The Gathering Storm - questions about the ending (topic for GMs only, spoilers inside).

[Aranei 1]

I am running "The Gathering Storm" adventure, and my party of players is near the end of it. They are going to find the last piece of mapstone, then the last encounter and happy (or not?) end.  But the first part of the adventure, about the Holtz clan and the Foaldeath, have left a lot of questions. The party told captain Kessler about the sacrifices that Holtz did, and the clan fleed from the region not to get executed (as I desided). What is more, the players killed Izka Madtooth, but they thought that Foaldeath was a priest of Taal, so he survived, and now the shaman rules the beastmen herd.

The question is, if the sacrifices had stopped and Foaldeath no longer fears that his cloven brethen would kill his mother or any other Holtz, should the bestmen attack the Stormdorf? I think they will. Nothing is stopping them now. So, when my players will finish the adventure, they will find themselves in a town besieged by the Madtooth bestmen. A good seed for several linked encounters.

What is more, I see that the probability of such an end is rather high, because it should occur if both conditions are met:

1. The Holtz clan is executed in Stormdorf, slain by the party or forced to flee from the region.

2. Either Izka or Foaldeath survive until the end of the adventure. If Izka survives the encounter ner the herdstone and the chase through the Oberslecht, the beastmen may attack Stormdorf far earlier.

 

What do you think about it?

[valvorik 271]

 This question should be in the GM forum, not here.

[willmanx 38]

Absolutely logical. I thought so too. The beastmen were a contained threat... the end of 1st adventure make them far more dangerous !!!

In my game Foaldeath, a shaman beastmen with human bonds, helped the PCs to challenge Izia and steal the lightning stone... But then he couldn't manage by himself to retain the whole beastmen herd... The only solution is to unite once and for all human and beastmen through a dark mutation spell with the help of the tremendous winds of magic around here... Since the weak astromancer Niklas Schulman is looking for recognition and easy success, would accept to reveal the Nexus place to him in exchange of the promise of some dark magical secrets.

1) The herd need to eat, and they need to crush some human since Izia turned them to war. Joseph Bieber, the stromdorf's hunter has seen them gathering to war. PCs need to organize the city defenses... and then you might resume the campaign with far more pressure...

2) the beastmen herd will attack Stromdorf and test the PCs defenses while the final event occurs (Time tracker ?). There, Foaldeath and some tough beastmen (what about a centigor ?) challenge the PCs and even Schulmann... Foaldeath might take the place of Schulmann and invoke the Chaos Power of Despair, Nurgle, to unite living being under the banner of, let's say Nurgle... Here might come a mighty greater daemon like the Great Unclean One.

3) To finish all of this, think about an alliance between the Sigmar's Lector, the Priest of Moor and the PCs fighting together against those dark forces while Schulmann, finally clever, join the good guys and use the incredible Power of Azyr around here to fight using the higher spells...

 

That's what I will do (in my game Foaldeath had that idea from Doktor Festus, bad guy from Nordland introduced in Horror in Hugeldal, allied with the Skaven in Edge of Night, tracked in Crimson Rain, and then finally in gathering storm)