Angel Gabriel's page

I've run this twice now and I'd like to recommend it as a great adventure. It has lots of atmosphere, hostile weather, dramatic moments and opportunity to roleplay. The combats take place across unusual and challenging terrain that make the fight more than a slogging match. There is an interesting interlude where they are trying to save the ship in the middle of a hell-storm, mostly without any sailor skills. This is fun if carefully handled and laid on fast and furious so they are constantly assaulted by problems.

I thought it was going to be a character killer scenario when I first read it because the players meet some quite serious challenges including ethereal foes and undersea combat penalties. In fact the two parties that I GM'd both foundf it relatively easy. (one had six players and the other had four.) So be warned you may need to turn up the volume a little in order to give your players the sense that they are meeting a really worthwhile challenge.

On both occasions we had a new player on the table and in order to play at this level they picked up Valeros. Wow! He is a mincing machine at 7th level!!! They gave him the Cloak of the Manta Ray and he was a Terror of the Deep!

Another tip: I had all the maps printed out to size but it proved to be a mistake for the complex shipwreck. It slowed down the action because a lot of the wreck is empty apart from floating bodies. (They don't smell them, they taste them, urgh yuk) On another run I would just give the players a description as they moved around -- and then just slap down a map of the relevant area. I think that might make it creepier, too.

Good adventure. Enjoy!

I've just got hold of "Stay of Execution". It looks good and I'm running a Slot Zero this Friday before running the adventure at Conception UK, (our second biggest convention after GenCon).

It reads like a very open-ended adventure. It hints at a few possibilities and I plan to work out a few of those encounters in advance. I'm quite happy to do that but I must admit I am suprised that some of this groundwork isn't provided in the module.

I'm also trying to sketch out an overall map of the prison. I wonder why this basic isn't in the module. Perhaps it was cut due to space. The description is pretty ambiguous and only a tiny part of the huge complex is mapped. I appreciate that the pressure needs to be applied to the players to drive then through a certain sequence of events. OK, but my players are lively and inventive and will twist the plot as hard as they can. If I have to stop and work out the next room, or an NPC, that will slow the pace and reduce the drama.

Has anyone else found that a problem, or perhaps someone else has sketched out an overall plan of the prison to share?