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Curse Of The Lady's Light GM Resources

Curse Of The Lady's Light is part 2 of 6 of the Shattered Star Adventure Path; that book is necessary to run the adventure but Pathfinder Fate Accelerated write ups are provided for the various opponents and challenges faced therein. Use the linked to documents as relevant to the published adventure.

Natalya And The Shard

Usage

This material can be used in different ways, depending on whether a GM wants to run an epic adventure path, or a pickup game to kill an evening, or to integrate some of the material into schemes of their own.

Typically, a GM wanting to run adventures using this material should own a copy of Curse of the Lady's Light (Shattered Star 2 of 6). Whenever there is an encounter or challenge of some kind called for in the adventure, just consult the relevant section of these GM Resources for the corresponding Pathfinder Fate Accelerated write up(s).

  • Adventure Path: This material assumes that a group using it intends to play the full Shattered Star adventure path, just using a lighter weight and more narrative game system, and it is presented as such.
    • It is worth noting that some people don't like the in-game faction of the Pathfinder Society and opt to swap out Shiela Heidmarch and the Society for some other patron. It has no effect on the adventure as a whole, but can change the tone considerably. For instance, things take a different angle if the adventurers' patron is the Aspis Consortium, or the Rushlight Society, or some wealthy aristocrat with a private agenda.
    • It is also very doable that the adventurers have no patron, if at least one of them is academic or erudite and can "do research" to fill in the narrative blanks to figure out what the Shards are and how to use them.
  • Stand-alone Adventure: simply swap out the Shards with some other MacGuffin, and the Curse of the Lady's Light works as a stand-alone adventure as is.
  • Cannibalize:
    • Part 1 has no purpse other than setting up the adventure, so there isn't much to cannibalize from it other than character write-ups.
    • Part 2 can be used as a wilderness adventure as is, even if the Lady's Light monument itself is removed from the premise. Simply escalate the fued between the boggards and the troglodytes as a going concern, and have the Grey Maidens be mercenaries working for the Rushlight Society to make trouble for Magnimar...or even be the spearhead of an eventual invasion from Korvosa!
      • Alternately, if the adventurers are more aligned with Kaer Maga, Riddleport, or Korvosa they could be coming at it from the other side and be agents working against Magnimar.
    • Part 3 can be very easily genericized to a straightforward site based adventure, or some random Thassilonian (or other ancient culture) ruin.
      • Alternately, with a little bit of sanitization, the purpose of going into the Tower could be to finally shut down the light as it has caused one too many shipwreck and the Mayor of Magnimar has decided (or been politically forced into it) that something must be done to remove the menace.
  • Pilfer and Repurpose: A GM can ignore the plot of the adventure altogether, and just pilfer the Fate Accelerated character and encounter write ups to repurpose them to their own ends.

Milestones

If mixing in other side quests or material a GM will have to draw their own lines, but running it straight and playing out all the parts, Part 1 and Part 2 together can be considered a scenario and thus represent a significant milestone.

When the adventurers complete the lower levels of the Lady's Light (L25: Sorshen's Great Secret), consider granting another significant milestone.

Grant a major milestone after the session wherein the adventure is fully concluded and the Shard of Lust is in the adventurers' possession.

Tips & Advice

Some possibly useful information for a GM considering using this material.

Consider Not Rushing To The End

Part 3 of the adventure is where all the flash and glam is, and as written is the bulk of the published content. Rushing headlong past the first two parts might seem expedient, but consider slowing down a bit and treating each of the three parts of the adventure more equally. Once Part 3 has started it is basically a do or die delve.

Parts 1 and 2 of are very open ended and "sandboxy". In fact, Part 1 is practically a blank slate smack in the middle of the adventure hotbed of Magnimar. Part 2 is more substantial as written and takes place in a nice little pocket of swampy wilderness a few days south of Magnimar called the Lady's Light region.

There is a tremendous opportunity here for a GM to individualize their campaign and engage the adventurers in urban side quests in Part 1, and / or wilderness side quests in Part 2. There are also opportunities for mercantile minded adventurers to set up a trade route of sorts for exotic natural resources found in the Mushfens.

It is outside the bounds of the Adventure Path, but there's not much stopping one or more of the adventurers from setting up their own little fiefdom in the Lady's Light area after the restless natives are suppressed.

It will take more GM effort, but Parts 1 and 2 offer up fertile gaming soil just waiting to be seeded.

Supplies

Once the adventurers leave Magnimar and transition from Part 1 to Part 2 of the adventure, they will not have the opportunity to resupply. Once their rations run out they will be roughing it, living off what they can forage or take by force.

It is generally recommended that the GM not keep this a secret from the players and adversarially try to 'ambush' them with a lack of critical supplies later on; that is not the way of Fate Accelerated. Instead consider having a quick discussion with the players up front before they embark on their journey to the Lady's Light and explain that the next part of the adventure takes place in a remote, swampy region several days travel from Magnimar and resupply, inhabited by a plethora of native inhabitants of the generally hostile variety.

Then ask the players what kind of story they would like that to be. Do they want to play out a gritty man vs nature survival shtick, or do they want to make a big thing out of being prepared for anything...perhaps comically overprepared and overloaded with excess gear, and so on. What would result in the most fitting story for the adventurers' legacies? Do the adventurers have any Troubles or other Aspects that would apply here?

Groups adhering to more of a classic adventuring modality will of course most likely opt for expedient efficiency, gear up with very precise lists of essential supplies, and pursue the path of minimum drama and distractions to the end of the adventure.

More dramatic groups might opt for a deliberately 'suboptimal' progression (such as being undersupplied) to produce a more cinematic outcome.

More casual groups might opt to just have the GM assess a price of a certain amount of gold for the privelege of being able to simply say the group bought enough stuff and handwave the problem away.

More narrative groups might opt to describe the ways their individual characters prepare for the upcoming journey and use the Fate Fractal to translate those efforts into one or more situational Aspects such as 'Well Supplied' on the Adventure scenario itself.

And so on...there are no right or wrong strategies here, whatever works for the table.

Social Vs Combat

Parts 1 and 2 have tremendous opportunities for social resolutions. It is even possible to resolve all the encounters socially, in fact, though some less likely than others.

Part 3 on the other hand is basically 'on the rails'. There are a couple of opportunities to socially resolve encounters with some of the Grey Maidens, but that is about it under normal circumstances. There is an event that might occur that changes this up a bit and offers the opportunity for a case of mistaken identity which opens up social resolutions, but that event and its implications are not without downsides.

Urban Vs Wilderness Vs Delve

Part 1 is urban, Part 2 is wilderness (but has some caves to explore), and Part 3 is almost entirely indoors inside a 'dungeon' (actually a giant statue, but whatever). A strong tracker or outdoorsman will have a huge opportunity to shine in Part 2 particularly.

Relevant Paizo Products

  • Curse of the Lady's Light (Shattered Star 2 of 6): as noted, it is assumed that the GM has a copy of this book.
  • The free Curse of the Lady's Light web supplement: for reasons of space, the Part 1 content got cut from the published book and released in a free web supplement.
  • Shattered Star Player's Guide (PFRPG) PDF: a free PDF containing some high level information aimed at players. Light on details, but as mentioned free.
  • Shattered Star Poster Map Folio: the maps contained in this folio are very useful, most immediately the fold out Magnimar city map.
  • Magnimar, City of Monuments: the city book for Magnimar. It's a good supplement in general (there is easily enough material to run a urban campaign out of Magnimar ), but particularly useful in this context as Magnimar is the anchor location for the Adventure Path.
  • Varisia, Birthplace of Legends: the region book for Varisia (the area of the world of Golarion wherein Rise of the Runelords, Curse of the Crimson Throne, the Shattered Star, and various other adventures are set). This is more of a gazeteer style book. It contains some useful backdrop information about the general area of the world, but if a given GM were planning on just sticking to the material provided in the Adventure Path they might opt not to get this.
  • Shattered Star Adventure Path Pawn Collection: stand up pawns for most of the NPC's and opposition faced in the Shattered Star, if you like that sort of thing at the table (we do). Note that some of the generic monsters that appear in Bestiary Pawn sets aren't included in this set, which is a little annoying unless you also happen to have the Bestiary Pawn sets. However, there are plenty of pawns that you can use as substitutions where necessary.
  • Rise of the Runelords, Curse of the Crimson Throne, and part of Second Darkness were also set in Varisia and have some relevant information regarding some of the locations being revisited in Shattered Star. A GM who also had that material could certainly wring use out of it, but it isn't needed to run the Adventure Path.
  • Pathfinder Comics: City of Secrets: More for fun and flavor, the "City of Secrets" run of the Pathfinder comics are set in Magnimar. In addition to the storyline of the comic, there are some really nice visuals of the city, and each issue has some relevant Pathfinder game mechanics, maps, or NPC write ups included in the back. Worth a look.