I've been reading though this scenario and I'm a little confused on how the first encounter is supposed to work. Where, exactly, do the enemy goblins start? The text states that they are using the base of both the west and east towers as nests, but where are they when the PC's approach?
The tactics for Icetooth Shaman say that she sets the signal fire alight as her first move action, does that mean that she's on top of the eastern tower as the PC's arrive? What about the rest of them? Two on each tower? (I'm working in subtier 1-2, so four Icetooth Warriors plus the Icetooth Shaman)
Also, if the PC's stealth up the text states that they should make opposed stealth checks. Is this against each individual goblin? Or should I roll once for the Shaman and then once for each group of warriors?
Finally, it also says that if the Frostfur goblins get hold of the alchemist's fire they may swallow the bottle to pass it later, but if they take damage there is a 50% chance of the bottle breaking and igniting. How does this work in terms of damage? Does it just count as an automatic hit on the goblin dealing 1d6 damage and 1d6 the round after? Or does it just kill the goblin? Or are there rules for this somewhere?
Thanks in advance, and this is looking to be a great adventure!
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-The goblins (two each tower) are at the tops of the towers, you'll need to draw out a 50ft-ish ladder for the characters to climb to get to them.
-The PCs should make one stealth check and every goblin who has a chance of seeing them should be granted one perception check to detect them.
-If you roll under 50% and the bottle ignites within, treat it as a coup de grace with an alchemist's fire. It's essentially a guaranteed gory death for the goblin.
Remember to give the goblins personalities! Good luck!
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Remember to give the goblins personalities! Good luck!
When the players asked the goblins what their names were, I had the goblins explain that in their language there are over 50 words for regurgitation, and at least as many more for flatulence. All of the goblin captives were all able to boast having such lucky barf-or-fart related names.
Captive #1: Ralph (the self appointed know-it-all)
Captive #2: Chuck (the one who is always sleepy)
Captive #3: Tootie(the bossy one)
Captive #4: Boomer (the one who is always hungry)
Sounds good, and I was planning to make up four or five goblin personalities (and names) to use. Also, the town that they visit before crossing the river (the one where Rimetusk is in charge) has a full stat block including Law, Crime and such modifiers. Are we allowed to use the town modifier rolls as given in the Gamemastery guide or not? (For example, a high corruption value gives bonuses to bribe officials and the like)
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I had some thoughts here.
After running Frostfur a couple more times, I'd note that goblins with wacky personalities ("Earcovet, who speaks Gnome and tries to convince anyone who will listen that he is in fact a gnome turned into a goblin." "Fang of the Ice Lords, Terror of the southern neighborhoods of Whitethrone, hearty in battle!") are fun for both the GM and players, but they can eat time off the running of the adventure. If I have players who are quick and decisive, I'll have the goblins funnier than if the party is still struggling to figure out marching order and spells for the day. The exception being when there's extra time in the slot.
Also, how does the Guardian Doll in Act 5 pose much of a threat to the players? It can hit one of them with Inflict Serious Wounds, then it just levitates out of melee range. But it has no ranged attacks or abilities and with it's relatively decent HP and DR it should last a little while from ranged attacks, so what should it do in response to being shot at while in the air, other than move about? (I'm talking about the tier 1-2 version here, the tier 4-5 version has scorching ray, it's fine.)
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Vert,
Inflict serious wounds will kill a typical 1st-level PC dead. A good roll will drop a 2nd-level character.
After that, it sends out an alarm, which is a long-term tactic, but the party doesn't know it's out of spells. For all they know, it'll sweep back down next round and blast the cleric into negatives. They also don't know how far away reinforcements are.
I have it hover in the air, 60 or 70 feet high, directly above the PCs, serving as a marker to the Irrisen army as it mirrors their ground movements.
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I have it hover in the air, 60 or 70 feet high, directly above the PCs, serving as a marker to the Irrisen army as it mirrors their ground movements.
Levitate can only move the caster up and down. It's highly unlikely the doll can follow the party. It might be able to move slowly by pushing off foliage, but it would be slow.
In addition, the spell only lasts 1 min/lvl. It's highly unlikely an army (or even a scouting party) is 3-7 minutes away. If there is one, the PCs are screwed whether they defeat the doll or not.
The easy solution is to give the doll 'Ray of Frost'. At least then the doll can do something minor. It's a lot better (thematically) than having the doll attack them in melee for 1 nonlethal maximum per round.
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Also, how does the Guardian Doll in Act 5 pose much of a threat to the players? It can hit one of them with Inflict Serious Wounds, then it just levitates out of melee range. But it has no ranged attacks or abilities and with it's relatively decent HP and DR it should last a little while from ranged attacks, so what should it do in response to being shot at while in the air, other than move about? (I'm talking about the tier 1-2 version here, the tier 4-5 version has scorching ray, it's fine.)
It wasn't much of a threat to my group. When I ran the 1-2 tier, my PCs started by having the monk grapple it, dropping it after he got hit with the ISW (which did almost end him), then the Gunslinger / Ranger killed it in 2 rounds. I believe I had it stab someone with it's knife in its last round, but yea, it wasn't much of a threat to them (aside from the one ISW).
Side note, Magic players -- doesn't this look just like that Guardian Doll?
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It wasn't much of a threat to my group. When I ran the 1-2 tier, my PCs started by having the monk grapple it, dropping it after he got hit with the ISW (which did almost end him), then the Gunslinger / Ranger killed it in 2 rounds. I believe I had it stab someone with it's knife in its last round, but yea, it wasn't much of a threat to them (aside from the one ISW).Side note, Magic players -- doesn't this look just like that Guardian Doll?
as one of my players was climbing the front of the hut, another gave one of the goblins an alchemist's fire and told him to burn the hut down..... needless to say the person climbing the front felt a wave of heat and a flas of light as his head got to the entrance. He then say a doll run out of the bushes, inflict serious wounds on said goblin, and next round levitate up to the hut's window.... where he stabbed it with his readies action
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one more question on Tier 1 Doll
if I'm reading it correctly, it can either use levitate OR ISW because it's a 1/day power - so how is it supposed to both as stated in the Tactics? Does it mean it gets 1/day on each power then?
It's levitate AND ISW are 1/day.
A comma between abilities like that always seems to indicate an "and" as far as I've seen, rather than "or". This is important because it can get confusing when you read stat blocks for things like full attacks and single attacks.
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its a bit weird because Sorcerer spells are basically written the same way but its understood as number of spell uses per day in total for any of the spells mentioned for the particular level.
In any case, I'll be using both Dolls abilities :)
I treat the soulbound doll as a landmine: one shot, then it's done. I often find we're running short of time by this point, and so once the party comes up with a strategy to defeat it, we will fast-forward and move on. Time spent plinking at the doll which is no longer a threat is time that can be better spent in the set-up to the final encounter.
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Canadian Maplecakes
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I'll admit, I had some hilarious antics with this at GenCon last year. Having run the module cold earlier in the day due to a missing GM, I then went on to run it again for some pretty experienced players in another slot!
Admittedly, in my game one of the goblins did get a hold of the alchemist's fire, and the PC botched their perception roll. I even went so far as to imitate the 'gulping' when I RPed the goblin after he was found. PCs still didn't catch on.
That night when they were waiting out the snowstorm in their tightly enclosed tent...
Sufficed to say, there were lots of goblin bits in that tent. :)
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Personally I wish they would have dropped the optional encounter and put in fully stated goblins with personalities. So tempted to use the goblins from "We Be Goblins!” but I won’t.Remember to give the goblins personalities! Good luck!
Good idea :)
I made up names and one dimension personalities for them :D twas loads of fun.. And yes, one blew up in the tent (and I didn't run the optional encounter anyway).
Idea about the doll being a landmine - awesome. I got worried because I realized that the only thing keeping the 1st level fighter from getting killed was a good save.
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I have yet to run this but after the second reading the points that seem weak are mainly with the maps.
First they take over two and a half pages of the scenario and three of them are product maps. Also I am tired of seeing Campsites and Mountain Pass in cold climate scenarios. Please, when are PCs going to learn to stay out of the canyons?
The Blackraven Loghouse is an immense battle map with most not used for battle. I don’t know about your tables but as soon as a battle map is laid out at my tables players roll initiative. More details on the rooms would have been nice too. Like showing a couple of obvious blank spots in long hall where Enrik has taken down the goblinoid heads that were mounted there and have them stored in the stables or the sleeping quarters. Pickled foodstuffs in the kitchen that the goblins can smell from outside and in the loghouse also could have some fun implications. A stuffed Ice Troll in the dining area killed by the Ulfen militia and plaques honoring the fallen in the defense of the Linhorm Kings. Having Enrik set the lock on the storeroom to allow the goblins to escape just for an excuse to kill them. Having the warriors attack from horseback would also be good if the battle begins outside.
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I made some Goblins + Personalities for my runs of Frostfur Captives. Most of it was blatantly stolen from this thread, so I thought I'd contribute what additions I made.
My custom Goblins:
Zzapp - Claims to be a priest of Zarongel. Firmly believes he can (maybe sometimes) talk to the spirit of a dead being by licking it. Also believes licking a living person brings them good luck.
Shnore - Always tired, says it's because of the strain the curse puts on him. What curse? Well, he used to be a Gnome. Might also explain that he really really needs to be carried, since his shorter (Gnome) legs make walking especially hard on him.
Kracken, HackMcKracken - Always hungry, always looking (asking people) for the two-headed squirrel, a legendarily delicious creature.
Gobster - Needs to kill stuff. Gets increasingly more deranged the longer it has been since he last killed stuff. Prefers stabbing stuff in the chest. Will stab dead stuff if it's the only option. Carries a cage full of rats, cockroaches and/or other stuff to kill when he gets the urge again.
Jazzper - Pyromaniac, does whatever is necessary to obtain flammables. Enjoys throwing insects, etc. into the fire for the "funny crackling noise they make"
Krinka - Little tyrant, bosses everybody around. Uses the "magical" dog skull she carries around to show how strong she is. She killed that dog herself!
I whip up my own pawns when I find the time. For Frostfur Captives I used the following pawns:
Icetooth Shaman - custom pawn with portrait from Scenario PDF
Icetooth Warriors - plain standard goblin warrior pawn from Bestiary Box
Zzapp - Gogmurt (RotRL Pawns)
Shnore - Goblin Warchanter (RotRL Pawns)
Kracken - Goblin Commando (RotRL Pawns)
Gobster - Goblin Warrior with cage (RotRL Pawns)
Jazzper - Goblin Warrior with torch (RotRL Pawns)
Krinka - custom pawn of Ekkie from 4x01 Rise of the Goblin Guild