Nice work Greycloak, the stakes are really getting higher for your group now. I look forward to seeing (a) how they tackle the fight with Xanesha (again!) and (b) what they do with Fort Rannick when they finally have it in their hands. : )
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Thanks. We're playing tonight and I'm keen to see how things go. I'm hoping that they run into some Ogres right away so I can step back from running smart baddies and go back to running some tactics-free morons. I've been worrying a bit that I'm pushing the killer DM envelope a little bit here so we'll see how that all goes.
Maybe I'll put a handful of regular ogres in the hallways above the jail so the PCs can cut their teeth on ogre flesh...
For those who are interested in such things and have expressed interest in this thread about playing with me, I'm starting a PbP Serpent's Skull game here:
http://www.myth-weavers.com/showthread.php?t=145298
Don't apply if you can't post every 2 or 3 days. The site has a fairly steep learning curve to start but if you post in the Introductions thread, there are lots of folk there who are keen to help.
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I just wanted to thank your for making this thread. I am just getting back into running games after a 15 year hiatus from teen years.
I figured out that I wanted to run a combo of ROTR and KM awhile back and bought a few of the books and was working things out. Then I found this thread the day before the first game and it really helped me remember how the flow of GMing a game works. I made a big flow chart with my own personal changes to the game (im even trying to squeeze in a bit of Second Darkness in here in the form of the second adventure)and managed to work their own personal back stories into it a bit.
We just had our first game and it went amazingly. Im finding my PC's are more or less mirroring yours to a certain degree which is kind of interesting.
So thanks again for your work in chronicling the adventures you are running. Im enjoying the read :)
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Session 24 - Blood in the Keep
In attendance (everyone):
Arcainen - Human water bloodline sorcerer, focused on rays
Abinscole - Halfling Bard/Pathfinder Chronicler
Jerrick - Shoanti bow hunter cleric of Erastil
Richard - Chelaxian fighter, extreme AC and board
Thorin - A dwarven barbarian battlerager type - falchion
Wyndham - Human rogue/shadowdancer with a nasty streak
Mark - Human Evoker
Everyone's 7th level (rather than 8th where they should be at this point) but with 7 players, I decided against doing any modifications to the numbers of opponents, other than using the d20pfsrd converted bosses and Kreegs.
After quickly healing after their battle in the prison, and with spell durations ticking, the party decided to push on, hoping to catch Xanesha somewhere in the keep above them (she had teleported into the room with the sorceress Dorella Kreeg and her body guard and was unsuccessfully pleading with her to get some ogres to investigate).
The party was fairly careful about scouting the ground level of the keep and detected several groups of ogres in several rooms, deciding to spring the door on each one in turn, using the message cantrip for quiet communication. As described, the ogres were fairly dumb and tended to ignore sounds of combat so the party efficiently dispatched the ones in the infirmary and the barracks before their shouting (bardic inspiration loud enough to hear around the hall) alerted the ones in the workroom and armoury. The workroom pair (normal ogres) came out to take a peek (and died rather quickly) and the Kreeg in the armoury stayed put and waited for someone to come in.
The rogue, Wyndham decided to start popping doors while people were still gathering dropped equipment and stripping bodies and so bumped into the Fighter Kreeg in the workroom, getting hurt rather badly in the process. The Kreeg eventually died and everyone was healed up so they cast invisibility on Wyndham and he climbed the keep parapets and took a look around at the scene inside the main fort walls, getting a good idea about which ogres were where in the courtyard. After an unprompted discussion about burning the ogres in the old barracks, the party decided against and headed up to clean out the top level now.
They scouted and heard the pair of regular ogres talking in the tribunal room and heard Xanesha trying to convince Dorella to do something about the incoming party in the prison. I decided to move Jaagrath into the top of the tower because he would have been way too much for the group if he was alerted to their presence.
The party first attacked the ogres in the tribunal, killing them fairly quickly before opening the door to Dorella, Xanesha and the bodyguard, catching them flat-footed for a moment. Thorin took a defensive posture behind the door and waited while the magic users targeted Dorella.
Dorella replied with crushing despair (getting pretty much all of the party who was in the hall at the time) followed by mirror image and Xanesha started getting her wards up (mirror image then shield) while the goon moved to the door and attacked. The party then summoned inside the room, greased the entryway and attacked the Kreeg fighter who fought back hard, critting Richard and in one shot forcing the group to spend their once per session action point to save him from dying instantly - leaving him stabilized at -14HP.
Dorella next cast confusion getting everyone except for Jarrick the Cleric and Arcainen the Sorcerer, Xanesha cast haste to get to AC34 with 6 images. The Party got relatively lucky rolls on their first round of confusion with either doing nothing or attacking themselves until it came to Abinscole's turn. He cast Calm Emotions on everybody in the battle (which among other things dampens confusion while it is in effect), the ogres and Xanesha made their saves. The body guard attacked Thorin (ending Calm Emotions and returning him to where he had to retaliate because of confusion). Mark then webbed the room (not violent and so OK as far as Calm Emotions is concerned) trapping Dorella while Thorin pounded on the body guard killing it and targetting the sorceress with spells and ranged attacks (scaring her).
Dorella then dimension doored up to where Jaagrath was (the tower) to escape the webs and Xanesha used her mask to turn Arcainen to stone. The party slammed the door shut and decided to beat a retreat while Abinscole concentrated on Calm emotions and with Thorin being the only one who still had confusion running.
Mark hurried over to the statue of Arcainen and shoved him in his bag of holding and the rest of the party retreated, kinda.
The group heard Jaagrath and Dorella coming down from the top of the tower but they pissed around a little and got caught with the confused Thorin in the second floor who attacked Richard, dropping him just as Jaagrath came out and Xanesha killed the summons and opened her door (Dorella slipped on a grease spell that was left in their way). Jarrick used his last burst heal to raise Richard back to consciousness and heal Thorin. Thorin got attacked by Jaagrath and in his last rounds of confusion counterattacked, nearly killing the ogre leader before he was killed killed killed dead dead dead. Xanesha was trapped behind so she cast invisibility. (Now Haste, Invis, Mage Armour, Shield, Mirror Image)
Mark, sensing that there was a chance to do some good damage, returned to the hall and cast a fireball, dropping Dorella to about 19HP, Jaagrath to about 40HP and Xanesha to about 70HP. He was then knocked down to -2HP by Jaagrath and the party decided to split. Lucky for Mark, he stabilized right away and was left behind as the ogres and Xanesha pursued the party. The group escaped into the Lizard Warrens and got away because the ogres were too slow squeezing through the narrow stairwells and tunnels.
Meantime, Arcainen became un-petrified (10 rounds had passed) and he pulled himself out of the bag of holding, and used a potion to revive Mark. Mark stuffed Thorin's corpse in his bag of holding and they decided to go up to one of the empty rampart towers to decide what to do. Arcainen cast invisibility on Mark then climbed into his bag of holding with the dead dwarf, Mark cast spider climb using his Arcane Focus thingey and they climbed up the cliff, under the waterfall and escaped, returning to camp near the Graul homestead about a half an hour after the rest of the party.
That's where we left it. Xanesha burned the remainder of her spells as CLWs on herself, getting into the 120's for HPs, Dorella is hurt bad and Jaagrath is significantly hurt as well. Thorin had requested not to be raised from the dead and willed his gear to the party so he's going to come back as a fighter of some description next time.
I think I'll have the barracks ogres move into the keep and jail with poorly understood instructions to flee back to the top level of the keep, leave the gate guards and little tower groups where they are and move Xanesha's lair into the chapel. She'll be on a hair trigger to dimension door to escape the keep to haunt the party again, having assumed prime returning villain status. I have no idea what my PCs are going to some up with next (it's certainly going to involve something to help against confusion) but this was an epic and really fun night, even with a PC death.
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Bonus:
Jerrick was suspicious that one of the Black Arrow Rangers tipped off the ogres somehow because Xanesha "was waiting for them". They talked about it a bit but let it slide after concluding that this was her lair, however improbable. This suspicion was not true at the time.
The party hasn't seen Kaven's tattoo yet but they'll get another chance back in camp at the beginning of next session which I'll probably have be a success this time, regardless of the rolls. I'm not sure what fruit will come of that but unless they can intimidate him, I expect a fruitless interrogation with Zone of Truth planned for the morning. Kaven will definitely try to slip away at night to find his love Xanesha if he is left unguarded or can escape his bonds - if he gets away, he'll rat the party's plans out, whatever they are, and will become Xanesha's wisdom-drained charm zombie pet for his troubles.
Hey Greycloak, sounds like you had a rollicking time--as you say, despite a PC death! Although sometimes that's what makes it all worthwhile, really. If there's no danger it ceases to become exciting. : )
I hope Arcainen & Mark's players got a pat on the back from the rest of the party for being clever enough to escape the fortress using their own talents, that was a pretty complex series of actions they used to get away! Good on them.
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Session 25 - A castle to call their own
In attendance (my fighters, very light on spellcasting):
Jerrick - Shoanti bow hunter cleric of Erastil
Richard - Chelaxian fighter, extreme AC and board
I forget his name - Halforc bow ranger, Black Arrow back from leave
Wyndham - Human rogue/shadowdancer with a nasty streak
Missing:
Arcainen - Human water bloodline sorcerer, focused on rays
Abinscole - Halfling Bard/Pathfinder Chronicler
Mark - Human Evoker
My initial monster moves: I moved Xanesha out of the jail up to the top of the tower and replaced her with 4 ogres from the new barracks and had the ogres smash the ledge leading into the secret entrance into the waterfall. Jaagrath and Dorella were now in the Tribunal room (that led to the tower and Xanesha's lair).
The team meanwhile decided to take a couple of days and then come at the keep from a new angle - recon first, then decide. Wyndham scaled the entrance into the tunnels even without a ledge and made his way in. He heard ogre voices on the other side of the jail door and through the secret door behind the new barracks. He then decided to wander into the crypt, lost initiative and got level drained for a fun time before running away. They took another day off at that point to fix young Wyndham and decided to return at dusk the next day through the secret tunnels (by rope) and light fire to the barracks and attack the ogres in the outer keep, perhaps retreating on the way.
The outer battle was pretty fun for the guys - the new half-orc ranger burned through a significant portion of his giant bane arrows (2/3 during the whole evening) and got to feel like a bad-assed giant killin' mofo. They killed the barracks ogres with fire and then hit everyone in the outer keep without expending too many of their resources. They pushed over the tower (toppling it on Richard and the Halforc) and then they decided to pull back before the bosses came on them.
This time, they set up camp on the south side of the ravine in the tunnels and set up an audible alarm in the passageway to the south and left the half-orc's cougar to watch things to the north. I had decided that Xanesha would do a walkabout when she learned that the ogres were dead and rolled 50/50 to see which way she went. She approached from the south and set off the alarm so she pulled back to the next chamber and started buffing like she always does: shield/mirror image/invisibility/etc.
My PCs did the same and so they had the same problem they've always had against her - colossal damage output in the early rounds and few hits back because of mirror image. Xanesha tried a slightly different tack this time, attempting Suggestion on Richard that only failed because of Protection from Evil's second saving throw. The battle was another stalemate - crushing damage on both sides until Xanesha was in the danger zone, stepped back and Dimension Doored up to her tower.
The PCs healed up and she healed up and the PCs headed into the jail, killing the ogres there in a couple of rounds. They headed up to the ogre nest and opened the doors to where Jaagrath and Dorella were waiting. My ranger nearly killed the sorceress in the first two rounds (and she was largely ineffective in reply because of some made saves) so she dimension doored up to the tower. Jaagrath was tougher but wasn't quite so tough after Richard smited his ogre hook to pieces. Jaagrath returned the favour by disarming Richard and attacking him with his own longsword but he didn't last long. Xanesha then came down the steps and tried another charm spell before fighting. The group retreated again and lost her in the tunnels like before. At this point, the only alive folk were Xanesha and Dorella so I decided that they would retreat to be part of the dam busting crew or something else down the line.
The PCs also retreated to their camp and this time, finally somebody saw the Sihedron rune on Kaven. They did some secret thief's cant talk about it, which Kaven caught on to, resolving to confront him the next morning (presumably with Zone of Truth running).
Kaven split on his first chance at night and was noticed escaping so the chase was on. Jerrick and Richard headed off on horseback (with lights out) to watch the bridges, Wyndham bolted for the waterfall (using darkvision and therefore faster than Kaven) and the Half-orc lead the tracking crew.
Kaven saw Jerrick and Richard and so scouted around, deciding to head in through the waterfall. Wyndham saw him approach and had a brilliant idea - he used his hat of disguise to look like Xanesha's human form and met Kaven. There was some brilliant roleplay where I was trying to get Kaven to kiss my rogue but he managed to talk him out of it, turning back into Wyndham's true form, saying that (she) would use that disguise (Wyndham's appearance) and they would approach the first horseman together and kill them one at a time.
Wyndham alerted Richard at the last moment, flanked Kaven and the two beat the traitor down but bound his wounds and didn't kill him.
That's where we left it. The PCs plan to interrogate Kaven and either kill him or imprison him for life depending on whether they can discern whether he is charmed or not. I pushed my group to tell me if they were planning on returning to the keep so that I could tell them a few things:
1) Xanesha and Dorella are gone
2) Once they tell the Lord-Mayor about what happened, they are to be offered the keep. I did this so I could give my group the Kingmaker kingdom-building rules to mull over between sessions so they could put some thought to who wanted what roles etc. This is a culmination of a question I posed to them before the campaign about whether they wanted to end up doing kingdom-making/ruling stuff. They said yes so that bargain is now complete, whether they like it or not.
For next time:
My PCs are straddling 7th/8th levels so they have lots of XP room for the kingmaker junk I have planned in the Rannick Hinterlands (elements from KM1, KM2 and KM3). The next scheduled event will be the dam busting which will happen in the spring (several months in the future). I'm probably going to end up winging the winter months with hexploration/settling if the PCs go that way or back to the Runelords plot if they drag their feet. There will be a chance for them to do the KM3 - Varnhold Vanishing adventure in its entirety if they look to be having fun with the ruling a kingdom stuff. I figure I'll start Fortress of the Stone Giants in the next fall (a little under a year in the future), with the assault happening either in Turtleback Ferry or with them getting evidence of giant incursions that they may track all the way to the point where they learn that there is to be an imminent attack on Sandpoint.
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Assuming your players are content to build up a kingdom for awhile and give you a break from the runelords plot, do you think youll give Xanesha more levels or tricks or anything new for their next encounter with her? Obviously she is already brutal enough, but she wouldnt spend months sitting on her hands the whole time, I think, having almost been bested several times by this same group.
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Yeah, there is a bit of a plot problem I've created with her escaping like this. At what point does a Lamia Matriarch either cut her losses and change schemes or recruit an even bigger baddy to do a scry and fry?
Maybe to keep the logic sound, she'll push the timeline on the dam busting (so it happens right away - days after Rannick, not weeks or months in the future) to complete her big scheme and plan a final ambush. She would expect the PCs to retaliate and she'd have some serious terrain advantages flying over the dam if she started prepping after the PCs engage the Ogre demolition crew.
I suppose there's something she can do with Major Image or her enchantment spells to screw with the party first like try enchantments at range until and unless she can charm/suggest the party tank. If that fails, she'll flee again and try to head for Hook Mountain to recruit Barl, the Hags, Dorella and the rest of the Kreegs to attack Fort Rannick again or something?
I still worry that she is a TPK-level threat even at 7th-8th level. If the party tank gets charmed in the middle of the group, even if its just to prevent damage to her or suggested that his big bad longsword is cursed, they'll be in some serious, serious trouble.
I might wait and see who I have next time. If it's the full group, maybe I'll have her spoil for a rematch. If not, maybe I won't.
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You could delay the dam breaking by changing the story around a bit that the group of ogres that took the fort were a scouting party or something, and that Barl and co hadnt been sent to the area yet.
The delay would be the travel time it takes Xanesha to get to Mokmurian, convince him her plan will work, have Mok assign the task to Barl and Barl get his stuff together to move on the dam.
As far as leveling X up, I didnt mean to make her tougher to beat, neccessarily, but to give her more options in combat, despite having many already. Of course, if they do encounter her on the dam, that alone, I think, could be deadly enough. Gives them more room than the clocktower did/would have, but still limits their movement, cause of the shape (obviously). Plus, a petrification by the mask could just as easily mean the person sinking into the Storval Deep for a minute before turning back into flesh, which might very well be just as deadly, considering swim speeds + holding breath time before suffocation.
Regarding whether she would cut her losses and flee or stay to bother them some more, I think she is too intelligent to make a rash decision. She hasnt yet been able to defeat them, and she has had to retreat, for fear of dying herself. Unless she can come up with some way that she thinks will give her some kind of advantage that will allow her to beat them (maybe even just having Dorella with her), I think she would probably leave for now.
If she somehow survives the dam breaking, I think I would reinsert her near the end of the mod. Someplace really close to them fighting big K.
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Having the Kreegs take out the Fort seems too bold a move unless it serves the essential purpose of getting the rangers out of the way so they could bust the dam.
I could see her fighting the party one more time at the dam and then if driven away (400' dimension door), maybe she returns riding the red dragon at the beginning of FotSG or maybe they'll start scrying for her or doing divinations or something and that'll give them an indication about a Sandpoint attack.
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Session 26 - Flood!
In attendance:
Jerrick - Shoanti bow hunter cleric of Erastil
Richard - Chelaxian fighter, extreme AC and board
Vor - Halforc bow ranger, Black Arrow back from leave
Wyndham - Human rogue/shadowdancer with a nasty streak
Abinscole - Halfling Bard/Pathfinder Chronicler
Mark - Human Evoker
Missing:
Arcainen - Human water bloodline sorcerer, focused on rays
I had told my PCs to expect a long discussion about kingdom building and roles and all that and we had lots of OOC talking about that stuff and make plans, decide who would get which KM role etc. Further, they were very keen to spend their loot acquired since the Grauls-Rannick and wanted some time off to do that (sending the missing Arcainen away to do that and contact the Lord Mayor about the status of the Fort while they remained behind to defend it).
In the end, I decided to go with the quick flood so I set the timer at 6 days and let them do what they wanted in the mean time. I figure that this will give my group a chance to resolve things with Xanesha at the dam and may wrap things up nicely as far as my PCs are concerned, leaving Barl and the rest of the Ogres as a card in my deck to play another day.
Anyway, they continued to ignore the heavy rain and spent their efforts doing some magic item crafting, dragging corpses away, cleaning things up, deciding who gets what room and all that. Then, Vale came riding up to the castle and told them that the Skull River had suddenly increased in depth by more than 10 feet and implied trouble downstream for the town they had decided to stick around to protect.
The party suited up and rode as fast as they could to the town. I drew things out on the battle map and they raced to try to help the kids on the boat (encounter 1). The first arrivals were Jerrick and Abinscole who both summoned creatures to help - Jerrick a Pteranodon, who he instructed using his Speak With Animals domain ability; and Abinscole a Celestial Dolphin, who he instructed using Celestial. This got us using the PF Fly rules for the first time which kinda bogged things down but it's good to get that out of the way.
Anyway, I couldn't find anything near to the Nightbelly Boa and I had forgot to print one out so I used a CR10 snake from Bestiary 2 and knocked it down about 25% on the fly to make it into a CR8 to challenge my group. It was pretty squishy in the end and the group used a grapple and horses to pull the raft to safety.
Next was Black Magga who came up a fair distance from the group (nearest Jerrick). She fought using her described tactics for a while, confusing Jerrick and his horsey and amazingly managed to miss Richard with all of her attacks (1 bite, then a full attack, then another bite as an attack of opportunity as the group fled). I rolled 1 twice and under 8 3 more times. In the open, on the table. Still, she missed two of her attacks by exactly one twice because she was squeezed between the church and the next building.
The party managed to inflict about 20 HP damage total in 4 rounds and she left after the allotted time. In all, the encounter was a bit unsatisfying as my group had already been in the thick of fighting creatures they couldn't hit or affect with spells because of SR (Xanesha and both rematches). They have learned to flee though, which is an improvement.
Unfortunately, with the other business, we didn't get anywhere on the dam and so despite being ready for Keeping the Keep, they are at least one day (when Arcainen arrives in Magnimar) from even being contacted about it so the preparations that took up the lions' share of our session won't come into effect until later. They have decided to head up to the dam next time.
At the very end, we did a practise round of the Kingmaker Kingdom turn to get me to figure out whether I was giving them too much, too little, something unstable, stable, whatever and to teach the PCs a bit about how it works.
The kingdom they inherit is 5 hexes in size (one centred on the fort and each of the villages on the map in RotR3 plus one along the lake shore between Turtleback Ferry and Pendaka). They have already explored two hexes (the lake itself which has the sliver of the western shore they explored after being shipwrecked) and the swamp hex SW of the lake (the home of my Boggards).
They get one cave hex and a castle at the fort (whose hex I will allow them to convert to something other than a city, provided they don't expand things at the castle any more than one district). I did Turtleback Ferry as a 1 district town with a house, inn, shop, smith. The other three hexes start as "farm" in the form of active trap lines, fishing, farming etc. and I'm starting them with a modest 20 BP in the treasury and am neutering the rules to limit the benefit from the Magic Item economy.
As it currently sits (depending on how they giggle the final ruler/spymaster targeted attributes), the kingdom's control DC is 25, consumption is 1, Economy is 19, Loyalty 8, Stability 22. They have Jakardros as Councilor, Vale as Treasurer and Shalelu as Warden (though she's going to flake out and leave after a month or two and return to Sandpoint, in part to return to the default starting conditions for another AP that may or may not be ran in the future).
Arcainen = Ruler
Richard = General
Abinscole = Grand Diplomat
Jerrick = High Priest
Magister = Mark
Marshal = Vor
Spymaster = Wyndham
The turn worked well - they have to decide between an almost un-missable stability roll or the same for economy or a 25% failure rate on one. If they fail economy, they break even or lose 1 BP per round and if they make it, they make 5-7. I wanted the kingdom to be turning a modest profit and it is.
I told them the Castle needs 10BP in work (physical repairs and renovations plus furniture, guards etc.) but I might knock that back a bit.
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So, I drafted up a battle mat for the dam.
It ended up being 10' long x 3' wide at 1":5' scale, just printing the half from the ettin lair to the sluice house in the middle. I have plotters that can do that but I don't have table enough for that...
I thought I'd share anyway:
http://i751.photobucket.com/albums/xx155/greykloak/SkullsCrossing.jpg
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Same map at 2/3 scale with some added skullyness. I figure that at this scale, I'll be able to break it up and tile the dam as needed and it's not too silly for fitting on a table:
http://i751.photobucket.com/albums/xx155/greykloak/SkullsCrossing666scale.j pg
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Wow, lol. Thats a huge map. My group didnt take long getting to the main part (thanks to Hasted T-rex and Eidolon and a Wizard casting D-Door), but then again, my party didnt have to deal with X on this bridge either.
Hope the fight goes well and is truly epic for this epic sized map. ;)
It was worth it.
I made 2/3-scale ogre, troll and Xanesha chits to go along with the map but I can't post them. Sadly I didn't have my phone so I couldn't take a picture.
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Session 27 - Dam and a Kingdom (Extended 12+ hour all-day Remembrance Day Game)
In attendance:
Jerrick - Shoanti bow hunter cleric of Erastil
Richard - Chelaxian fighter, extreme AC and board
Vor - Halforc bow ranger, Black Arrow back from leave
Wyndham - Human rogue/shadowdancer with a nasty streak
Abinscole - Halfling Bard/Pathfinder Chronicler
Arcainen - Human water bloodline sorcerer, focused on rays
Missing:
Mark - Human Evoker
We started the game with an offer from Magnimar to sever formal ties around Ft. Rannick and grant autonomous rule in the Skull River drainage basin north of Ilsurian. They named their new kingdom "Thornhold", Arcainen became High Chancellor, the rest were Chancellors in various roles (they are working on titles still but Wyndham the spymaster calls himself Lord of Whispers or some such).
They reunited, chatted about the kingdom a bit and resolved to head up to the dam, which I had planned pretty much as written plus Xanesha perched atop the skulls in the middle and a couple more trolls inside to make up for numbers.
They had surprising difficulty with the ettin because he spotted the scout Wyndham and proceeded to play whack-a-mole as the PCs tried to climb up the 15' slope. He eventually died but it was surprisingly fun for me for what I expected would be a throw-away encounter.
Emerging from the cave, they saw the ogres through the rain and spotted Xanesha with a high Perception roll.
Unfortunately, they hatched a so-so plan. They cast invisibility on 4 of them - the two archers (Jerrick/Vor) and the two meleers (Richard/Wyndham). The meleers snuck past the ogres and climbed to the top of the sluice-house, the casters (Abinscole/Arcainen) stayed at the cave, and the archers went about half way. This positioning protected them from the minor threat (the ogres) but didn't let them get an ideal drop on Xanesha (the major threat) and left them spread out, which was a bad move.
They started the fight with an acid arrow against Xanesha, hoping the ongoing damage could foul up her spells. It didn't.
They silenced the fighter to try to mess up her casting but she was faster given her climb speed. The fighter destroyed her glaive with sunder (a good thing) and rogue missed his surprise attack.
She retreated behind the sluice house using her climb speed, accepting attacks of opportunity that hurt a bit and cast invisibility.
Then fly and out over the water, then shield, then mage armour, then mirror image, then she started with charm person.
Charmed Wyndham the rogue first (even with the -5 to DC) but lost her opposed charisma check to make him defend her - he was out of the fight as he had two groups of Friends that were fighting. Charmed the fighter after he had bashed his way into the sluice house just so he could fight a bunch of trolls to increase the difficulty. She did influence him to defend her and he interpreted that to be to fight trolls, which was fine and gave him something to do.
In the mean time, the rest of the party nuked the ogres and were scurrying over but couldn't see X as she remained behind the skulls until she enthralled the two fighters.
She turned the bard to stone (10 rounds) and Suggested the archer ranger that the fight was unwinnable and it would be better to flee.
She failed a bunch of charms etc. against the cleric and sorcerer, so she exchanged some ranged spells. She eventually got critted a couple of times and was about to book it when Richard remembered he had protection from Evil running from the start and at this point took his second saving throw, making it this time. He left the trolls, and climbed up to the top again. Xanesha was getting into her comfort zone for HP but seeing the brute arrive she asked him to defend her and he successfully bluffed her.
Sadly, he missed his surprise attack so she dimension doored away. Again.
No PC deaths but she is weakened as she is without her big glaive.
Anyway, they mopped up the dam and drove off Grazuul. The telepathic plea for help from the Pit Fiend was met with shrugs and a "What's in it for me?" from Wyndham. The Fiend offered him his 1/year wish and Wyndham tried to make the group escape and barring that, tried to get Richard's adamantine long sword to set it free but the party stopped that nonsense. They eventually worked out the puzzle and summoned a swarm into the empty side and the dam activated.
They returned to Turtleback ferry and did some item crafting, a three week trip to Magnimar to sell some loot and took a couple of kingdom turns. They spent nearly all of their starting BPs repairing the Castle and built a graveyard for the Rannick Folk and didn't expand the kingdom at all but opened the area around Ft. Rannick to settlers (farming it to get consumption to 0). Their second kingdom turn was pretty simple as they had no money.
I decided to drop the Fey bit for now and let them set the pace of the Runelords story.
Reunited and now in the winter, they decided to do some exploration around their new home. They went first to the Dam hex, found that the Storval Deep was about half emptied, Grazuul had split and that there were tracks in the snow atop the dam of both trolls and ogres of various ages. I have the Troll lairs up to the Northeast and the ogres in Hook Mountain.
The party then cleared the Kreegwood hex which was vacated except for a bunch of animal remains in Graul traps. Next was the hill Hex west of Ft. Rannick, which had sign in the snow from ogres up on the Hook for hunting. This led them to head into the Hook Mountain Hex (perched between the two lakes). They found the trails and headed up the hook.
I hadn't really planned the clanhold other than to have Dorella there so this was winged a bit. I ran it pretty much as written with a couple more mook ogres in the choke point, a couple more mooks and an extra Fighter in the big room to the south and with Dorella Kreeg in there too. That proved to be a bit too big a challenge and almost got me into trouble as you'll see.
They found the entrance and fought the two guards without alerting anything on the inside. They took the sihedron medallion from the "Statue" and headed inside, fairly cockily. The regular ogres in the choke point were no trouble at all as Richard's AC is unhittable for them. This got him overconfident as usual and he charged into the room to the south and got surrounded (the only real threat were the ogre fighters, who could and did hit young Richard).
The trouble started when the party was clustered well back on the stairway. Dorella spotted this and dropped the first of several Confusion spells. 3 failed saves and 2 Hero points spent to reroll left them with only Abinscole confused.
Wyndham got into trouble fighting one of the Ogre fighters with his new flank-buddy, his shadowdancer Shadow and had to bust off a Hero Point to not die.
Meantime, the mook ogres went down and the party dropped two of the three fighters as they wailed away on Richard. Richard and Vor (the ranger) and Abinscole killed most of the rest when Richard, Vor and a revived Wyndham failed Confusion rolls. Richard got damage himself a couple of times and managed to knock himself out of the match as the rest of the party killed the remaining ogre meleers. Abinscole in a moment of clarity used calm emotions to take himself, Vor and Wyndham out of the fight (but not fighting each other).
This left Abinscole (sorcerer), Jerrick (bow-cleric) and Vor's animal companion (kitty) to fight Dorella. Jerrick had used dimensional anchor (against dimension door, which she had used before) so she was trapped. They exchanged ranged spells and attacks and she Blinded Abinscole.
Unable to affect Jerrick, she switched to lightning bolt vs. arrows and after a really tough fight, she died. The party stripped the bodies and fled, utterly depleted but with every last Kreeg ogre left as a corpse.
The fight at the dam was about 20 rounds, the fight in the choke point and south room was about the same.
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For next time:
They have killed all the ogres, leaving behind a couple dozen corpses. Left are the Hags, Barl and his henchgiant.
Unfortunately for the party, the Hags have a number of crazy spell-like abilities which (if I'm reading this right) don't require material components and are basically limitless. Evil DM-me wants to exploit this.
That means that when dinner isn't delivered on time and they figure out what happened, they have options for those corpses:
1) Animate Dead.
- This makes 6HD, CR2 ogre zombies. The Hags can control three, Barl two for a total of 5. This will happen for sure.
2) Reincarnate.
- Do I go ahead and have the Hags reincarnate every last ogre that's left? A bunch of stupid, weak, level-drained elf/gnome/dwarfs with giant HD and with or without fighter levels sounds fun. Maybe just Dorella? Maybe Barl making her a zombie is what drives a wedge between him and the Hags?
3) The alternative is to zombifiy the rest of the corpses and have them roam the countryside. That sounds more like Barl's style.
4) Speak with dead for intel. They won't get too much interrogating ogre corpses but they'll know something.
Further, the Hags have:
Commune + Vision - This with leads from animate dead could give quite a bit of information
Control Weather - To make the approach that much worse?
Mirage Arcana - Maybe make part of the approach to the Clanhold look like something else? Maybe make a cliff look like not a cliff? Hmm...
Veil - Maybe some zombies that look like captives?
For next time:
They have killed all the ogres, leaving behind a couple dozen corpses. Left are the Hags, Barl and his henchgiant.
Unfortunately for the party, the Hags have a number of crazy spell-like abilities which (if I'm reading this right) don't require material components and are basically limitless. Evil DM-me wants to exploit this.
That means that when dinner isn't delivered on time and they figure out what happened, they have options for those corpses:
1) Animate Dead.
- This makes 6HD, CR2 ogre zombies. The Hags can control three, Barl two for a total of 5. This will happen for sure.2) Reincarnate.
- Do I go ahead and have the Hags reincarnate every last ogre that's left? A bunch of stupid, weak, level-drained elf/gnome/dwarfs with giant HD and with or without fighter levels sounds fun. Maybe just Dorella? Maybe Barl making her a zombie is what drives a wedge between him and the Hags?3) The alternative is to zombifiy the rest of the corpses and have them roam the countryside. That sounds more like Barl's style.
4) Speak with dead for intel. They won't get too much interrogating ogre corpses but they'll know something.
Further, the Hags have:
Commune + Vision - This with leads from animate dead could give quite a bit of information
Control Weather - To make the approach that much worse?
Mirage Arcana - Maybe make part of the approach to the Clanhold look like something else? Maybe make a cliff look like not a cliff? Hmm...
Veil - Maybe some zombies that look like captives?
Sounds awesome. I'm gonna make note of this.
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Hmm. Zombie Ogres are arguably better than regular ogres (more HP, better saves, better attack for more damage, damage reduction - only downsides are AC and the whole vulnerable to channelling thing - staggered makes little difference):
Zombie Ogre CR2
XP 600
NE Large Undead
Init -2; Senses Darkvision 60'; Perception +0
Defence
AC 14, Touch 7, Flat Footed 14 (+4 armour, -2 Dex, +3 Natural, -1 size)
HP 33 (6d8+6)
Fort 2; Ref 2; Will 6
Dr 5/slashing; Undead Traits
Offence
Speed 30 (40 base)
Melee greatclub +12 (2d8+9) or slam +12 (1d8+6)
Space 10'; Reach 10'
Statistics
Str 23, Dex 6, Con -, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 10
Base Attack +6, CMB +10, CMD 18
Feats: Toughness (B)
SQ: Staggered (1 move or 1 standard action/round, includes a standard charge)
Could be that Natural armour goes from +5 (ogre) to +3 (zombie) or it could be 5+3=+8. The former probably makes more sense as the tough ogre hide would be... softened... by decomposition?
Also, Pathfinder Barl can control an additional Ogre Zombie with his necromancer control undead feat. That makes 3 and with the Hags (plus the wight), 3 with Barl and his henchgiant.
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OK, I've made some decisions.
There will be 6 controlled zombie ogres, 3 with Barl (for fodder to slow down my large party), 3 with the Hags. The hags will animate the remainder of the ogre clan as zombies that will be left to wander around randomly. The pc's will start encountering them in the snow outside the clanhold and they'll be lurching around the halls - they'll be no challenge encountered one at a time but it'll create a ton of cool atmosphere to find the formerly cleared halls filled with shuffling corpses.
The Hags will use Mirage Arcana to make their room look like it has a door that when opened is full of foggy steam from a natural hot spring. Hidden behind the fog, the hags make themselves look like Ft. Rannick rangers chained to a pole on a small island, and will make the three ogre zombies and Lamatar Bayden look like water elementals that emerge from the fog to attack.
See map (this one is also huge in scale, the left-right axis is 34" so I'll have to chop it up:
http://i751.photobucket.com/albums/xx155/greykloak/Hook_Mountain_Clanhold.j pg
The Hags will get the initiative because they can see through their illusion and will see the PCs approach and will likely start with Forcecage just as the door is touched.
The PCs first "interaction" with the Mirage Arcana illusion will be when they either open the door or come within 5' of the door and feel the steam. Their first "interaction" with the veiled ogres and wight will be when the first attack happens and their first "interaction" with the Hags will be when any of them who can see through the Mirage Arcana see the Hags casting spells.
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Very nice. I love the zombie ogres idea.
For Barl, I gave him the template the stone giants can possibly have to make him a little tougher. Plus, it gave him access to Stoneshape and Transmute Stone to Mud, though you might be able to pick those out with his regular wizard levels.
I think they give him some nice options for attack/escape that being a necromancer doesnt neccessarily bring to the table. Dropping the roof on my party and then forming a tunnel behind him to escape was not something my players had expected.
Plans for Xanesha now? Will she be at the attack at the start of book 4, or diappear for awhile and show up near the end?
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(snip stuff about Barl)
Plans for Xanesha now? Will she be at the attack at the start of book 4, or disappear for awhile and show up near the end?
I haven't really thought too much about making Barl tougher other than some subtle changes I made to the battle map - I made the elevated area with the statues be at +20' and so the PCs are climbing up or running through a series of 5' steps in a funnel. The ogre zombies won't be much of a challenge but they'll be waiting about half-way in the room where they'll have cover and high groound. That might slow things a little for Barl to use spells to debuff the party tank.
I like the PFSRD change giving him improved invisibility, which makes that fight last longer if my PCs are without see invisibility. I was going to give him the cast another spell from the Spell Book kind of arcane focus and might throw up some battlefield control action like Black Tentacles or Wall of Fire so he can spam his Enervation Wand and really mess up anyone who charges right in.
Thinking maybe he'll cast:
(If the PCs screw up and alert him in advance)
- Mage Armour, Spectral Hand, Fly, Expeditious Retreat, Mirror Image
Then in round 1:
1) Improved Invisibility
2) Wind Wall (make those ranged attacks be 1-way)
As for Xanesha, I'm debating whether to put her in at the beginning of Book 4 (Riding the red dragon? Attacking Turtleback Ferry? Attacking the dam?) or maybe near the end of it with her in chains or something to punish her for her failures. That might depend on whether the PCs think to start Scrying for her once the cleric gets level 9.
In the short term, I'm going play the Giant Invasion timing by ear, depending on how my PCs are enjoying their Kingdom stuff. If they decide that they love hexploration and kingdom stuff, I may do a session or two of that (and probably advance the time-line a year or more) and then run Varnhold Vanishing and then FotSG:Revenge of Xanesha afterwords.
Everyone's 8th level now, with some barely levelled and some maybe 1/3 to 1/2-way to 9th so I have some significant wiggle room before they are 10th level.
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Updated map of Thornhold (their new realm, red dots are cleared hexes that may be annexed per the KM rules):
http://i751.photobucket.com/albums/xx155/greykloak/Thornhold_4710_01.jpg
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Session 27 - Return to Hook Mountain
In attendance:
Jerrick - Shoanti bow hunter cleric of Erastil
Vor - Halforc bow ranger, Black Arrow back from leave
Wyndham - Human rogue/shadowdancer with a nasty streak
Abinscole - Halfling Bard/Pathfinder Chronicler
Arcainen - Human water bloodline sorcerer, focused on rays
Mark - Human Evoker
Missing:
Richard - Chelaxian fighter, extreme AC sword and board
I printed out those maps I made and they were huge so I ended up cutting them into sensible room panels - I could show two locations at once on my table except for the throne room, which filled things on its own.
My group had cleared everything but the Throne Room and the Hags. The Hags had gone ahead and animated all the dead ogres, leaving the majority of them to wander the halls in the choke point to serve as an early warning for the two boss rooms. The Hags were using Mirage Arcana to make their room look like a steamy sauna with a door and were using Veil to make themselves look like Black Arrow prisoners and make their three ogre zombies look like Large Water Elementals.
Anyway, they had both casters so they Nova'd the roaming free zombies in the hall and the choke point (fun for the blasters because they pretty much re-killed all the ogres without too much trouble - a bit troubling because they burned through something like half of their area effect spells right off the bat). They scouted next to the throne room and saw the 4 ogre zombies and two stone giants. They hatched a plan involving several guys running invisibility and sneaking into the far end of the room into good bow position (across from the throne at the end of the room) and the casters wasting the zombies with fireballs and the like to start things off with a bang.
The plan worked as far as the zombies were concerned but Barl's Wind Wall messed up the rest of the plan in terms of them being easy pickings for the giant killin' archer ranger. Barl's flunky concentrated his ranged attacks on Mark (who stepped into the open) and Barl turned invisible and began making life difficult for the rest of the group (exhaustion on the rogue, fear on the ranger who fled the battle as he had done a few times already this campaign and blindness on Arcainen the sorcerer who had a potion of see invisibility and could obviously see him - this was the third time Arcainen's been blinded this campaign).
It took a few rounds to get this done and so the flunky was killed (sometime after Mark was knocked out of the fight) and Barl had taken some damage from well-placed Area of Effect spells. Abinscole used his Pathfinder Chronicler Deep Pockets ability to find himself a Glitterdust scroll which he used to outline and blind Barl. Mark had been revived and so hit Barl with Black tentacles while the rest of the group plunked away at range.
Barl was dropped down to 5 HP the round the glitterdust ended so he did vampiric touch to heal up and began beating an invisible retreat. This took him near Vor's animal companion who detected him with scent, Mark encircled him with a wall of fire and he died trying to cross the flames.
The next day, they went after the remaining room and found the door with the Hags. The Hags beat Wyndham's stealth roll when he stopped to check for traps on the door (that was not a door). He failed his will save against the Mirage Arcana illusion and then the Hags balefully polymorphed him into a snail while everyone else couldn't yet see the illusion before them.
Vor stepped up to where he could see the door, Arcainen ran up to grab snail-Wyndham and the Hags turned Vor into a Guinea Pig. The guys were pretty frightened at this point and the retreat was called for.
Arcainen got a save against the illusion because he could hear the casting on the other side of the illusionary door and it wasn't muffled correctly and was able to get a save and saw through the illusionary door and saw the trio of "Black Arrow Prisoners" along with the three "Water Elementals". Arcainen grabbed Guinea Pig-Vor and ran down the stairs to the choke point room as the Elemental/Ogre Zombies pursued.
The full retreat was on more or less with the wizard and sorceror fireballing behind them as the zombies entered the room. They followed that with a wall of fire to contain things and the hags countered with fog cloud so they could cross the wall and be under cover on the other side.
The party continued their retreat with the two wizards guarding the rear. Arcainen had a scroll of dispel magic and for the first time since I've been playing in the 3.0 Beta, somebody readied a counterspell and it actually worked - Dispel Magic vs. the Hag's baleful polymorph. He made the counterspell roll and the Hags had a bad day - another big spell killed one of the hags so the party knew the coven was broken and the fight was going to melee. The hags went down pretty quickly and there was great rejoicing.
The party more carefully searched the clanhold and discovered the iron ore mines, learning that the Hook Mountain Hex was a resource Hex (+1 economy) so now it's on their to-annex list.
That's where we finished things - everyone returned to Ft. Rannick for hot cocoa and marshmallows and the Kreeg Ogres are dealt with. As far as the PCs are concerned, the only loose end is Xanesha and they haven't thought to go looking for her yet.
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================================ Plans ==============================
I think I'm going to let them do a couple of years of kingdom building culminating with running Varnhold Vanishing (set in Ravenmoor, now renamed as Varnhold as it's been made the capital of a new kingdom up there) sometime after I've set it up for them with some diplomatic visits and some discussion of building a road over the pass to connect the two. My party is all 8th level now except for one who is 9th so some of the encounters will be easy but I'll think about how to beef those up as needed. I may turn the bad guy at the end of that adventure into something different (more martial maybe or a priest-lich maybe) as the PCs have had a lot wizard boss fights and have a ton more to go.
I think I'll also run some of the kingdom event encounters, some of which I have to brainstorm quite a bit:
- Arcainen has his brother's wedding to attend in Sandpoint "in the spring", so a couple months down the road. This may involve a state visit to Magnimar.
- The agitation from Grigori from the start of RRR for sure
- I may well run the Whitewillow encounter pretty much as described with the pixie coming into town etc.
- maybe one of the monster attack encounters, re-skinned (wyverns from the Wyvern mountains maybe) since they plan on claiming the Dam hex sooner or later. Maybe the big bad Owlbear upgraded to a Black Dragon from the southern swamps or something.
- Diplomatic meetings with Ilsurian, the Sanos Gnomes, Varnhold and Korvosa. I may use Korvosa in the place of Pitax for the 5th KM book or I may use Roderic's Cove in that place instead once they annex Varnhold.
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Dang, you guys must have some killer houserule going for Invisibility spells if Barl could do all that without turning visible again, lol.
Also, what happened to Vor and Wyndham? Was it Baleful or just regular Polymorph? They still a snail and guinea pig?
I used the d20pfsrd conversion which gives him improved invisibility. He's a necromancer so he really is a hybrid melee/debuff caster so improved invis fits.
Yeah, Baleful Polymorph from the hag coven description (Below). They both rolled poorly.
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/greenHag.html#_green-hag
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Oh lol. I was thinking that was a higher level spell than he had access to.
Does the group plan on reversing the polymorph, or are the players designing new characters to join the party?
They reversed it with dispel magic but that was a table ruling that I wanted to look up in a more fullsome manner.
Duration = permanent means to me that it can be fully dispelled
They both failed the will saves (thus lost personality and became snail and guinea pig respectively) but there is no indication in Baleful Polymorph that the second save is instantaneous in duration or something like that. That's how I read it anyway.
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It's the other way around - permanent is dispellable, instantaneous is not. From the PRD, Magic Chapter under Duration:
Instantaneous: The spell energy comes and goes the instant the spell is cast, though the consequences might be long-lasting.
Permanent: The energy remains as long as the effect does. This means the spell is vulnerable to dispel magic.
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Change of plans now that I'm reading the KM modules in more depth.
The other "Kingdom Event" that is to happen is the offer to set up Tzatzylford (the town on the border that gets attacked by the Drelev folk to start KM4). The best place to put this town is on the NW edge of the Sanos Forest which would make Ravenmoor fill the role of "Ft. Drelev".
That leaves Ilsurian to be "Varnhold", which means I can put the centaurs in the plains SW of the shimmerglens and the Centaur in the mountains to the West. I may populate my digital hex map with the chosen exploration locations and post it here (I've done the paper version already).
This stuff could easily be a several-session excursion from the RotR plot.
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Session 28 - Expansionism, diplomatic affairs and a werewolf
In attendance:
Jerrick - Shoanti bow hunter cleric of Erastil
Vor - Halforc bow ranger, Black Arrow back from leave
Wyndham - Human rogue/shadowdancer with a nasty streak
Abinscole - Halfling Bard/Pathfinder Chronicler
Arcainen - Human water bloodline sorcerer, focused on rays
Richard - Chelaxian fighter, extreme AC sword and board
Missing:
Mark - Human Evoker
Richard's player left part way through because he had an early day coming
This session was pretty much pure kingmaker transplanted to Varisia. The players were keen to expand their new kingdom of Thornhold and wanted to set out exploring but when they returned from Hook Mountain, there was some news to attend to:
1) A man approached them seeking permission to found a town along what would be a trade route between their kingdom and the old town of Ravensmoor. The players heard him out, made sure he wasn't seeking to usurp their rule and then debated their response in private. They decided that they would accept and that they would investigate the site for this builder. The builder in return said that once Thornhold built a road out to meet the town site, he would bow to their sovereignty and join their Barony.
- This is the hook town that will be targeted for the opening attack from KM4 if I choose to run that (called Tzatzylford in that book)
2) They were approached by a messenger from Ilsurian who wanted to set up a meeting between Ilsurian's Mayor and themselves to discuss the new situation. This was set up for two weeks later.
- This is so they can meet the folk from Ilsurian before they get kidnapped to start off Varnhold Vanishing, partly so they have some investment and partly to add a little verisimilitude and a chance to have a diplomatic conversation.
3) I made a big table of the appropriate rumours from KM2-4 that matched encounters in the wilderness and I rolled on that, giving the rumour to the appropriate PC depending on their kingdom role. I rolled the rumour about the Wandering Giant from KM2 and gave it to my Warden, Vor.
4) Arcainen got an invitation to attend his Brother's wedding to Shayliss Vinder back in Sandpoint on the first day of spring.
After dispatching some spies to investigate Ilsurian (I allowed my spymaster to make Diplomacy:Gather information checks through his proxies), the party headed west into the wintery Sanos Forest. They decided to head straight to the Hex where the townsite is to be built and then clear hexes on their way back.
I rolled nothing for random encounters and they bypassed anything interesting on the way but got hit by a big snowfall. They cleared the hex and started back. On the fourth day, they crossed the tracks of the Northropple Expedition (KM2?) who had headed south to north across the third Hex they were clearing. They decided to follow the tracks and came up on the floundering wagon, not in a rushing river but having broken through the ice on a wide pond. Because my PCs are higher level, I gave them the same amount of time (6 rounds) but started them a full round's ride from the pond's edge.
They hurried up, assessed the situation and sprung to action. Vor cast speak with animals and then used Animal Empathy to calm the horses. Arcainen (water sorcerer with cold resistance) jumped into the water to untie the horses and lead them out, Jerrick dug a rope out and tied it to a tree and tried to throw it to the wagon, Wyndham jumped across the gulf to the wagon and Abinscole used his Pathfinder class ability to pull a block and tackle out of his backpack. Wyndham cut the second horse free which Arcainen led to shore and Wyndham and Richard took the block and tackle, tied it to the wagon and used the rope to pull the wagon free with an amazing strength roll from Richard. They met with the Northropple group who were thankful but fairly tight-lipped about what they had seen in the forest (because the PCs had no information to trade).
The PCs continued their exploration, crossing several set of fey tracks atop the new-fallen snow and cleared the Wicker Walk hex, discovering the Silver Eels there (KM4). Abinscole and Vor stayed to fish, catching a handful of the fine eels while the others returned to Ft. Rannick.
The meeting with the mayor of Ilsurian went great - they served the eels that the halfling and half-orc had caught and they signed a friendship and non-agression treaty. Abinscole was given the quest to catch 12 more eels and he headed out alone, catching 9 before he was chased off by a randomly encountered shambling mound. He parlayed that with 1000gp into receiving the quest reward, a +2 small shield.
The boys decided to not go adventuring in the remaining two months of the winter so they stayed at home, did some crafting and a trip to Magnimar for shopping and build their kingdom a bit. They annexed two hexes (up to the Hook Mountain hex for the Iron Mines therein) and built a Town Hall. They then went as a group to the wedding, reunited with friends from Sandpoint and decided to take an interlude to investigate the Barghest door at Thistletop. I'd decided that the Malfeshnakor wasn't home any more (Xanesha having freed him using the PCs key when they were charm zombies) but the PCs went anyway, slaughtering the tribe of goblins that had moved in off camera. They weren't able to open the re-locked door without the key, didn't dispel magic on the Arcane Lock and left well enough alone.
Returning home, they did another kingdom turn and I decided to run the Werewolf scenario from KM2 because their return coincided with the full moon. They pretty quickly deduced what was going on and set up shop guarding the town on the third night of the full moon. Abinscole had asked about the barbarian's equipment and the innkeeper had said that he had a greataxe so Abinscole set up far enough away from the town to use his Locate Objects spell on a Greataxe to give them fair warning and it worked.
They were all together when the wolf bounded into town. I had upped him on the fly to ~9th level and he bounded into melee. The PCs availed quickly and the werewolf retreated to the forest. They pursued and found him asleep and unconscious 4 hours later and arrested him.
After Jerrick making a good argument that the werewolf be given a fair chance at redemption in case he was inflicted and therefore innocent - he argued that when they were charm zombies, they may have done things not unlike what the werewolf had done. In the end, they gave him the offer of consuming Wolf's Bane to attempt to cure him of his lycanthropy or to be put to death for murdering two townsfolk. The werewolf accepted the former and is now sitting in the prison waiting for the next full moon. Jerrick is spending time with him and next time will learn about a schism among his Shoanti Tribe (hawk clan?) that are north of Ravensmoor. The split group will play the role of the Tiger Lord Barbarians (or whatever they're called) in KM4 if I decide to run those events.
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================================ Plans ==============================
What happens next time really depends on what my PCs do and what pace they set.
If they choose to go exploring, I'm totally ready for that and there are all sorts of adventures waiting - boggards and bog-stiders in the southern swamp, fey and scythe trees in the northern Sanos forest, giants and trolls in the mountains, a pair of green dragons in the Ashwood. If my group is keen on expansion and exploration, I may well sit back for a session and let them dictate where things go and have them set the pace.
If they are a little unorganized (which I expect), I may start next session with the fey encounter from Hook Mountain massacre, the only difference being that Lamatar Bayden's remains are now in the graveyard in Turtleback Ferry. I might expand both ends of that sequence with some haunts or something - I haven't read that part in a while so I'm up for any ideas.
The next major plot event will be from Varnhold Vanishing. The vanishing happens in Ilsurian, the Nomen Centaurs are in the Sanos Grass NE of Whistledown and the Cyclops Lich is living in the east slopes of the Malgorian Mountains. Everyone's 8th or 9th level now so I might have to beef some of that adventure up a bit.
If the hexploration is going well, the Vanishing be later in the summer (5-6 months away) and I'll do the Grigori event first but if my PCs are starting to look a little blood and plot-thirsty, I'll run it in the late spring (a couple months down the road).
After Varnhold Vanishing, I'll probably start Fortress of the Stone Giants sometime next winter or early spring. I'm thinking that the giants will pass over the dam (whether it's part of the kingdom by then or not), take a piece of it and then lead the PCs on a merry chase across the countryside stopping at Thessalonian ruins along the way including several that look like the Old Light. This should lead the PCs to decide to cut the corner and jump ahead to Sandpoint and I'll run the start of that adventure as written in the book except with the PCs anticipating an attack. This may well mark the return of Xanesha riding the Red Dragon.
The alternative is that the attack is on Turtleback Ferry itself, led by Xanesha on dragon-back which may require me to map their capital beyond the kingmaker district map. To do this scenario, I may have their next round of city district clearing turn up rubble from some old collapsed Thessalonian ruin or it could be simply motivated by Xanesha looking for revenge.
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I'm thinking I might keep Malfeshnekor as an easter egg for another campaign if I ever use him at all. He was a one-round opponent and not really worth getting worked up about. I suppose he could be part of the Giant raiding party or something but he could just as easily still be in his prison for all my party knows.
My main problem is one that is common for DMs whose parties decided to keep the Keep. Sandpoint is a really long way away from where they want to be and their investment in that town has dropped very quickly, despite starting with strong ties there.
I can viably run the giant invasion as a Xanesha-led, revenge-motivated attack on Turtleback Ferry (perhaps as part of a simultaneous attack at the dam to grab a piece of it for Stone Tell because Mok thinks - correctly - that the Scribbler is beneath the Dam itself). I could foreshadow this attack by having the PCs hear stories of giant activity and raids in the west and south, including one on Sandpoint at the Old Light, and have the stories of raids come progressively eastward until they reach their borders.
Of course, the real reason they might attack Turtleback Ferry is because my PCs are personally invested in the town, which would up the drama. I dunno - this is all a few sessions into the future for me so I'm not terribly worried and am really flexible about how this goes.
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We're planning a game in the week after Christmas so I've been penning butchered Christmas Carols to pump up the event. This is my best effort so enjoy:
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Now there's Slasher and Stabber and Halfling insp'ration
Ray-Ray and Blaster and Healer and Marksman
But do you recall
The toughest recurring villain of all?
Xanesha the Lamia Matriarch
Had a very freaky mask
And if you ever saw it, you might turn to stone quite fast
All of her thrall - charm slaves
Used to laugh and know their names
Then they met Xanesha, now they only play her games
Then one foggy Summer's Eve
Xanesha came to say
"Now you've lit my boat on fire, won't you die and drown tonight?"
All of the charm slaves swam hard
And they shouted out, all free
Xanesha we vow this on this night, some day you'll be hist-or-eeeeee!!!
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This is pretty epic. Three suggestions to make it flow just a bit better?
1) Instead of saying they 'lit my boat on fire', something like 'Now you've set my boat alight'. Rhymes with the end of the line.
2) Drop the first use of 'this' in the last line. Sounds kinda akward to have it in there twice.
3) Add a 'Then' to the beginning of the final stanza, to keep it in line with the original.
My main problem is one that is common for DMs whose parties decided to keep the Keep. Sandpoint is a really long way away from where they want to be and their investment in that town has dropped very quickly, despite starting with strong ties there.
One possibility is to flip the Stone Giant book and do the two parts in reverse order. Your group is in the perfect spot to investigate Jorgenfist either as a follow-up to the stone giant they battled at Hook Mountain or as a report from a loyal scout concerning stone giants massing to the north.
Your PCs investigate, kill some stuff, and in their exploration of the library discover the clues that suggests an army has gone off to sack Sandpoint to look at the Old Lighthouse. Then the race is on to get there in time to save the town.
Lady's choice if you want to run that as written (boosted for your PCs levels, of course) or convert it into a mass combat where the PCs rally their old friends to battle.
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Ooh, I *really* like that idea, not the least because I could run them through the outside and upper levels of Jorgenfist at 11th-12th level, and then do the attack on Sandpoint at 12th+, giving me more room for running KM 3&4 before then.
By that time, they would be well into teleport levels so they could get partway through the dungeon, meet what's her name the helpful Giantess, learn of the attack and zap there in the middle of the giant attack, coinciding with the attacking giants opening a passageway into the Scribbler's dungeon.
Like I said above, my PCs have learned about a wandering hill giant (and his tribe is my hexploration map at the headwaters of the river that's north of Lake Coal) so if they catch up to him, I could use him as a way to subtly forshadow that something is going on in the northwest slopes of the Iron Peaks.
By that time, they would be well into teleport levels so they could get partway through the dungeon, meet what's her name the helpful Giantess, learn of the attack and zap there in the middle of the giant attack, coinciding with the attacking giants opening a passageway into the Scribbler's dungeon.
Are your players the kind of people who would go back to Jorgenfist afterward? If they race away after contact with the helpful giantess, won't they potentially miss the library and all its obscure information about Thassilon? More importantly, won't they miss their very first ever mention of and encounter with Karzoug which starts them on the path to Xin-Shalast?
My plan had been to let the victorious PCs discover maps in the library with a big, red X over Sandpoint. That way they won't be motivated to return to Sandpoint until *after* they've killed Mokmurian, "met" Karzoug, and at least learned that an ancient library is available to them below J-fist.
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Yeah, I suppose Conna? could as easily tell them that there was a large group that headed out for something extremely important to M's boss but she doesn't know what or where. That could set up a reverse dungeon situation where the PCs are waiting for a day or two for the baddies to arrive and have a chance to set up defences. Also, something to do with a timer would be a change for them.
I could add the Mosswood Goblins to the attack with Malfeshnekor as their chieftain, have Xanesha be riding the red dragon shooting lightning arrows or something and it'll be a big old not-killed BBEG reunion to up the CRs to level-appropriate for 11-12.
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Seven kings of Thornhold are
Exploring forth, we travel afar
Tower and mountain, forest and dungeon
Finding seven-pointed stars
Oh Star of mys't'ry, star of night
Star of evil's earnest plight
Named Sihedron, why's it turnin'
Up on our foes left and right
So if you end up flipping the order (which seems like a pretty cool idea)- I imagine the library would be the hardest thing to get them back onto.
What I think would be fun and add a layer or desperation to the mix is if the PC's do end up making it back to Sandpoint, they show up almost at the end of the giant raid. Just in time to see Xanesha and Longtooth taking off and the stone giants retreating. Maybe a small group of them are being held at bay by the best possible efforts sandpoint could muster (shaleu, sherrif and maybe some other characters).
From there they could find the scribbler etc/ or you could have an interesting sequence of attempting to chase the much faster giants back to jorgenfist.
Also I hope you dont mind if I left your ending to Skin Saw. Its becoming pretty clear that PC's are not going to beat her when they get to the top of that tower. She is very optimized (even with the new stat block James posted)- and Ive been toying with some ideas and having them end up on the barge seems like the best bet.