So my players finished the Misgivings yesterday, just about. After exploring the majority of the first and second floors in the first session of the Misgivings (which we played two weeks ago), they made it to the attic and made a beeline for the sounds of crying. They released Iesha, temporarily distracted her with the portrait of Iesha they had been carrying around (she failed her save), then followed her down to the first floor and watched her dig.
Of course, they ended up not exploring any of the basement or the rest of the attic, went down the hole, down the stairs, and straight into the caverns.
None of this is problematic, really, but it all happened so quickly that in my haste to deliver a climactic battle, I totally forgot that Iesha is supposed to confront Aldern! The PCs got sidetracked by the packs of ghouls in the caverns (completely avoided the skaveling), and had a lot of fun when they ran into Ripnugget as a ghast (they hadn't actually killed him at Thistletop, only tied him up while they delved into the dungeon beneath Thistletop -- by the time they returned to the surface, he had mysteriously disappeared. I figured he would have wandered off to try to rule the Bird Crunchers or some other regional goblin tribe, having "bested" the Sandpoint heroes, when he was assaulted by ghouls while traveling across the hinterlands).
The slippery ramp itself wasn't too much of a hazard, beating a 12 on the acrobatics check isn't too difficult. However, when the full-plated paladin slipped and fell into the water and failed every swim check, things started to get scary. You don't see too much on the boards here about that particular hazard (the pool of water itself, not the ramp), which is why I find it so fascinating that it was the most challenging hazard in the entire Misgivings for my players (a 15 DC swim check when only one party member has any ranks invested in Swim turns out to be quite a hazard, indeed). I had a lot of fun describing how rough the waters were, the PCs being buffeted back and forth in the surging ocean current. The paladin sank to the bottom immediately, and the cleric went in shortly after him. The barbarian really came to show his true colors in this situation, diving in and deftly swimming to the bottom and saving the rest of the party. It really gave that player an opportunity to shine when all he's really been able to do thus far is smash things with his earthbreaker. Additionally, it gave my players a chance to realize how important the swim skill is, being one of the only skills that can determine who sinks and who swims (LITERALLY -- HA! :D).
All in all, it took nearly 20 rounds for my players to escape the surging waters, almost enough time for them to drown, and close to the end they were getting pretty nervous.
Of course, after all the excitement, I totally spaced out on the confrontation between Iesha and Aldern. I described the situation as they entered Aldern's locked room as if they had never freed Iesha from the mirror, and Aldern sat in the chair (facing away from the doorway) as the object of his obsession, the paladin, slowly came to the realization that all the stuff on the table was his. He even started going through the drawings and came across Xanesha's letter -- of course, before he could actually read the letter, Aldern swung around in the chair and party went "OH SH--."
He gave a bit of a monologue as Aldern before the Hurter took over, then turned back to Aldern to beg for his life and started to reveal some information about the Brotherhood, before the Skinsaw Man took over. I completely mucked on him putting on the stalker's mask and focusing on his obsession throughout the combat; it utterly escaped me as the combat commenced. I find this happens to me quite often -- through all the excitement leading up to these climactic battles, I tend to completely forget the BBEGs' combat tactics (I did the same with Nualia and Malfeshnekor!).
Of course, the party was still terrified once they realized he had some legit AC (higher than any party member, despite level 6!) and could dish out the damage, but they still took him out in 2 rounds -- each player got at least one whack at him, dealing an average of 30hp on each successful attack, and the cleric finished him off with a casting of searing light (CL 6, 6d6 damage against undead!) near the end of round two. In this case I'm glad he *wasn't* softened up by Iesha as suggested by so many others on these forums, or my players would have had an even LESS climactic battle with Foxglove.
Anyway, we had to end the session immediately after Aldern fell, because one of my players works third shift and we were right up against the deadline to finish our session. Next session I have the task of explaining what happened to Iesha -- I figure I'll note that the corpse of the revenant lies slain on the floor, and that it was obviously slain by Aldern's war razor, and they simply missed it due to the distractions in the room (obsessions' possessions on the table, the strange humanoid shaped fungus) and the combat with Aldern, but I can't help but feel like I missed a golden opportunity to flesh out the story of the house and help the PCs (who still, really, have no idea what the house is all about) learn what really went on there.
Wow. I forgot that Sunday happened, apparently. Correction to the subject line of this post: My PCs finished the Misgivings on SATURDAY, March 22. I posted this topic today, Monday, March 24.
My players did the same thing and watched as iesha critted just about everything in her path thanks to good die rolls from me.
I love the bit about Ripnugget coming back as a ghoul.
My PCs are too scared of Misgivings! They tried to burn it down the first time they went there so I hit them with confusion. The ranger and the barbarian almost beat each other to death while the wizard (only one to make his save) used rope trick to hide. Now I don't know how to convince them to go back!
Good stuff.
Yeah, any class which gets Swim as a class skill should definitely invest at least one rank into it. The difference between a modifier of +4 vs. +0 is pretty huge, especially for an armor-wearer.