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Hi, I have a few GM questions for Curse of the Lady’s Light (Spoilers).
Q1: The sentinels in area K10 are described as linked to Ashamintallu and she would be alerted to 'intruders'. If so, how would you run this since the party should not encounter her until the end battle? What alternatives could you think of besides just ignoring the alert?
Q2: The module describes how some would handle encountering the PC as Sorshen clone (i.e. Grey Maidens), but what about Daefu or Gnaeus Gnaru? I imagine Daefu is 100% crazy and would just attack the non-clone PCs. I think Gnaeus might want to duel the individual party members to show off to the clone to prove he should still be Sorshen’s ‘champion’. How would you handle these?
Q3: Would the Glass Golem attack any of the party if the PC as Sorshen clone is with them? Also, any ideas for hinting that the Sorshen clone could control the glass golem without being too obvious?
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So, here's how I have, or would handle these.
Q1: It tips 'Sorchen' off, but she is kinda fickle and crazy. However, eventually she has a paranoid moment and uses scrying magic to search for them (I used some of the empty spell book pages to give divination spells). If the PCs rest in the Lady's Light she finds them and may do a sneak ambush, something as simple as Dim Dooring in, fireballing, and Dim Dooring out. She warns her servants about an imposter and then returns to her nest.
Note, if the party has used the clone to control the glass golem and bring it along, this is an evil opportunity for 'Sorchen' to order it to kill all others in the room and accept no more commands.
However I would suggest doing this only once, she then falls into her psychosis again and feels invincible and such again. She assumes she's scared them off or her servants will deal with them. This prevents the PCs from future opportunities to have the final battle and present evidence and such to give her debuffs, and keeps the end boss at the end.
Q2: Run it with the basic operating procedure of bluff to be Sorshen vs. sense motives. If the PC succeeds in bluffing, the NPCs should be relatively worshipful, but if it fails, they sense an imposter or suspect a magical disguise. Also be reasonable about how the players are role playing. In our group, while the Sorshen clone made a good bluff, one of the party members was speaking to her as the team leader and twigged Gnaru's suspicions, and he remained adamant on the password, and suspected that someone had in fact captured and ensorcelled Sorchen. This lead to the encounter being run mostly as normal.
Regarding Daefu, at the time 'Sorchen' had made her rounds telling about an imposter. However I think Daefu's default would be that those Sorchen brings to her and victims to be tortured.
In general though, try to make it fun or interesting, but not necessarily easy. After all, immitating a person you've never met, to people you don't know, should be tricky.
Q3: Keep in mind, in the past the golem was probably infused with Ashamintallu's intelligence and would've known who to attack or not, but it is essentially broken in that way now. Therefore only a Sorchen look alike herself is immune. And I'd be careful about any hints that it can be controlled, it is a monstrous ally and may make the dungeon easier than intended. However it's also fairly easy to avoid if you just retreat.
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No problem.
Another note on the golem, if it does become a servant of the party, don't despair too much. The golem is still immune to magic, and therefore immune to the teleportation effects required to get to certain parts of the dungeon. Perfect opportunity to leave it on the first floor if the party isn't clever enough to figure out how the waterfall connects. Also remember the penalties it can take in squeezing in some areas.
Q1:
I'm still deciding what are the "difference" after the alarm.
I think the Module was written under the assumption that Sorshen will not be surprised to see the PCs, so not much should change.
Q2:
In my case Gnaeus was surprised to see Sorshen visiting him. But the PC was unable to reply to him the way Sorshen did, so he started being suspicious.
Then the PC Sorshen asked him to open the door, but he couldn't do it, cause the Charm Monster was pushing him the other way. He started having doubts, and so the players suspected he may be charmed. He threw him a Dispel Magic and that solved the situation.
Then the PC explained he wasn't really Sorshen.
Gnaeus understood, but now he wants to kill them all :D. The former employer of Gnaeus just showed up at the right time, and they will be looking for more allies soon to strike at the Party.
Q3:
I don't like giving clues to PCs that do not search for them. I would expect some sort of pro-activeness from the characters, otherwise, strike at full!