"Porphyry House Horror" in STAP.

[Tony Wilkinson]

I have been thinking that I might run "The Porphyry House Horror" from Dungeon 95 as part of "Serpents of Scuttlecove". It would mean that Tyralandi would not yet be running the Porphyry House but I can't see much else that would need changing.

Has anyone done this? Are there any thoughts on how to fit this in?

Thanks in advance.
Tony.

[Matthew Vincent]

Tony Wilkinson wrote:

Has anyone done this? Are there any thoughts on how to fit this in?

I did this between The Lightless Depths and Serpents of Scuttlecove. I provided clues to the Yuant-ti link early. In this case, the Porphyry House Yuant-ti were making their drug from a powered black pearl, and were effectively planning to release a Savage tide (which they thought they could control) via their ceremony.

I had a much longer post that I typed out, but the board ate it, so feel free to ask questions.

[Tony Wilkinson]

Thanks Matthew,

Did your party run PHH and then SoS or did they play the Jade Ravens for PHH? Where there any issues with running PHH?

To my thinking PHH could slot into SoS with clearing it out being Tryalandi's price for her help. I like the idea of the drug being made from the savage pearls. I'll steal that.

Tony.

[Matthew Vincent]

Tony Wilkinson wrote:

Did your party run PHH and then SoS

Oops. I meant to say I ran PHH between The Lightless Depths and *City of Broken Idols* (because the PC's needed more XP before taking on CoBI).

They basically sailed to Scuttlecove after TLD, returned to the Island of Dread for CoBI, then teleported back for Serpents of Scuttlecove (they had left their ship and some allies there... some of which were captured and held in the Birdcage). The re-use of Scuttlecove gave it kind of a "home base" feel, and PHH definitely contains some excellent roleplaying opportunities.

Tony Wilkinson wrote:

To my thinking PHH could slot into SoS with clearing it out being Tryalandi's price for her help.

Sure. It might be a bit underpowered though for SoS ready PC's, but it certainly seems more seemless. Using the Jade Ravens though seems like it would detach the PC's too much from the events.

[Carl Cramér]

I ran it straight after the siege of Farshore. No problems really, except I had to provide a motivation for my players to first go there and then go back.

Actually, it turned into kind of a random event. My player's wanted to scout out Scuttlecove, and I ran the scenario hook more or less as written on the way there. In the end, they established an ally and decided the place was too tough a nut to crack.

[Tony Wilkinson]

Carl Cramér wrote:

I ran it straight after the siege of Farshore. No problems really, except I had to provide a motivation for my players to first go there and then go back.

Actually, it turned into kind of a random event. My player's wanted to scout out Scuttlecove, and I ran the scenario hook more or less as written on the way there. In the end, they established an ally and decided the place was too tough a nut to crack.

You mean they whimped out? How did they go with the "Wreck"?

Back to PHH. It should be relatively easy to beef up the module to fit the level the characters are at by then. Any ideas/problems?

Tony.

[Tony Wilkinson]

Matthew Vincent wrote:

I meant to say I ran PHH between The Lightless Depths and *City of Broken Idols* (because the PC's needed more XP before taking on CoBI)

So how did you get them to Scuttlecove? My lot are a bit like gung-ho combat monkeys. They'll charge right into COBI regardless of how much I might suggest they're not up to it. I need a good hook.

Using Harliss as SoS does might work. She needs help to do something for Tyralandi (knock over the PH) to get Tyralandi's help in firstly sending the message and in gathering info on the Crimson Fleet. Might work.

Tony.

[Matthew Vincent]

Tony Wilkinson wrote:

how did you get them to Scuttlecove?

By ship ;)

I placed some clues about the Yuan-ti link in tLD (similar to the stuff they would find in CoBI). Not that it mattered though: the party cleric always cast divinations (usually revealed as dreams) during downtime to determine the party's next move. Keeping them on track was pretty simple once they reached the level to cast that.

[Carl Cramér]

Tony Wilkinson wrote:

You mean they whimped out? How did they go with the "Wreck"?

After clearing out the Poryphory House, they returned to Farshore, seeing that they were not powerful enough to take on the whole of Scuttlecove at this time. Which kind of makes sense at 10th level. Now they are back and pretty much turned the entire city upside-down before sailing on into the sunset... I mean Abyss.