My Firearms Rules

 While expanding on the new rules for my modified Inquisitor class, I'm also building out a structure and rule set that will make the Inquisitor a feared and hated adversary. 

One of those rule sets revolves around firearms. Now, contrary to the standard Pathfinder rules, which allow you to turn any character concept into a superhero, I want firearms to represent a sort of existential threat to the players. In this case, gunpowder is a problem that arises when magic becomes rare or weak, a Great Equalizer much like... well, gunpowder actually was in history. 

I've pretty much scrapped the ridiculously OP gun rules from Pathfinder. Even though the gunslinger class has been modified and toned down since its initial release, I don't wish to change my game into a wild west analog. I want guns to be introduced slowly, to be powerful in numbers but unappealing to work with as an individual player. 

In place of the standard rules I've started with adopting the firearms rules from Lamentations of the Flame Princess, which sets itself right around the mid 1600s. Matchlock pistols and muskets and blunderbusses (blunderbussi? blunderbuses?) are expensive, finicky and powerful, requiring special training and resources. I've locked down gunpowder in the campaign by making it require a special low-magic method to manufacture, while the guns and ammo themselves are still non-magical. 

Most guns are "flat" - meaning uniform in effect. Guns usually do a d8, and take a substantial amount of time to reload. Some basic mechanical innovations allow a somewhat faster reload but again require time and training to handle properly. They are also prone to malfunction. Tuns in general will have the following traits: 

• most of them do around 1d6 to 1d8 damage 
• range is generally shorter than a crossbow (range increment of 25 for pistols, 50 for muskets)
• Ignore up to 5 points of armor bonus
• Automatically critical on 20s (thus the low damage relative to Pathfinder rules)
• Automatically break on 1s (broken condition and if another 1 is rolled, explode)
• Take 5 rounds to reload

So far I've prepared two different versions of the gun; the pistol and the musket. 

Pistols do a d6 damage, have a range increment of 25 feet (meaning every increment of 25 feet you are from the target, reduce your attack roll by -2), do a d8 damage, and ignore 5 points of armor if within short range (first range increment). 

Muskets are similar, do 1d8 damage, have a longer range increment (50 feet), and retain their armor penetration beyond the first range increment. 

I haven't worked out what I want to do with blunderbusses yet. 

Those who use firearms may in addition take "apostle rounds", which are an early form of pre-loading device that allow the firer to quickly set the charging powder, wad and ball round, reducing reload times to 2 rounds. 

With new weapons come new tactics. My gun troops will make use of cover and screening allies whenever possible. It was common for early troops to travel in high-sided, heavy wagons with firing loopholes in the sides, allowing them to shoot from a defensive position. I wonder what other innovations I will come up with along the way? 

I think these rules will provide a substantial threat to players without seeming overpowered in the hands of individuals. After the first time they experience a critical hit from one, they will have to respect them. Especially since they run around in troop-sized allotments. 

Inquisitors Are Hot Garbage and Here Is How I'm Going to Fix Them*

 *or at least try to. 

In pushing our current campaign into its new phase, I want to bring a little of that Old Tyme Religion to bear. That is no easy feat in Pathfinder, as the system relies heavily on magic across nearly every class. Even the allegedly magic-hating Barbarian has a host of supernatural abilities they can call upon. So how do we grim-dark this up and establish the theme of anti-magical zealotry in this set of rules? 

Let's start with the Inquisitor class. Nigh unplayable as a player class (in my opinion), it's completely unmanageable from the DM standpoint. Tons of fiddly abilities, scores of ridiculously intricate Teamwork Feats that require a constant micromanagement of battlefield position, range and attack modes and types, and a weak spell list all add up to a headache for me and a lackluster villain for my players. So lets tackle these one at a time. 

Spells, Orisons and Domains

The Inquisitorial spell list is ho-hum at best, mimicking that of a Cleric, but with reduced casting capacity and a limited tableau of spells to pull from, much like the Sorcerer. Also, there's a lot of humbug chicanery in the Domains list which doesn't jive with an anti-magical standpoint, so let's chuck it. ALL of it. No spells, no domains. 

Teamwork Feats

As much as I love the idea of feats that work for the whole group, I consider their implementation in Pathfinder to be a failure overall. There's just so much overhead to managing them that I don't think they are worth the +1 or +2 conditional bonuses you get from them. Solo Tactics gives the Inquisitor a nice party-wide buff smorgasbord they can share with others, but I still find them unmanageable. 

How about we make it simple? Instead of messing with bonus feats, let's just give the Inquisitor and his henchmen a nice, flat +2 buff that emulates a lot of what these teamwork feats do? Inquisitors are going to have a cohort or retinue following them about, so why not make it useful for their lower level followers to stay within his protective/augmentative bubble? Give them +2 to initiative, CMB and CMD while in his radius, as well as all three types of AC? I'm tempted to give them a +4 bonus on attacks of opportunity and flanking attacks as well, given the tight-knit fighting tactics they would employ. 

Class Abilities

Like most Pathfinder classes, the Inquisitor has a gob full of abilities based on level (oh remember when dead levels were a bad thing?). Many of these are Supernatural Abilities, and I want to get rid of those, so I will. Ditch them all. These guys hate magic, remember? We'll find something to replace them with later on. 

First let's get rid of all their Supernatural (Su) and Spell-like (Sp) abilities. That leaves behind a whole bunch of dead levels for us to fill in. 

Let's change Judgement, shall we? The Inquisitor is supposed to be a scary, tough-as-nails opponent, even though their most impressive feature is their scary and indomitable personality. I'm thinking replace the fiddly Judgements list with the Advantage/Disadvantage mechanic from 5th Edition D&D. Instead of wondering where to apply this or that +1 or -1 from round to round, the Inquisitor gets 1 re-roll per round of a d20 roll (attack, save, ability or skill) or damage roll during combat, representing their ability to wade through battle in only the armor of their faith, knocking aside opponents and deflecting arrows. Then Second Judgement lets them reroll 2 rolls per round! ...I may have to soften this,  but we'll see how it goes. 

Keeping things in the antimagic vein, what about adding a wide area effect of magic suppression? Something like an area Spell Resistance, based on the size of his horde? Or ego? Let's call it the Chorus. The Chorus I think would operate something like this: Any magic acting at up to Medium Range would have to overcome a caster level check equal to 10 plus the Inquisitor's Charisma bonus (or Wisdom?), with numbers of followers adding to the difficulty. 

What do we have so far? A fighting cleric with no spells but a resilience that belies his otherwise humble combat abilities due to the modified Judgement ability, a hefty buff and protective aura for all his followers, a wide variety of skills with which to supplement his forces, and lots of attitude. 

Add in things like special materials for weapons, tanglefoot bags, thunderstones, fireworks and intelligent massed attacks. 

The Bleak Theater

 As I predicted in my last article, we had quite a bit of down-time between games. We started off with a bang, however, as the party finally entered the Bleak Theater. 

The initial entry was fairly routine. The party did attempt stealth, but the invisible thief still triggered the silent Alarm spell set by the duergar wizard posted at the back door of the Bleak Theater. Note: There is really only one approach to the Theater from the surface, so the party had few options in that regard. 

As scripted, the wizard alerted the other guards and began buffing, while the two duergar with tower shields set up a front line facing the stairs and the 3 duergar "ushers" (reskinned as fighter/rogues) became invisible and positioned themselves to make maximum use of their nets and saps. Yes, SAPS! 

It was all for naught, though. The party blasted through this encounter, with only a single invisible usher at 1 hp slipping through the smaller door next to the larger entrance and alerting the rest of the complex. 

The party opted to kick open the bigger doors and found themselves facing a bunch of maddened animals. Initially brought in as fighting animals for the Theater, the advance warning of the mephit Grime, allowed them to prepare another surprise for the party. Several invisible duergar stagehands (who had been tormenting the animals to "get their blood up") began releasing the animals caged in this staging area. 

The party found themselves confronted by enraged rhinos, tigers, smallish dragons, and a pair of owlbears, but wound up getting the initiative and slamming the doors closed again before more than a single rhinoceros could get through the entrance. Bear's wild empathy ability managed to calm the creature down with a few incredible rolls, but after a few rounds, the animals within the room had begun picking each other off. The party re-entered the room and mopped up the remaining animals. 

But before they could finish off the remaining creatures, the double doors to the left of the entry burst open, almost knocked off their hinges by an enormous (fifteen feet long) boar, which charged through the room, trampling everyone and smashing the wizard and cleric against the far wall. This took a few more rounds to clean up, with a few serious wounds being distributed before dropping the giant pig. Nobody had their head lopped off by its vorpal tusks. Sigh. 

What followed was some frenetic searching as the party tried to figure out where they were in the Theater complex and what was going on. Jonas used his Locate Creature ability to help them find their way to his nephew, but while attempting to release him from his cell, the hobbit thief accidentally freed the bodak from the cell next door. At the same time, farther down the hall in the darkness (remember, duergar can see in the dark just fine, better than stinky humans), the remaining stagehands and their human ranger leader had set up a picket of chained up slaves to use as a shield, and were about to unleash a withering storm of arrows and crossbow bolts on the party. But Gektas went first and neutralized the ranger with a Baleful Polymorph, turning her into a cockroach and stealing her buffing abilities from the duergar. Boo! 

Also, the bodak's lethal attacks against the group failed and they killed the beast, finally getting the nephew free of his cell. 

At this point, Jonas implores the party to leave. They got what they (he) came for, and sticking around in a fortress of evil dwarves was not wise. But the party wanted to stay and find out what happened to the rest of Jonas' nephew's group - it's what they were hired for, after all. Jonas disagreed, paralyzed (hold monster) his nephew, threw him in some sort of bag, then disappeared, bidding them farewell and good luck. 

At about the same time, the dreaded hobgoblin Gora-Khan appeared and began fighting Bear. Simultaneously, a reddish, lizard-and-bug like creature with four arms suddenly appeared and began attacking the group from the other side. Bear managed to take the vampire down, forcing him into gaseous form before losing any energy levels. The bug-like creature was beaten back, but disappeared again to lick its wounds.

After this the party cast about, trying to find their bearings and looking for traces of the other missing adventurers. They wound up fighting more monsters on a wide stairecase going up; ettins and blind, barbarous caveman-like creatures called grimlocks, behind which were more duergar, but a quick, invisible scouting mission by Paco revealed that the duergar were set up to bait the party in and expose their flank to an enormous, bus-sized rust monster. Paco warned the group and the party chose the better part of valor. 

At some point, Bear observed "You know, aside from those duergar at the front (sic) door, we haven't killed anything that looks important" i.e., no more duergar had been killed beyond the first combat, just successive waves of animals, beasts, undead and servitor monsters. 

Returning to Pelltar's Redoubt, they collected Chauntessa and returned to the Inn of the Slumbering Drake to recover and consider what they had learned. 

• The party received their award from Chauntessa as agreed, for locating the latter party's ultimate fate. 
• They also received a mysterious delivery that turned out to be from Jonas, who paid them a hefty sum in the form of diamonds and adamantine bars. He also exhorted the group to get as far away from the area as quickly and quietly as possible, as he feared the retaliation of Thane Vejik. 
• Chauntessa did not find what she was looking for in Pelltar's massive library, "But" she added cryptically, "I now know what it isn't! And that is a good deal further than I have gone in quite a long time." 
• The party rescued one slave from the Theater, Brandis the Bard, who knows a bit about the Theater and is oh so grateful. I look forward to annoying the group with songs about their adventures for years to come. 
• The Inquisitors of Nuln have taken up residence in Cillimar, under the auspices of "keeping the peace" and quashing any unauthorized use of magic. It's a problem. 
• Aside from some uncomfortable rumors from Kemp's extraplanar experience regarding the actions of Lomri and his ilk and how "they are changing everything, how the world works", the group hasn't really addressed what to do about it. 

The party needs to decide what they wish to do next; run, stay in place and build up some stable infrastructure nearby, or what? They are 9th level, after all. 

And as Kemp said, the world is changing...

They Finally Did It!

Well, despite the COVID lock-down, my group managed to get together digitally via Zoom and have several productive sessions in Castle Whiterock! One of my players even designed his own shared online grid that we used for miniatures (because I am as yet too cheap to shell out for Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds). 

Much progress within the campaign has been made by the players. First, the party overcame the aboleth Acanthus after their first attempt faltered. They didn't kill him, of course, but forced him to surrender and give up the lair. There is now a very dangerous aboleth with a lot of slaves and a bruised ego wandering the Underdark, but I'm sure nothing bad will come of that... 

Next, the party managed to pick up and follow the hanging thread of Pelltar's Boot, using magic to locate its partner in Pelltar's Redoubt (level 12A in Castle Whiterock), and exploring said redoubt. They even managed to get access to his spellbooks and ingredient cabinet. The party wizard won out on that deal, as (unsurprisingly) most of the loot on this level is oriented towards wizards - grey robes of the archmagi, a staff of conjuration and the motherlode - 12 spellbooks with every spell of levels 0 through 5, as well as a strong collection of spells in the 6th to 9th level range.*

Now, safely ensconced in their new 9th level class duds, with not one but TWO secret lairs at their command within the dungeon, and not-quite-unlimited travel due to having both the teleport spell and the reunited boots of teleportation, the party proceeded into dungeon level 9, the Immense Cavern. 

Having visited these caves a few times before, they stopped by to visit their "friend" Gar & Nar. Luckily, Gar was in ascendance and was feeling chatty, as he had been alone for quite some time; since the party first met him and plied him with food and companionship. They learned a bit more about the denizens of the cave and of the hazards ahead of them, as well as a few behind them which they had managed to miss. 

Departing the abandoned ettin village, they made their way - forewarned - the bridge across the river that divided the chasm and met with "Goldy" the kobold knight. It was apparent that something was off about the kobold, who conducted itself within the utmost standards of chivalry, and a knightly(ish) duel to first blood ensued, which the party's knight (samurai) easily won. 

Upon further conversation with the kobold they determined that it must have been the target of a curse or perhaps a baleful polymorph, and they expended every resource they could muster to break it... but all to no avail. Their highest level magical resources spent, they decided to spend the night there inside the wizard's Secure Shelter. Not much rest was to be had, though, as the first night's watch was disrupted by a large, gelatinous ooze squeezing its way through the cracks of the cabin. The party quickly existed the cabin to deal with the threat - perhaps a bit cavalierly - and found themselves facing the granddaddy (mommy?) of all gelatinous cubes, one big enough to engulf the entire house with room to spare. The party managed to dispatch it, but not without some effort and cost. Another few watches went by with nothing but irritating bats to keep them from sleeping. 

The next day they tried again to break "Goldy's" curse, and finally met with success! The kobold was revealed to be a semi-angelic being who had been cursed decades ago. Backstory to be filled in later, there was at first a notion to bring the being, named Galdiera, with them, but it soon became apparent that she was in no condition to be more than a hindrance. 

So, it was off to the other secret lair where the angelic creature could recuperate and gather her wits while the party made their way to the cave entrance which, according to Gar, would lead to the Bleak Theater...

Upon entry to that cave and a climb up a steep staircase, they found themselves in a rather nasty trap. A modestly sized, smooth floored stone chamber with a solitary stalagmite in the center of the room. A dead roper decomposing along the right wall. 

Once the party worked up their courage to enter the room, one of them triggered the trap; both exits were blocked by enormous slabs of stone which slid seamlessly into place, and an Incendiary Cloud spell was set off. 

To make matters worse, the party had all but hung billboards out on the road announcing their presence, like a band promoting its concert tour for the summer, so I added a little something special into the mix: Two mercenary zealots of the orcish Bloodfire tribe, a sorcerer and a warpriest, who had been hired to obstruct the path of the party, and had been tipped off by Alarm spells and the devious mephit, Grime. 

The two casters, fully prepared for what was about to transpire, leveled their worst attacks at the party. Trapped, unable to escape the room, unable to dispel the Incendiary Cloud, had no choice but to deal with the most immediate threat. They  made short work of the warpriest once they found him, but had more trouble with the sorcerer, who was lurking near the top of the ceiling with a Fly spell, concealed by the incessant smoke of the Cloud. Casting fireballs every round, he was making a bad situation worse until the cleric rose up on her boots of levitation and bumped right into him. Firing off her last Dispel Magic, he plummeted to the ground and was quickly ended by the rest of the group. 

Luckily, the wizard (with some prompting by the DM) remembered he'd brought Communal Protection from Energy, and bought the party several rounds, which they spent searching fruitlessly for a hidden release which would allow them to exit the room. There was none to be found; the trap was set to be released from the outside only. 

Eventually, the cleric used stone shape to make a slim exit for the party to escape. Beyond, a pitch black corridor leading down, ostensibly to the Bleak Theater. 

And the Theater knows they are coming... 

It looks like this group probably won't meet again until August, so I will be taking my time getting things ready. Hopefully this game will be in person, and I'm planning to get a bunch of minis painted and built for that eventuality. I also need to make sure my dungeon tiles are sufficient to the task. I may have to skim the Youtube channels of Wyloch, DM Scotty and Black Magic Craft for terrain ideas. 

This is why we can't have nice things. 

However, one conclusion I've arrived at after last night's game is that I need to find a way to make combat more manageable. Pathfinder is a very crunchy, statistical game, and every die roll devolves into a 20 minute discussion of every possible modifier and permutation of cause and effect. There's too much going on for my old brain to allow for in-game naval-gazing.

I'm going to institute a timer for our games. It's one I've seen used to great effect in-game before, and it's one I use as a scrum master at work also. When we are in combat, and I go through the initiative order and get to you, you have 6 seconds to say what you are doing. Think about what you want to do on your own time when I am dealing with the other PCs and NPCs. 

The other thing I need to do is find a more compressed and DM-friendly way of managing monsters. All the aforementioned crunch just taxes my brain, so I will likely be boiling things down a bit. What do I really need to know about that NPC fighter beyond his basic stats; AC, hp, hits/damage and saves? Need to work on that... 

*I decided to temper that down a bit, restricting "every spell" to mean "every spell published in the core rulebook" which is still sufficient to keep the wizard busy decoding and learning spells for the next TWO YEARS of game time. Really. I did the math! 

Castle Whiterock: On and Anon

Wow, lots going on these days! Between a resurgence in D&D and 40K miniature painting and participating in four different RPG campaigns (I'm running two, and playing in the other two), time has been blissfully short on the planning front. On top of that, Dundracon is next WEEK and I have a two-day airbrush painting course at the end of the month!

TL;DR I haven't been posting much here.

The Update

My players finally reconvened last week, wisely taking a break from the dungeon to re-equip before pushing on into the grip of the duergar Thane, Hrolad Vejik. 

Upon their return to town they were met by an old friend; the party's npc fighter who was flung into the multiverse a few sessions ago by a Prismatic Spray. Along with him came his tentative ally, Jonas Arenmoradas, who claims to be related to one of the npcs the party is trying rescue from the Bleak Theater. Convenient timing, no? Hmmmm... 

Jonas related his story of being a plane traveler, a "horizon walker" or some such thing, who experienced enormous injuries while traveling on a plane which lacked any sort of biological life. The living machines who dwelt there attempted to reconstruct him, but with mixed results. The party accepted his story with only a sprinkling of salt and laid their plans. 

The Thane was not idle in the interim. He spread the word that a group of adventurers from the surface had been sowing destruction in the warrens beneath the Castle and put a price on their heads: 10,000 gp dead, 30,000 gp alive! In addition he fed many captive orcs to the aboleth on level 7, including one or two trolls to be converted into skum. 

Return to the Castle

Upon the party's return, the tunnels were quiet... too quiet! They made their way down to level 7 without incident, only to run afoul of the aboleth's newly bolstered slaves. The game ended with the following cliffhanger:

Yes, that's the new npc, Jonas, who is now mostly made of metal, sliding down a chute into an underground lake teeming with leeches, being advanced on by some waterlogged zombies and 4 hungry ropers. Nice knowin' ya, Jonas!

Next Up

The party will have an uphill slog ahead of them, facing multiple motivated opponents. Most of the number crunching for that has been done. However, they party did - as usual - throw me a few curve balls. They finally did some investigation into the single magical boot they found (Pelltar's boot of teleportation), and have begun triangulating its location via various Locate Object spells. They even have a plan; using dimension door to travel to it is, in their eyes, much safer than teleporting, as the off-target chance has less chance of disastrous results, aside from the ascending damage of re-jinking if they land off target. So I guess I'd better prepare 12A, Pelltar's Redoubt for a future session. 

That level is a game-changer. Once you get past the few traps, the party will find themselves in possession of several powerful magic items and a full set of spellbooks from a 19th level wizard. Oh and a super-secret lair. ANOTHER super-secret lair. 

In addition, I need to go over the Bleak Theater and Narborg again. Once the party gets down there, it's going to be a major series of fights to get to the trapped npc. I can think of no way for them to reach the Theater without alerting the forces of the Thane. Especially since Gunrolz, the mephit, has been assigned to watch the party stealthily and fly ahead of them to warn waiting groups of monsters. 

Castle Whiterock: The Immense Cavern, part 3

The party is going to go through some rather critical encounters on the way back down through the dungeon. Though the upper levels have been mostly cleared, a few notable stumbling blocks remain; there is the clan of trolls who have moved into the old troglodyte warrens (still unencountered since the party prefers to take the lift from level 2 to level 7), the aboleth lair on level 7, and several untouched encounters along the way through level 9, the Immense Cavern.

The party has negotiated a truce with the hidden drow enclave and Gar & Nar, so those areas can largely be ignored. The trolls have not been encountered yet; perhaps an ambush is in order. Everyone loves fighting trolls, right? 

In addition I've decided to eliminate the drunken delver from 9-8; it's obnoxious and a distraction from the main theme the party is pursuing and they certainly don't need any more distractions at this point. Likewise I will omit the teenage stone giants, for similar reasons. 

Galdiera Goldmoon, the polymorphed half-celestial guarding the bridge, is another story. Unless they decide to fly, they will have to cross the bridge at some point. She's a potentially fantastic ally if the party decides to continue through with the theme of Whiterock. She is also a considerable rebuild; paladins are significantly different between Pathfinder and the original 3.5 material. 

This also allows me to trash the original 9-7 text. It's long-winded in its history and short on the actual tactical details that could make it an interesting encounter, especially given that it is by default a combat encounter. Save the plot development for after the fight! 

It's worth noting that the original author mistakenly included Galdiera's half-celestial abilities and resistances in the kobold statblock. This is a no-no. When polymorphed, you lose any supernatural abilities based on your previous form! 

Three encounters before they exit the level? I can do this!

Castle Whiterock: The Thane and the World Outside

At the point where the party retreated fully from the dungeon, several things were happening.

Within the dungeon, the Thane had become aware of the threat presented by the party. He was also going through some troubling diplomatic issues with the stone giant clan living atop the mountain, though he was unaware that the party was in cahoots with the stone giants in order to keep the peace between them and the local villages outside Cillamar.

Thus, the Thane has put the word out through his web of affiliations that there is a price on the party's head. Grime, the dust mephit, has been taking notes on the party as they pass through the dungeon and collected fairly accurate descriptions of them. The following NPCs/factions within the megadungeon setting which can be leveled against the party are as follows:

• the aboleth and its servants on the Watery Way
• The troll band near the entry to the Immense Cavern (I've been rolling really badly at encounters so far)
• Vulgaris, the minyad druid
• the young stone giant band (unaffiliated with those atop the mountain)
• Gar and Nar (who doesn't trust the duergar AT ALL)

I've decided that the duergar have finally cleaned out the last holdout orcs from level 3. Drugila can go hang; it's not likely to be worth their while to get her out. The least of the orcs will be offered to the aboleth, while those of any worth will be taken to the Theater for sport, or as slaves. 

This will make the aboleth encounter a significant roadblock. Likewise, the troll band may be a good speedbump as the party re-enters the cavern. I don't see Vulgaris or Gar and Nar getting actively involved in fighting the PCs, as they have direct experience with them and don't have a vested interest in helping the duergar. 

The stone giant kids are likewise insufficient a threat, unless they do something sneaky like throw rocks and then summon a purple worm on the group, then run away. 

Adding something to spice up the trap at 9-11 seems likely, since the party would have to pass through that area to get to the Theater anyway. Maybe a few fire-friendly mercenary monsters, or at least something tough enough to weather the damage from Incendiary Cloud until the characters are dealt with. 

But what I really need here is an enemy character party. Another group of murderhobo are being paid by the Thane to track down the party and eliminate them; or better yet capture them! 

A rival or enemy party with abilities roughly equal to the PCs, and hopefully with a foil or two for the group's normal MO, would serve both to up the threat level and promote the kind of hate that motivates players to pursue enemies. I'll have to start working on that idea. I'm thinking a group led by a Lawful Evil cleric devoted to a god of oppression and slavery would be the perfect counterpoint to Fhaariys' Shellyn cleric. I'll have to come up with something suitably irritating for the rest of them, too. 

That pretty much handles the dungeon, but what's going on in town? The party has said they are returning to town and I'm going to use this visit to advance the plot a bit. 

Now, in the past, there's been a struggle going on between the local baronies and the far-away Duke Garth. Garth has been expanding his realm and gobbling up the little baronies along the royal road. He hasn't violated any of the laws governing the use of the road, but exploiting every opportunity to bring every neighboring land under his banner, one way or another. He has secretly been using dark magical items to build his power, items of a kind not seen in ages; mildly vampiric weapons that derive power from their victims, but also armor that feeds that power up the food chain. Thus his military units fight normally until they begin to take casualties, but then the remaining troopers become stronger. This makes his army greatly feared and he takes great care to ensure no one outside a small, necessary group knows about these items. 

He's also allied with a group called the Inquisitors of Nuln. The Inquisitors are an anti-magical cult. They operate mostly as fighters and members of the Inquisitor classes, but eschew magic use in any form. Their magic use has been supplanted by enhanced Counterspell ability, using special feats to increase their ability to stifle magic used by opponents. The Inquisitors may have started out as benevolent, but over time and through their affiliation with the Duke, they have warped into a ruthless, if not outright evil, organization. 

Their battlefield role is to listen for cries of "Witch! Witch!" and ride out to start dealing with magic, usually by countering spellcasters. If they get a chance they move in and apprehend or kill the offender, regardless of class or alignment. Staging mass witch burnings is a favorite past-time for them. 

On each return to Cillamar, the party hears tidbits of news from the "war in the North" about how this barony has been annexed, or that free town has been burned to the ground or occupied, as the Duke's reach slowly expands. By this time, his forces have reached almost all the way to Cillamar... it makes sense that these forces come into play soon.