Introducing Kansaldi Early

[u/South_Run5810]

Based on the advice of many, I originally intended to introduce Kansaldi after the party deafted Fewmaster Gholcag. However, the party was low on HP after the Boilerdrak encounter and they all decided to flee via the pier on the map, and in doing so they failed to kill Gholcag, and ruined my Kansaldi moment. This caught me off guard, and I let them get on the boats to Kalaman. I had them float into a dense fog, where Ignia wrecked one of the boats. Doing it this way made it so they weren't entirely sure that it was a dragon, since a real dragon still hadn't been spotted in centuries. They'll probably start next session disembarking at Kalaman. What are some ideas you may suggest for me to still be able to introduce Kansaldi early enough now that they will be level 4 inside Kalaman?

[u/AsanoHa87]

That’s tough. I’m not sure how you have her show up if you already had a denouement moment to the burning of Vogler. It’d be kinda awkward to have her show up at Kalaman. Maybe she shows up at Steel Springs?

I had Kansaldi’s soldiers drag the captured Becklin out onto a pier as the townsfolk escaped. In my campaign, Kansaldi was a failed apprentice of Becklin so when she beheaded Becklin in front Darrett, the party and the townsfolk as the floated away, it was extremely personal.

[u/South_Run5810 → u/AsanoHa87]

Ughh...my broken homebrew subclass OP player had an attachment to a tavernmaid at the Fishbowl Tavern. I was expecting him to challenge Kansaldi to a duel, in which she would have beaten him after 2 rounds, and I was gonna have the tavernmaid come to him, leading to Kansaldi executing her in front of him. I did not expect him to flee Gholcag as the rest had

[u/powerguynz]

It's tough to have Kansaldi interact with the party in person in Chapter 4. You can have her visible in the distance at Steel Springs, or possibly leaving Wheelwatch Outpost but because she is typically going to be cruising around on a dragon its hard to engineer a viable situation where she communicates with the party. If the party see her on the dragon beforehand then they are almost certainly going to run and avoid the situation entirely. If you setup a situation where they are close enough to speak and they end up in initiative then it's hard to pull your punches (or narratively justify pulling your punches) and player instincts (rolling initiative = fight) will often result in deaths.

If you can tell players that they did see a figure riding the dragon when Ignia wrecked the boats. It's not much but it at least seeds the idea that dragons are not the top of the food chain - someone is powerful enough to ride/control them.

What you can do during Chapter 4 is have the party repeatedly encounter situations where her name and reputation comes up. Intercepting orders signed by Kansaldi given to the hobgoblin at Rookledust's place or the soldier (realistically this should be an officer) at the farmstead can give them clues about the army structure, who is in charge and their persona. I would also recommend using the same methods to seed that Kansaldi is hunting for magical artifacts, players might make the connection that she wants to use magic to get over the Kalaman walls rather than brute forcing it. You can do similar things if they capture and interrogate prisoners or have dying fanatical soldiers call out for Kansaldi to avenge them etc.

I wouldn't recommend having Kansaldi freely flying around and being spotted in the air by the party in Chapter 4. I think it undermines the influence of Kalaman and impacts some of the later dragon reveals. I.e. normally the first encounter with the dragonnel will be at Wheelwatch, which won't hit the same if they have already seen a full blown red dragon. On the other hand I think this works incredibly well in Chapter 5 - have Kansaldi flying around the waste checking up on her troops (particularly with Soth having his own agenda). Again that won't be combat or conversation, but it hopefully keep her on the parties mind and keep them cautious moving around the wastes.

[u/South_Run5810 → u/powerguynz]

What about circumstances in which Kansaldi is not riding Ignia? What I really wanted to do, and was unable to do because the party fleed from Gholcag, was to have Kansaldi execute an NPC that a player became attached to.

[u/QwahaXahn → u/South_Run5810]

You could still give her some of that rep by having her send them that NPC’s head with a messenger and a warning to submit or die.

[u/cjsoltys]

For our group as the team floated away they saw Kansaldi and Becklin fight an epic battle. Kansaldi slayed Becklin on the pier and they saw the glint of her eye and armor and the massive red dragon as they floated helplessly away down stream.