Iron Gods has been a blast so far, and the party (or what's left of it) is prepping for their final assault on Hellion's lair. I lack the big bassy voice required to do Hellion justice, so I played with a text to speech editor and saved the files to use as a soundboard for Hellion.
Last week I hid a USB speaker behind a GM screen to surprise them. It worked out pretty well. Some of it wasn't as clear as I'd like, but in case anybody wants to use it for inspiration or as is, here ya go -- Dropbox Link
Awesome, what a great idea. I wish I had known about that when playing this adventure. But I think I can do it for Unity later on...
What program did you use?
Awesome, what a great idea. I wish I had known about that when playing this adventure. But I think I can do it for Unity later on...
What program did you use?
I used Acapela-box.com for the text to speech using the Will(BadGuy) voice and pulled down the voice shaping a good bit. I used Audacity to import the sound and tweak it from there.
I also noticed that the link was wrong on the other post. That was old version. Here's an up to date link.
On the Haunted Wreck:
It holds Two Major plot elements of import for the Iron Gods adventure path
1) The Inhibitor Facet: Can be used to hinder Hellion and goes toward shaping an Iron God far further into the campaign.
2) A recording offering additional clues regarding the final conflict upon the ark-ship Divinity... and the name 'Unity.'
That said, beyond it being a possible side-quest perhaps suggested by Redtooth, there aren't a lot of hooks pulling them to the Haunted Wreck if they aren't inclined by the fact that it's there.
Anyone have any ideas of ways to nudge them into that spooky valley? I already have Redtooth promising them high explosives to blow up the Receiver Array if they can rescue her brother, so I'm slightly hesitant on leaning too hard on her as a quest giver; especially since I don't know what her motivation would be in having them bust ghosts.
On the Haunted Wreck:
It holds Two Major plot elements of import for the Iron Gods adventure path
1) The Inhibitor Facet: Can be used to hinder Hellion and goes toward shaping an Iron God far further into the campaign.
2) A recording offering additional clues regarding the final conflict upon the ark-ship Divinity... and the name 'Unity.'
That said, beyond it being a possible side-quest perhaps suggested by Redtooth, there aren't a lot of hooks pulling them to the Haunted Wreck if they aren't inclined by the fact that it's there.
Anyone have any ideas of ways to nudge them into that spooky valley? I already have Redtooth promising them high explosives to blow up the Receiver Array if they can rescue her brother, so I'm slightly hesitant on leaning too hard on her as a quest giver; especially since I don't know what her motivation would be in having them bust ghosts.
If all else fails, pick up Returned to the Sky, and replace the Sky Key component with the needed Inhibitor facet.
In addition to the obvious desire to go to Chessed (to shop), with Dinvaya sending them to the Dwarf.
Any clue as to the approx population of Scrapwall?
more than 500?
more than 1000?
Any clue as to the approx population of Scrapwall?
more than 500?
more than 1000?
Here's someone's stat block for Scrapwall. Seems pretty good.
Since it is mentioned a few times, but never really explained: What could be Redtooth's motivation to destroy the satellite dish in Scrapwall?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It says she is upset at losing her gang members to the lords of rust, so striking a blow at the lords via satellite dissh destruction makes sense.
Also her scrapworth has dropped so low, surely destroying the dish would improve it immensely.
Okay, so not directly a motivation to destroy the dish because of what it does, more because it's a valuable resource for the lords of rust. Ok, that makes sense.
Fortunately my group didn't get that far yesterday, they needed about half an hour to make up a plan, how they enter the city :D
Just curious how many adventuring days it took people to complete parts Q-T?
Is it expected to run through it all in 1 go?
If it takes multiple days, any ideas for strategic changes from how it is written for the Lords to take thwart the PCs?
Just curious how many adventuring days it took people to complete parts Q-T?
Is it expected to run through it all in 1 go?
If it takes multiple days, any ideas for strategic changes from how it is written for the Lords to take thwart the PCs?
My party ran through those sections in about 3 hours of internal game time.
Maybe I overlooked it, but what happens after the arena fight with Hellskarg? The PCs essentially become celebrities but what happens next? Are they supposed to mount an assault or launch an infiltration mission on Hellion's domain on their own accord?
Maybe I overlooked it, but what happens after the arena fight with Hellskarg? The PCs essentially become celebrities but what happens next? Are they supposed to mount an assault or launch an infiltration mission on Hellion's domain on their own accord?
They are granted membership in the Lords of Rust as a reward for victory. However, all Lords of Rust must worship Hellion.
“Visitors. How unusual. Know, apes, that you now stand in
Hellion’s domain. You must bow before your new god—me.
Accept me and kneel, and I shall suffer your presence. Deny
me the obedience I deserve, and you shall be punished.”
Unless all visible PCs immediately kneel, Hellion uses
the monitor to unleash unholy blight on the PCs.
Thus, the reward is rigged: worship Hellion or die. Hellon's attack on them is suppose to inspire them to assault Hellion's domain, sections Q through T.
That works, thanks!
Trying to figure out relative elevations in area "S".
It says S1 is 30 feet above the cavern floor. And there are stairs going down from there that wrap around the outside (it is blocked by rubble at one point, but it appears they continue to go down as you move counter-clockwise).
But if you look at the map at area S6 for instance, the door into this room from S4 is at the same height as S1, but the door out of this room to the exterior is clearly at an elevation that should be lower than S1, since it is at the bottom of those stairs.
So whats going on?
Maybe the stairs on the opposite side of the blockage go back up? But the shading of the stairs surely indicates it goes down.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
My party just connected the inhibitor crystal with the main server hub in the excavator, weakening hellion. the text says, it will do so for 24 hours.
OF COURSE my party inserted the crystal, then did some fights, and is now facing hellion with the next fight. But they already used their best spells again, so I could predict with a great chance of success, that they want to retreat and rest.
Now did I miss something on the crystal? Does anything prevent them from connecting the crystal again? Maybe the crystal was burnt out or hellion developed defenses against a second use?
As soon as the PCs use the inhibitor facet, Hellion cuts his connection. The PCs can't use the facet a second time because Hellion is no longer connected to the central processor.
Thanks. But my party (unexpectedly) fought hellion the same day. So there was no need to come up with that :D
He could preemptively disable the terminal they used to insert the crystal into the first time. Given how steep the penalties are, he'd be crazy not to.
I don't think he'd risk it. The memory facet interface deeply connects to the system to alter how the AI in control functions (which is how the inhibitor facet works so well). Damaging that console could permanently damage the excavator and even if he could repair it, it would be another delay to his plans. It's safer to avoid connecting until he deals with the PCs.
I'm running Iron Gods and really enjoying it so far. The players seem to be enjoying the slow reveal of what Hellion actually is. They speak Androffan, so some of the stranger clues are illuminated, but no one in the party speaks Orc —which is what both Nalakai's and Kulgara's journals are written in. Thus they are pushing on with out knowing anything about Hellion's parentage. So far, they think Hellion IS Unity. After their first conversation with Hellion (and Unholy Blight), they are no longer interested in talking with him, and immediately destroy monitors when they are seen. Hellion hasn't had any chance to gloat or monologue about destroying his creator, and the party knows nothing of Casandalee. Now they have just dropped the inhibitor facet into the system, so Hellion won't be speaking with them anytime soon.
Favorite moments: Helskarg arena fight was hilariously short. The ranged combatants focused on the two ogres while the sorcerer hastened and enlarged the halberd wielding Fighter. The ogres were killed and the chariot was ruined. Helskarg and the fighter closed to melee, and the fighter scored two consecutive critical hits in the same round... while power attacking. The troll dropped to somewhere around -50 hit points. Somebody lit a torch.
The same Fighter was on the other end when fighting Kulgara and her chainsaw. First hit did tons of damage; second hit, natural 20. Rolled to confirm it. Since even minimum damage on 6d6+34 is going to end the Fighter's life, everyone is horrified. For a brief moment we thought the he was gone... but then GM (me) remembered is was an iterative attack! That -5 to hit made the difference between Crit and No Crit. The Fighter was still down, but not dead.
The party defeated Kulgara and the ettin (Draigs) with create pit. Both fell in, and then the ratfolk investigator rolled in a couple of grenades to finish them off.
Next up: the Blood Ghost and the final confrontation with Hellion.
Next up: the Blood Ghost and the final confrontation with Hellion.
With Hardness 10, but no vulnerability, they are going to have fun times with Hellion.
Hellion hasn't had any chance to gloat or monologue about destroying his creator, and the party knows nothing of Casandalee. Now they have just dropped the inhibitor facet into the system, so Hellion won't be speaking with them anytime soon.
This may make the transition to The Choking Tower a might difficult. I consider this transition the weakest in the AP.
Also, when did your PCs hit level 7? I've been handwaving XP and leveling them based on the advancement track on page 6, and assuming they would hit level 7 at the very end of the adventure. It seems like some of the final fights would be very hard at level 6 though.
I had hyped the power of the Lords of Rust too much when I ran this module. My players were too scared of them to encounter them before 7th level and before scrapworth 10. Instead, I sent an Acolyte of Hellion to them, inviting them to repair the supposedly broken Receiver Array, because they had gained a reputation as experts in technolgy. They stalled her. They were also reluctant to go to the haunted valley. That left them stuck at 6th level.
Eventually, I lured them to the haunted valley with promise of technolgical treasure, "The only place in Scrapwall not picked clean of working technology is a haunted valley to the northeast." They reached 7th level off of experience from the haunted valley and from random encounters, and were willing to face the Lords of Rust.
EDIT: This left them overpowered against typical challenges, such as Helskarg and Nalakai. Nevertheless, the massive damage from Kulgara and the total darkness from the darkfolk still seriously challenged them.
How did people do the exploration of scrapwall? I'm looking at the map, and I was thinking that I would give my players a copy of the map in pieces as time goes on, but I'm not sure how long it would take to explore. I know that each square is 400 feet, which is about a minute at a hustle, but that would just be traveling, not checking areas out. There is a chance per hour of encounter, so this seems important.
Also, how did you give specific locations to players. Did they have to ask around, or did they just learn it in blanket exploration. For example, all of C is Steel Hawks territory, but only one spot is Hawk Palace. Do they have to explore that square to find it?
I gave my players an unlabeled map of the area since they spent a bit of time going around the outside getting a feel for the shape of the place. I started them off with a few places that could be seen from the outside, such as the main gate, the receiver array, and the oddly foggy corner area. Once they entered, as they gained information (mostly through talking to people as they had a charm-happy bard) they marked places of interest they'd heard about on their copy. By the end of the module they had pretty much completely filled it in.
As for the chance of random encounters, I just made it a rough estimate of each square takes an hour to get through because the terrain is so difficult and confusingly laid out, so whenever they went somewhere I just counted how many squares it took them based on their route and had them roll that many times. In cases where there were multiple routes I'd ask them in vague terms like "are you going the short way through the Lords of Rust territory, or going around?" Because they had their own copy of the map, they eventually figured out the random encounter scheme (and that there were different possibilities in different territories) and so they organically started making more informed decisions as they gained more scrapworth. It worked out pretty well, I think.
In my campaign, the soldiers of Aldronard's Grave showed them a map of Scrapwall and explained what they knew of the place. I figured that they had been patroling the area for decades to prevent bandit raids on nearby towns and knew about anything that was over 5 years old. I showed the players the map on page 15, but explained the general regions rather than individual labels.
I also invented a history of Scrapwall that the soldiers explained.
The party had been planning to visit Joram Kyte's former colleague Dinvaya Lanalei first thing, so that is the location they focussed on. After befriending her, they learned some more recent information about Scrapwall.
Sevroth Slaid wanted the party to defeat Birdfood at Hawk Palace, so she told them directions to the place. Likewise, Redtooth assigned her best ratfolk rogue, a new 4th-level NPC I named Mrs. Fisby, to guide them to the Smiler's Headquarters.
does anyone have stats for the Blood Gars as river pirates cause i don't have time to make them myself
I had created some Blood Gars recruited as guards in The Tarnished Halls, Numeria's biggest black market. They are 5th-level urban barbarians. Captain Drakenda Kuldar, boss of the Tarnished Halls, is also a Blood Gar and closer in build to a pirate.
Does anyone know of a good map for the Scrapmaster's Arena?
If you do a google search for those maps, you'll find some fan made outside of the site. Hopefully, you've figured that out already.