My players thought why should they enter the games knowing Raknian had try to kill them. They thought he would rig the games so they'd get killed or othered. So they scouted out his mansion. Then the halfling rogue(Deree for those who read the diary) went into the sewers and found the shaft next to the 3 spawn's of Kyuss. They've now killed Bozal and the Alkilith just the Ulgurstasta to do.I'm a bit concerned they're too low level. They've just gone to level 9 and there's 6 of them. Also, they thought Bozal's chest was more than a CR10 trap and the writer put it in there just because he could. They said they felt railroaded into doing the games but I went with it so they didn't do them.
Anyone else have similar problems.
I was worried I would have the same problem. 2 of my PC's are decidedly not combative. A counter mage with 0 offense spells, and a healing/info oriented cleric. The talk of glory and wealth of being the arena champions made the other 4 talk them into it.
A lot of times when players don't want to take a choice, its because the DM has done too good a job making it look scary/dangerous. Good thing Dungeon Magazine has other things you can put in there to earn them some XP
My problem is the opposite. Its the night before the final fight and they haven't done ANY exploring. I'm gonna have a city of the dead very soon.
It is not necessary to enter the games if the PCs manage it to kill Bozhal and the Ulgur any other way (the players are just skipping a lot of fun..). The way your PCs are doing it sounds great.
Confronting the Ulgur is tough, at least I was thinking that unless my PCs cleric comes up with an array of turning-powerups like Consecrate and Hallow and blasts the Ulgur with just one good roll...
The chest trap is great. My group did found out that the trap is a heavy one and left the chest untouched. In fact they put in into a bag of holding and hired a high level rogue for some money and giving him first choice on the content. Unfortunatly the self-confident but foolish rogue fumbled his Disable TRap roll and became a new figure on the chest decoratives... :-)
My group then decides to store the chest away for a while...
Well my group did enter the games, but when Bozal released the Ulgar (in his dying breath) the group was pretty low on spells and fairly beat down. I was concerned that they would die fighting it so when it broke through into the arena, I had Auric's Warband go to assist them. I only used them just enough to be helpful without taking away from the party. You could do something like that.
Fortunately for me, my players understand that module #5 has the PCs entering a gladiatorial contest, so they will be joining the games. ;-)
Of course, PCs might decide to do otherwise (especially if the group isn't very combat oriented). They can still sneak in. It also allows for more encounters in the Free City/Waterdeep.
There is a sidebar in the adventure entitled "We won't play gladiator" that specifically addresses this problem. But it sounds like your group is doing well. It really isn't necessary to play in the games and it is actually very reasonable to expect Raknian to rig the games if they do play (he does).
Well, my pickle is that the groups cleric isn't going to participate, but the rest of the group wants to. I am thinking they may have a rough go of it. The cleric will probably watch the specticle from the stands, unless he decides he wants to go work on his new armor at the forge when the others are competing. Should be interesting.
Boy, sometimes clerics can be such poopers! I suppose yours has sound ethical reasons not to enter a gladiatorial match, but where's that sense of team loyalty?
My party has a paladin, who may be in a bit of an ethical dilemma, since he would be fighting for personal glory, not honor or the cause of good. I think the player will enjoy participating, so I'll probably have his superior in the Hieronean order offer a little fatherly counseling to the effect that the games are just a cover for the real quest--finding out what Loris Raknian is up to. As long as he stays incognito (and thus avoids associating the Hieronean order with the morally dubious practice of gladiatorial matches), and as long as doesn't kill any undeserving victims, fighting in the games can be justified. (I am a bit more flexible than some in how I deal with paladins). So he'll wear his suit of black plate that he won from Theldrick and enter incognito as "the Black Knight" or some such.