My Players have all read the Gord the Rogue novels, we still talk about that series all the time. So, when my players met Tenser, I wanted to take somethings from the books and make them similar to events in the campaign.
In the books Tenser had a Water dragon that the characters road on... so I thought, wow this is a pretty cool way for my players to get to Alhaster, and what the hell I'll have Tenser give my players a Conch that they can blow to summon this Dragon whenever they need him ( I know it sounds a little powerful, but my players loved it, and since its a water only only dragon it probably won't break my game.)
So we are about to start the Library, where the players will race to the island and try and beat Darl to get to the library.
I am trying to think of a neat encounter to make this Dragon more than a glorified water taxi. Anyone have any opinions that might be cool and playable? Perhaps they could encounter Darl on the ocean? (A dragon vs a boat?) Or Darl could summon some sort of water beast to intercept the players. Are there any savage tide encounters that might be modified to fit this?
I am just fishing for ideas here, so if you have any cool ones that would be neat!
Curse my ill computer luck! My first draft of the manuscript had a several page long "Breaching the Storm" getting to the isle sea encounter section, but it got wiped off my old computer!!!
I had nests of advanced wyverns on jagged shoals of coral where the only real break in the storm was, as well as some totally insane elder water elementals (consider the elemental monolith if you have Complete Arcane), and an advanced megoladon. Not to mention the challenge of the roiling seas and the storm itself.
I originally conceived the "getting to the isle" as a major portion of the adventure (about 1/4th of it), but I ended up nixing it in favor of other things. Anyone else have any cool ideas for memorable and exciting encounters on the way to Tilagos?
It's funny, but getting through the hurricane-force winds proved to be a riddle that was relatively difficult for my players to ponder. (They eventually took a chance, and teleported to the exact spot that they saw Heskin meet his end, courtesy of Lashonna's scrying...hoping Darl wasn't waiting for them.) The sea dragon sounds like a really cool idea, and given that the storm shouldn't pose too severe of a threat to the PCs, IMO, the sea dragon could possess an ability to render it and its riders immune to wind effects.
As for sea encounters, it's also funny that you mention Savage Tide, because in issue 141, p. 94, there's a Wandering Monster (Living Shipwreck) which seems totally appropriate as an encounter here. (Albeit a freshwater variant...is the Nyr Dyv freshwater?)
Are you sure they won't just decide to windwalk/shadowwalk/travel ethereally? In fact, I got rid of the whole shipwreck encounter because I couldn't see why Darl would waste his time with a sea voyage.
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Are you sure they won't just decide to windwalk/shadowwalk/travel ethereally? In fact, I got rid of the whole shipwreck encounter because I couldn't see why Darl would waste his time with a sea voyage.
If you have your heart set on a sea based expedition to get there, it's easy: Rule that the mist prevents teleportation or dimensional travel and the storms make flight all but impossible. The *only *way to get there is to sail - and it's insanely dangerous to try to do so: "Where NPCs fear to tread", etc.
As for way cool ideas on how to get there, I suggest WorldWorks Games Maiden of the High Seas:
http://worldworksgames.com/store/products/maiden/maidenb2.jpg
Now - come on. Is that freaking cool or what? Almost makes you want to play STAP.
Are you sure they won't just decide to windwalk/shadowwalk/travel ethereally? In fact, I got rid of the whole shipwreck encounter because I couldn't see why Darl would waste his time with a sea voyage.
Wind walk would result in them getting caught up in the windstorm, I'm sure. Shadow walk is, from the spell's description, not precise enough to make for accurate travel--I forget if the storms are active in the shadow plane or not, though I don't believe so. Ethereal travel should work, but with the radius that the storms stretch out to, I believe it's unlikely that the party would be able to make it to the center during the spell's duration.
Funny Thing... My PCs Had a wand of Polymorph that they used to transform everyone into fish and they swam under the storm to the beach. They of course had to take a sea journey to get their which consisted of the following:
1) Orc Pirates: With Savage Tide coming out simultaneously as I ran this adventure, some of the players were pysched about ship-to-ship encounters. I three six boats full of Orcs and Ogres at them, giving the beasties a spell tha turned their ships invisible. It was a fun encounter, but the PCs at that level mopped the floor with them, especially the druid/spirit shamans.
2)Ghost Ship: I created a permenant, incorporeal ship (not sure if there's rules in Stormwrack for this) which basically beaconed an unhallowed effect. It was a cursed ship manned by dozens of ghostly sailors. In Game terms, it turned into a Mob of Ghosts led by a Deathshireker. Mob rules+Undead=Nastiness...
3)Storm Giant Riddlers: I had a storm created by the ghost phenomenom sort of lead them off course, where they encountered a couple Storm Giants swimming. I forced some riddles upon them, which they all answered easily except the last, which stumped them. Since they had already done so well, I allowed them three chances to "stump the DM" with riddles. One of my players pulled something from a Stephen King Book (Gunslinger series is full of riddles) and got me. Good fun.
BTW, I ruled the samething: Hurricane Force winds stop Windwalk and without a place to land and cast spells from (shorter duration spells), approaching the island is almost impossible. There's a reason rarely anyone's been there.
My PCs were among the groups who jumped Darl in the middle of the storm a second after he detected the scrying. After the fight the mage put up a Mordenkanen's Magnificent Mansion, and the party Cleric (with a billion ranks in swim) and Psychic Warrior (with that adaption power) went for a swim so everyone else could teleport to the island. They bumped into a Teratomorph along the way, which derailed their plans temporarily, but a memorized Plane Shift, and a teleport later the Cleric was back in action and they made it without any problems.
As for way cool ideas on how to get there, I suggest WorldWorks Games Maiden of the High Seas:
http://worldworksgames.com/store/products/maiden/maidenb2.jpg
Now - come on. Is that freaking cool or what? Almost makes you want to play STAP.
Wow ... that's pretty awesome
One of my PCs is a bit of a pirate. She just bought her own boat, actually an ex-pirate lord's boat. Decked the ship out with an odd-ball crew, and gave the ship some character by making the brig haunted (someone or something continues to place tally marks on the walls) and making one of the storage compartment lockers nigh unopenable and heavily trapped (truth be told I don't even know what is inside it yet).
The party had a few encounters on the high seas (at this point I should probably mention that my AoW path is set in Ebberon which means ALhaster is an ocean port). They faced off against a Favored Spawn of Kyuss Kraken (can't recall which Dragon the template was in) and later a Lucent Worm (from the Fiend Folio, seemed a fitting foe). Of course they fought pirates, though these were led by a Seawitch (prestige class from Stormwrack) and his Succubus consort (she teleported to the PC's boat to offer them a chance to surrender before the Seawitch summoned a maelstrom to drag their ship under; though due to a fast and brutal attack by the PCs that event never came to pass). They also were given a chance to slay several sick whales, and were in fact implored by the crew to do so since whaling could be highly profitable. The PCs decided against it and in fact the druid and cleric set about curing and healing the whales. This encounter was a precursor to them meeting a Sea Dragon (Fined Folio again) who considered himself the protector fo the whales. Since the PCs did the best and nicest thing possible there was no fight and the Sea Dragon rewarded them, if they had slain the whales it would have been a different story.
Hope that sparked some ideas. My party is anxious to get out to sea again (not sure how long I can keep them in Alhaster). Definitely looking forward to getting some more ideas for encounters at sea out of this thread.
The MudShip in dungeon 138 is a great way to get
to the island. I definetly plan on some using some
these good ideas and some of my own on that voyage.
One would be some modified Sheild Guardians used as
missles from orcan pirates.