the Swordmasters?
• Are High Elves interested/protective of their history/relics, or do they consider the past as simply gone (kind of diametrically opposed to the Dwarven ancestor worship)?
• What would a Swordmaster know about waystones?

Thanks for any help, and please don't consider this thread to be purely Swordmaster focused.

An excellent initiative Sir Bertolac

unfortunately I don`t have the TGS yet. (apparently there is an obscure rule somewhere that says it has to take at least 14 days to send something from UK to Norway, which takes 2 days to reach by boat, the rule applies even when sent as airmail. *sigh*).

But I be sure to tune in when it finally arrives.

good gaming and please keep this thread updated, lest it will fall into obscurity by entering page 2

Bertolac said:

He may know about winds of magic, but I don't think by rule he will able see them unless he has the Magic Sight training.

Bertolac said:

It's one location amount many of Elf's colony. Not likely to know much unless he have some specialty in the area

Bertolac said:

Probably not much unless once again the college mage have some special interest in High Elf culture.

Bertolac said:

I think this depend on the player, I don't think there is a single perspective on this.

Bertolac said:

Nothing, consider it's origin was just a marble map stone. It was only infused with magic with failed ritual. It was just a piece of marble decoration on floor of a temple. Unless he had a lot study on this particular temple, he shouldn't know much.

There are pre-generated PC in TGS? if so, wich carrers do they have?

Ghiacciolo said:

There are no pre-generated PC

Thanks Qingtian,

So essentially , from your understanding, the Swordmaster might know (based on education checks) about:

• the aethyr and possibly about the coloured strands (Daunting check here I think - this will allow him to make connections with some of the things Schulmann says);
• the architecture of Tempest Knap being Elven and it likely being an abandoned shrine from before the Dwarf wars (although purpose and specifics will be beyond him);
• how to translate the stones (and so I'll need to work something out so that he gets part of the transcript from the earlier stones);
• that waystones are used by High Elves as a conduit for magical energy (however, there's no mention of the waystone until the end, so unless he makes the connection about excess magical energy then it probably won't impact).

I suspect I will go with Schulmann knowing about the Swordmasters (as he is fluent in archaic Elven) and use this as a way for him to ingratiate himself with the party. Perhaps to make him less suspicious he could come across as an 'Elfophile' who is interested in the Elf and later the Elven Stones.

@ Ghiaccolo,

there aren't any pre-gens, I'm simply aware that careers like Wizard or Priest will have access to possibly game-breaking knowledge in this adventure, and that certainly hard line Sigmarites are going to severely impact on the options available at the end of 'the Lesser Evil'. I thought to have one place to dicuss all these as a reference point.

Thanks guys!

Knowing my future players, there will be certanly a warrior-priest and a bright mage in our campaign. So i'm going to follow up this good thread. I hope to be able to contribute to the discussion as soon the book will be arrived in my postbox!!

Bertolac said:

Yes, you summed up my points nicely. The only thing that I forget to mention was that the waystone was heavily worn down from neglect. So there will be small pieces that may be chipped off and make the writing even harder to read.

Also, are we confused the way stone and the other stone that's suppose to plug the leak of aethyr? I don't have the book with me right now, I think the waystone was just a map, and the ward stone (?) was the one that plugged the leak.

Might I suggest you can also take the tact that the stones are written in ANCIENT Elvin - markedly different in basis at least from the current language [potentially of course] - so you could say that only an academic would be familiar and able to translate - and even that with a die roll.

My potential area of conflict in this is I'm fairly certain my devout Priest of Sigmar will NOT allow the aquire the one stone [hidden in the *Spoiler*] unless they can talk their way around...desceration NOT being an option > what does this do to the end of the story? = Hmmmm

EineHund said:

EineHund, I thought they provided a solution to this issue already.

Due to the local Sigmar Priest whose name I cannot remember was plagued by vision from the stone, he believed those visions are a sign of doom from Sigmar. If the local Sigmar Priest happens to think that Sigmar meant to re-unit the stone, he would actually ask the character to dig the last stone out.

You bring up an interesting point. I have a priest of Morr and a zealot in my party. I am concerned how the zealot is going to react to the beastmen in the first part of the TGS campaign. If he reacts disfavorably to the Holtz family, there's no telling how that will impact the rest of the campaign. The second part is obviously perfect for a priest of Morr.

Pox said:

Actually, that's exactly my issue with TGS for first chapter's parts. There is absolutely no reason for a righteous group of players to simply kill Holtz family for their heresy. Luckily for me, my players decided to go alone with Holtz despite the outrageous facts that they sacrifice people to beastman.

For a more righteous group, I imagine Holtz family will be slaughtered, or Holtz family may end up captures the PCs. (After all, the Holtz do have a 2 good melee person with a good range person. With others as town people action to overwhelm and capture the PC.)

If the players killed the Holtz, they will be wound and hurt, and I probably use the Foal.... shaman use hit or run tactic to lure them to herdstone. Once there, they will face another tough fight, while the shaman try to steal the item from the herdstone.

If the players killed by Holtz, they can be forced to use as bait for Madtooth, while Foal... the shaman stole item from the herdstone. In this case, the players will face an even harder fight. Later, they may need come back somehow and claim the item.

Either case, I think Holtz family need up root and move. There is no sane adventurer wouldn't turn the entire Holtz to the authority at first possible moment. I personally think it's kind dumb that chapter starts with hanging and trial of Holtz. Maybe Holtz will leave a few of their own to satisfy the authority, but the entire clan shouldn't be captured.

I would suggest that in the face of a group of zealots/Priests the first adventure may be fixed by having Marie Holtz plead for her life and that of her family, revealing about Foaldeath and where to find him - whether this is enough to save her life is up to the PC's. If you take out the hanging tree section and simply give the PC's the location of the herdstone the adventure becomes a more conventional cleansing purge against Beastmen. Foaldeath is a bad guy but still balances the scenario by attacking Madteeth when he doesn't expect it.

They can then come back for the lightning stone later when Schulmann draws their attention to it.

I think one point in the Holtz/Eigel story bit that gets glossed over is that old man Eigel seems to be the lynchpin to the beastmen situation. There's a bit of conflicting information: on the one hand the Eigels stopped first because the elder Eigel died and the kid didn't want anything to do with it, while the Holtzes have continued but state they want to stop...

I look at it as: the Eigel kid decided sooner than the Holtzes to stop the sacrifices and has now paid the price. The merchant was the 'last' sacrifice the Holtzes are willing to make to the beastmen (if I read it right, they want out as well) and they can be played as a sympathetic but misguided group trying to do what they thought was best. They aren't 'consorting' with them as much as 'paying' for the safety of their farms and (they think) the town.

In fact, it might serve to open the following chapter with a couple of them agreeing to 'volunteer' to pay for their crimes in return for sparing the rest of the clan. I could see Otto doing it if he thought it meant his family was safe. Make it clear they really had only two choices: sacrifice and the occasional dalliance or death. It might let them live longer with the PCs or at least engender some trust or pity, but if things don't go where you need them to for the Garden of Morr intro, you have some 'volunteers' for the noose.

At least it opens up more options for what to do with them than 'burn the heretic'.

Qingtian said:

This is presented as an option to the story - not sure how I missed that! <smacks head>

keltheos said:

What's kind bother me is basically at end of chapter, there was a sentence or so that pretty much said that Holtz will happily go back to status quote and sacrifice to beastman again. So, really, Holtz just want to make sure no beastman will attack them which I guess you could explained away as less of 2 evil.

Personally I think I do want to based adventure on Stromdorf further. There are some plots that's can and could be furthered.

1. Holtz family situation:
A.: Holtz has been killed, Beastman decided to raid the town and farms surrounding area since no sacrifice was provided.
B.: Holtz lives, but they need provide sacrifice to beastman. How would players handle the moral implication.

2. Adler's dead lover. I think after the second death she suffer, she may still turn into a ghost or spectral of some sort and whisper that she was murdered. There are some potential implication on, how players take it. They could side with Adler to revenge the lover. Or the player could side with the husband, and try to get Adler.

3. Night Goblin invasion? There maybe new groups of night goblins start to look for their missing troll. Once again, the players need find a creative way to handle those pesky goblins

4. Schultmann's master in College of Magic may want to a report on what happened, and hunt down the players for questioning. What happen if the master want to explore this potential rip and opened it again?

5. The town is not the Wettest place in the Empire any more. Since the Stromdorf is in junction of 2 rivers, it should become a major shipping spot since it's not so miserable any more. There are a lot potential for new development for the town.