Yes, they did, but I'll probably have to tell them again since they are not accustomed to piecing together such clues. Actually, there is not much more available without first rescuing Ingrahild's brother, and he can probably only provide some limited knowledge regarding the entrance and his schedule, if anything. They do have Ingrahild, of course, though I did not level her to 7.
We start the fort this Sunday and I'm excited, actually, for the castle "reveal" in full size. My Saturday group is not playing this week so I have some time to get the map right.
I am almost done with level 1 of Redlake Fort. I fit it onto 2 megamats. I can get level 2 onto a single megamat, with the 2 disconnected parts on a standard battlemat. Talk about work, phew! The biggest problem I have is that all of my pens are fine tip. I need to get a few chisel tips for all the black fill. Other than that, the castle itself is laid out in a manner that is not too difficult to copy.
I'm not in a hurry to get the whole thing done since the Sunday folks move slowly (only a couple encounters per week, though not a lot of RP). I can probably keep them busy with the Twisted Heart Patrol (Event 5) and castle investigation/strategization for this week at least. I'll nudge them toward the back side so they discover their "safe haven" early on, too.
I'm looking forward to this one.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 8
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OK, I need some help figuring out how various encounters on Bloodtusk's keelboat are supposed to work. BTW, I'm surprised the boat doesn't have a name!
OK, so A12 is the armory. The armory is the only way to access the smuggler's hold (area A13), which in turn is the only way to access the bilges (area A14) and the pump room (area A15).
A pair of locked iron doors (hardness 10, hp 60, break DC 28, Disable Device DC 25) separates this hold from the rest of the ship; Captain Bloodtusk holds the only key.
So if Captain Bloodtusk is the only one with the key, how do Melira and Gashnakh meet (such as described in Event 2, p. 17)?
The armory (area A12) also holds Bakkara.
A drugged girallon called Bakkara is locked inside a sturdy cage in the riverboat’s armory (area A12). To ensure the beast remains docile, a crew member feeds it several pounds of drugged meat each day.
Does Captain Bloodtusk give his key to another crewman, or does he feed the girallon himself?
Today, however, Melira picks the lock on the girallon’s cage and uses sow thought to convince Gashnakh to steal the girallon’s drug-laced meal before it has a chance to eat.
Since Melira is coming up from the smuggler's hold, wouldn't it be far easier for her to steal Bakkara's food and toss it in the bilges than for Gashnakh to somehow break in to the armory and steal the meat?
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My group of noobs on Sunday started the last act yesterday. Bloodtusk dropped them off on the river, which I said was forested (so I could use the falls and rapids map, btw). They were slowly marching up the river when they encountered Jort and his 4 orcs taking a break on the river. They won the battle of perception/stealth rolls (handily, I might add, I rolled poorly) and got a surprise round. The ranger (archer) dropped one of the orcs to -1 HP, the fighter charged and hit Jort (hard), Ingrahild did the same to an orc, everyone else did damage except the witch, and she evil eyed Jort for -2 to saves. The ranger's wolf also managed to trip one of the orcs. One round later, 3 orcs remained, all at negative HP, and they surrendered. These guys are really the best intel for the fort.
After leaving them without equipment (stabilized, but unable to do much for a few days), they marched to the fort, entering a clearing about 1/4 mile out, close enough to see the fort, but not enough to gather any additional information (they could see the dam and the tent tops, however). Upon approach at sundown, they heard the battle between Umlo and the bears begin and hatched a plan to search the perimeter of the fort. Ingrahild and the fighter (a half-orc) both split off to cover the north side, and the ranger and investigator went to check out the dam.
To their credit, they new that flooding the moat might be a good idea, but not while everyone was in the front watching the spectacle. They checked around the entire perimeter, staying low or out of range of sight (the investigator and ranger both have stealth enough to avoid detection, the two fighters just needed to stay close to the palisade). They found and investigated Karrguk's tent, scoped out the rear tents (Droja "knew" they were peeking over the wall), and dispatched the oozes in the sewer, finally setting up camp in the 3 western most tents (Droja visited and had her discussion with them at that point).
Finally, they hatched a plan to attack Karrguk without notifying the rest of the orc clan: after waiting till most of the orcs were sleeping/quiet (2 a.m. I told them) the witch flew up the wall, slumbered one of the 2 orc guards outside his tent, everyone pounced on the other with arrows and dropped him (the ranger's crit was beneficial), then initiative was rolled and silence was dropped on the tent, ensuring that the orc horde is blissfully unaware (for 6 rounds). The ranger is butt-hurt that I won't let him shoot through the tent at Karrguk, but both fighters are inside, both guards are dead, and they have 3 rounds of silence and 4 rounds of haste left. The ranger, druid, investigator, and witch are all outside, waiting on any other orcs that may stumble over to see what's up.
We had to stop because it was late on a school night. Next week they get to find out what happens when suddenly Karrguk is not eating breakfast with the rest of the orcs! :)
OK, I need some help figuring out how various encounters on Bloodtusk's keelboat are supposed to work. BTW, I'm surprised the boat doesn't have a name!
OK, so A12 is the armory. The armory is the only way to access the smuggler's hold (area A13), which in turn is the only way to access the bilges (area A14) and the pump room (area A15).
So if Captain Bloodtusk is the only one with the key, how do Melira and Gashnakh meet (such as described in Event 2, p. 17)?
The armory (area A12) also holds Bakkara.
Does Captain Bloodtusk give his key to another crewman, or does he feed the girallon himself?
Since Melira is coming up from the smuggler's hold, wouldn't it be far easier for her to steal Bakkara's food and toss it in the bilges than for Gashnakh to somehow break in to the armory and steal the meat?
I read the module in advance and simply arranged it so that Bloodtusk made Gashnakh responsible for feeding Bakkara and gave him the key. One day he was also tasked without cleaning out the bilge while he was down there, and that is how he ran into Melira. She captivated him right then and there and convinced him that she was supposed to be there, but also her presence was supposed to remain secret. That Sow Thoughts spell can be pretty handy. When he came down that time with the food, he checked on her and she just told him not to feed Bakkara. Gashnakh evaded getting in trouble for the incident because the lock was obviously picked on the cage, and he could legitimately claim he didn't pick it (because he didn't and didn't know who did!) and why would anyone suspect him of doing so when he had the key, anyway?
My Sunday noobs finished off Karrguk after both Ingrahild and their own fighter dropped in the 5th round. Karrguk was already staggered, and a couple of well-placed hits from the ranger and investigator (with long arms) finished him off before the silence and haste spells ran out. The additional 4 orcs that showed up in round 3 to investigate the missing guards were dropped pretty quickly (2 slumbers, crit from the ranger, and trip from the ranger's wolf). Overall, they ended up with an extra round to pull all the bodies into the tent before the silence ran out.
Since they had searched the tent during the sundown festivities the day before, they knew about the secret door in the back of the tent and shoved all of the bodies into the alcove (Karrguk and 6 orcs). They then went back to their base to rest before climbing up the latrine to the upper level.
The hill giants managed to drop Ingrahild (again, she's getting tired of this), but were otherwise of no consequence, as were the manticores. So far, the witch has been the hero with slumber.
Next week, I expect they'll start venturing around the backside of the castle to pick off the ogrekin watch. I think I'll institute a war breaking out between the orcs in the moat due to Karrguk's
"disappearance," which will inevitably be joined by the ogres hoping to capitalize on the leadership void.
Of course, they may simply march up the stairs and kill Grenseldek. They are getting bold.
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Looking for some quick advice...
The initial encounter run up for Ewigga in J4, it speaks about how Ingrahild and her brother decimated Ewigga's coven before she fled into the vault.My player party has Ingrahild in the group for the moment...and while Ingrahild won't recognize Ewigga (due to Ewigga's disguise), it should be evident that Ewigga recognizes Ingrahild.
What's the best way to role-play out this initial encounter?
Should I do this by the book and "pretend" that Ewigga doesn't recognize Ingrahild? Or should I have Ewigga go ape-s#+* on the group in retribution against Ingrahild.
I had the mercenaries Ingrahild and Ulmo brought with them each have a magic item (unfortunately they were eaten by the marsh giant, the dwarves not the items) and the party had a chance to find them. I put a carved meerschaum pipe with the front of it a figurine of an owl which could be removed on the back of the pipe their were three dwarven runes One Two Three...homage to the tootsie roll commercial where the owl goes one two three when asked how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop. We then rolled to see if it was a great horned owl or great owl. Totally random stuff here people. And guess what they got a helpful flying creature they may need to get them into the mindspring mountains, it has true seeing and it has Knowledge Nature which the group did not have. I told the party that this particular owl came from the First World, its plane of origin. I also gave the party one other item from the other dwarf which also came in handy. The group took out the tendriculous from a distance while on the walkway but it is regenerating and when they are all down on the floor it is going to attack again. I have it playing dead like a venus flytrap till they are close. Gonna be a great day Saturday when we all play again
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I don't know how to add a spoiler button, so fair warning.
Does anyone else find the cache of weapons at the end of the vault of thorns a little underwhelming?
I mean, after all the party has gone through to get there, I was expecting more than one weapon that was intended specifically for fighting giants and more than 11 anti-orc arrows. Some of the other items make sense for druids to have, such as the wand of magic fang, but I think when I get to this part I'm going to make the treasure better match the description Halgra gave, while keeping the total value of the treasure about the same.
I get that Halgra may have imperfect knowledge of what the contents of the treasure hoard would be, even with Silvermane's description (though some details could be lost in translation), but I really don't enjoy intentionally setting up my PC's for disappointment.
Other than this detail, I love this part of the AP, its a really cool location.
Anyone have suggestions for alternate items for the vault of thorns hidden weapons cache?
I did find the loot underwhelming.
I removed said loot and added an elven blade fitting for our halfelf rogue, a wizard item and a cleric item. All fitting sometime in the past few hundred years, druidic nature, anti orcish. Each player has something that will help them in this campaign.|
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So we finished out the Vault of Thorns last night and headed up river to the Redlake fort. We had a dwarf join our group who too a couple feats from the Giantslayer series. In particular, the feat which allows him to roll with it, Roll with it allows him to roll with a critical blow from a giant and take normal damage instead. Now, at 6th level the dwarf paladin had 66 hps. The first hill giant they met hit him for what would have been 56 hps but he rolled with it and took 1/3. I would toss out there to the gms running this campaign to not shirk at allowing characters to build giantslayers at level 1. Many people have posted that you won't be fighting giants right away. I beg to differ. When and you will meet giant types in the first and second books. When, you meet them they hit hard and as the books progress we are talking 1, 2 and 3 attacks per round with x3 crits and 19-20 crit ranges with plus 10+ to hit each time. It gets worse as the books move on. I would highly recommend to have a heavily armoured character join the group and at least 1 main healer with a backup if possible. Group makeup is semi crucial and Knowledge skill are key. Knowledge nature in the second book has a lot of rolls. Knowledge local, arcane, history have come up as well. I would recommend someone that can climb well in the group as well. Just take this post as you will. I like to know what my characters are getting into and now that I have completed the first and most of the second book these are just some tips. I hope it helps.
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My group heard the orcs headed to the bear fight around 5 pm. They overheard the orcs telling each other to hurry up or they would miss the dwarf fighting the bears. They also heard the bears growling from outside the walls. The rogue climbed the back wall and got the group over using ropes to the area right in front of the sewer grate. They checked out the moat and poisoned some of the drink left by the orcs with some poisons they had. They saw Droja's tent and correctly id'ed the fact it is the shaman/oracle type. Our night stopped right there till next Saturday to allow me to prepare the castle. I went to a local Copy Quick shop and had the map in the book blow up to 3x4ft with 3/4 inch squares per 5ft. So I have a near full size map for them to explore. Cost me 20 bucks and I can't tell you the feedback I have got from the local game shop. Everyone can't believe how awesome it is. I can't wait til next week. It is nice to read your post and see how others are getting in the keep.
@bargeslayer: this is already a GM thread, spoilers are assumed.
My guys ended up killing Karrguk and Pappy quickly. Invisibility, silence, and haste made the rest of the fort pretty easy. Grenseldek didn't last long and wound up surrendering. They put her and her bodyguards in the Manticore cage, but she escaped as soon as the curse was lifted. By then, the remaining otcs and ogres were killing each other. Rescuing Umlo from the bears almost went poorly when the dire bear won the unit and nearly killed Umlo on its first attack.
The crew is on the way to Vigil now, to sell everything, buy their own gear, and get a little retraining in.
Treasure in this section was kinda dull, too, but the second and third parts of book 3 make up for it in spades.
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So the group this week met up with Droja and after she told them about their destiny which lay in the chapel they decided to try and get to the chapel. They made it no problem. They met the inhabitant of the chapel and knowing the bear fight was over they hoped Ulmo would still be alive considering he got some help from Droja. We had another PC join our group so I made him a prisoner fighting the Bears too. So the group decided to cast invisibility on the rogue and wizard and they snuck over to the gate where the dwarf was. They snuck in freed them then cast invisibility to get back to the chapel. They also found Karrguks tent on the way and decided to take care of him once it was dark. The rogue snuck in and used oil of Taggit on the General he made his save and failed perception to wake up and with Droja sleeping beside him the rogue coup de graced him. His head rolled and Droja woke up. They made it back to the chapel and decided to hit Grenseldek in her home. What they failed to realize going in the front door had 2 hill Giants to meet them there. They took down the Giants but just as the last one fell Pappy and his bunch opened the door. 3 rounds later Grenseldek and her minions came down from up stairs. 2 dire wolves, 2 half giant orcs and Grenseldek herself. I can't wait for Saturday to see how this ends.
Sounds fun. I like combining fights like that, too. Particularly given the complaints many have with less than challenging battles as filler in many AP sections. Doing so has been very important in my Mummy's Mask campaign as well.
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I am sitting here thinking about what is going to happen with the noise from the fight in the finale to this book today. The party, as I previously mentioned, is fighting the leaders in Grenseldek's keep. They already killed Karrguk with the help of Droja and the lack of his bodyguards being with him. They still have the two manticores to deal with, and with the general already dead,and the other two leaders either hurt or on their way to dead I am dying to see what the party comes up with to get out of the fort or finish the fort with 30 orcs, many ogrekin, some hill giants and others in the fort. It may come down to them capturing Grenseldek or intimidation or some other great idea. I will post what happens to finish this book out today.
This is what I ended up liking about the fort. There are an endless number of ways to get through it - some challenging, others not so much. At first, I was concerned that my boys would have a problem with it, but they really came up with some strong in-character ideas that made it much easier than I expected. We haven't played in almost a month for various reasons, but start back up with Nargrym's tomb tomorrow. The general consensus seems to be a bit lower for the 3rd book, but I think we're going to like it.
Great thread, glad I found it! My party spent yesterday slogging through Ghostlight Marsh, and just entered the Vault at the end of the session.
At the beginning of Giantslayer I insisted that all my players create backstories for their characters. After reading the Player's Guide to the AP, our elven druid decided she wanted to be Silvermane's long-lost granddaughter. Although she'd never met Silvermane before, her parents had told her that he was living in Trunau. So, connecting with him was her reason for journeying to Trunau in the first place. After skimming through the first few books, I allowed it. We played out their touching first meeting during our very first session. Afterwards, their familial connection added poignancy to the party finding him half-dead during the orc invasion, as well as to his gift of the Ghostlight Lantern.
Reading this thread has given me an idea: when the party meets Ewigga, she's going to attempt to pass herself off as our elven druid's long-lost grandmother (!)... in other words, the wife of Silvermane. She'll spout all sorts of nonsense about how she's been trapped in the Vault for years, held hostage by unseely fey creatures. And she'll fill our elven druid's head with promises of retaking the Vault, i.e. reclaiming the "family legacy", and all that... Ooh this is just too delicious to pass up.
I'm looking forward to the Big Reveal:
"I love you, my darling granddaughter... I love you so much IT HURTS!"
(as Ewigga drops her Alter Self, changes back into her true self, and lunges at her)... Mwah-ha-ha! ;-)
I've got one question regarding Ewigga's ruse:
Would my elven druid's animal companion (a wolf) be able to use scent to pierce the evil hag's disguise? Does Alter Self change how a being smells? Even if the spell does change how Ewigga smells, I'm wondering if her wolf companion might sense something's not-quite-right?
I just posted the question today and everyone agreed that because Alter Self is a transmutation (polymorph) spell (and not an illusion), it alters everything about a person, including scent. Makes scents, er, sense!
My players collectively got Stealth Synergy feat at 3rd level, so that the party as a whole can use Stealth. It seems to be a very powerful option, and I thought I would point out that it's gonna be VERY useful in the entire Giantslayer campaign.
I should point out that I almost completely changed the treasures in book 1 and 2. Uskroth's Armor was okay, but there's nobody in their right mind that would keep half plate armor, so I changed it to mithril full plate and kept the enchantment of course. The party Fighter (melee) took it. Brinya's Love the dagger became a bastard sword (for the Ranger's benefit).
Here's how I worked out the sequence of events in the boat:
Day 1: Event 1
Day 2: B1 (midday)
Day 3: Event 2 (morning), C
Day 4: Trip to Vigil, shopping at Vigil.
Day 5: Trip back from Vigil, D
1-3 days delay because of the dam
Day 6: Event 3 evening
Day 7: E, F, then Ghostlight Marsh.
Days 8-12 Just mindless rowing to get to Redlake Fort.
Day 12: Event 5
Event 4 happens at the party's discretion, of course.
In B2, I replaced the +1 buckler (seriously, NOBODY uses bucklers!) with a mithral breastplate (for the Fighter (archer). I figured the added gold value would be okay since I have 6 people playing, and they were dividing up the wealth 6 ways. The masterwork pick became a masterwork rapier for the bard.
In the druid's hoard, I replaced the +1 ironwood breastplate with a mithral breastplate (for the ranger), the +1 flaming scimitar with a +1 flaming short sword (for the ranger). Barkskin scroll replaced with a Flaming Sphere, Call Lightning with Lightning Bolt, Summon Nature's Ally 4 with Summon Monster 4 (all for the party Wizard). Finally, I replaced the wand of Greater Magic Fang 12 charges with a wand of Dispel Magic again with 12 charges(for the Wizard), having noted that the spell is on both Wizard and Druid spell lists.
In B2, I replaced the +1 buckler (seriously, NOBODY uses bucklers!)
Haters gonna hate. ;)
I think if I had a party of more experienced players, which would have meant much more diverse (and non-traditional) character builds, I would have changed things up, too. As it stands, my group (on Sunday, Saturday went back to MM) consisted of 3 brand new players with characters largely driven by my suggestions, and they found plenty of use from the treasure as it was. I did tinker a bit, IIRC, but nothing as extensive as you did, Piccolo. The consensus seems to be that it was an underwhelming "hoard," regardless.
Depends on PC make up. I had a druid in my group, he was quite thrilled with the hoard.
Our halfling paladin took Uskroth's armor and, aside from the Righteous Might ability, isn't much of an improvement over his former non-magical chain shirt. The half-plate doesn't allow him to use any of his +4 Dex bonus to his AC, and it reduces his speed to 15 feet (he's riding a pony so that he doesn't slow the party, and is looking forward to getting his mount at 5th level for that very reason).
I think my party will reach the Vault this week. They're a real mob: 5 characters, 4 animal companions, plus Ingrahild. So, I've upped the CR level by adding more monsters. Along these lines, I told them that Ingrahild and her party had only killed ONE of the green hag coven... So I'm going to be throwing Ewigga plus ANOTHER green hag at them if/when they vanquish the brambleblight. [The two green hags are currently masquerading as one of our Druid's grandmother, and the grandmother's wolf companion].
We have two Druids in our group, so I think they'll be pleased with the Vault of Thorns treasure; I'm only making the following changes: the flaming scimitar will be +2 (rather than +1) and Gorum's Thorn will be a club (so that one of the Druids can use it).
Fortune Teller, you should know that Gorum's Thorn requires the wielder to be a follower of Gorum at the very least. Gorum is NOT a nature deity.
As for Uskroth's armor, why not change it to full plate and have it made of mithral? All you need do is figure out the full price now that it's mithral, and give half of the cost to the party as a whole. Then require the halfling to pay up that half cost if he wants to keep it. That ensures that the entire group gets a cut of the treasure.
I think I am going to change the +1 flaming scimitar to a +1 orc bane short sword. It makes sense that in a anti orc hoard there'd be a orc bane sword, far more than a flaming sword.
I have noted that the players don't seem to care if the treasure is all that great, just that it's USEFUL for their specific PC's. That's why I changed the treasure so extensively.
PS Get your players to take Stealth Synergy when you can. This enables the entire party to use Stealth at the highest check value. Very worth it when engaging in PC guerilla warfare with Redlake Fort and the frost giant encampment!
Right now, my party consists of:
Orc melee Fighter with warhammers
elf missile Fighter with longbows
tiefling variant wizard evoker transmutation school
aasimar cleric of gorum
aasimar variant bard
hobgoblin ranger infiltrator archetype
Stealth, or invisibility, is almost a requirement in Redlake Fort.
We have a druid, too, as well as a ranger with a booned wolf companion. The armor basically got traded for +1 mitral breastplate in Vigil on the fighter (he'll be wielding the hammer of thunderbolts later).
Stealth, or invisibility, is almost a requirement in Redlake Fort.
We have a druid, too, as well as a ranger with a booned wolf companion. The armor basically got traded for +1 mitral breastplate in Vigil on the fighter (he'll be wielding the hammer of thunderbolts later).
Why didn't your GM make Uskroth's armor of mithril in the first place? Oh, note that a mithral breastplate's -1 ACP can be negated by the Armor Expert trait, so your rangers can sneak without penalty.
Invisibility is definitely superior to stealth checks, but it doesn't last long and it sucks up valuable spell slots.
I'm the GM.
These are my teenager noobs (my 13 year old son and 2 of his friends) and the guy that is normally my GM just joined us replacing my wife (this game is not her thing, not at all).
The fighter - originally a barbarian (long story), kept the armor at first, but we re-tooled his character a bit and the lighter armor is a much better fit since he has a higher DEX now (he upgraded it to +2 in Vigil on the return trip). The ranger is in a +2 mithral chain shirt anyway (I don't remember what he had at the end of the first book). The druid is not playing for a while but he picked up a bunch of the stuff that I did modify.
They had Melira's wand of invisibility with 6 charges (I don't deduct charges for what the baddies use during their encounter), and burned through 4 of them in the fort as well as a few from my investigator NPC. With the witch gone (my wife), and a shaman to replace her, they'll have to work a little harder in Minderhal's Cathedral.
Your Fighter might eventually want to switch to a mithral full plate. Standard Fighters get armor training, which stacks with the mithral properties and allows for much higher dex than normal. Does the Fighter have class access to Acrobatics so as to get past a giant's reach without taking an attack of opportunity?
Here's an interesting idea. There's a suit of +2 specially enchanted scale mail in the next book, Forge of the Giant God. Why not retool the armor to make it useful for the PC's?
First, I made it a chain shirt (covered in hill giant fingernails). This ups the price by 50gp, but lowers the AC granted by 1. Then, add in mithral properties, which ups the price by 1000gp, increases the max dex to 6 and lowers the ACP to 0. Then, increase the enchantment to +3, which makes up for the loss of AC in converting it.
I didn't think a breastplate would make much sense to be interwoven with hill giant fingernails; it would need some sort of chain or scale to allow that.
This might make it a useful magic item for anyone who normally wears light armor, like Bards etc.
What do you guys think?
BTW, taks, how are you managing the trip to Vigil? I was thinking the players could hire Captain Bloodtusk to take them to Vigil once they've finished looting Redlake fort.
He's a weapon master, so no armor training, but his 2 attacks with Agrimmosh are +20/+15 and deal 2d6+15 damage before power attack and various other adjustments. Against giants, he has a 25 AC.
The party negotiated a trip to Vigil and back up to Trunau with Bloodtusk. I don't remember what I actually charged, but it took 15 days, including waiting while they got their gear enchanted when they failed the 75% roll on a few items. He lost nearly a month overall helping them.
I'm using the economy rules, loosely, so they can't get much done in Trunau given its low base value. They'll have to go to Janderhoff next.
Unfortunately, due to various circumstances, we won't be playing again for several weeks. :(
I should have retooled the giant nail scale mail, Piccolo, but the ewww factor was pretty funny when I explained it in detail, showed them the pic, and said "think about it for a second."
Janderhoff? Where is that in the books?
I was thinking the players can do everything they need at Vigil, given that it's the capital and a large city. So eventually the party wizard will end up teleporting there to sell goods, once he gets access to the spell.
Janderhoff is a dwarven sky citadel. It's on the western side of the Mindspin Mountains, a bit southwest of Minderhal's Valley.
Thanks Piccolo for the advice, but it's too late to change Uskroth's armor now. Besides, I don't like tailoring everything to the convenience of the PC's... I kinda like the fact that the halfling has this cumbersome armor on, hehehe.
I didn't read that correctly about Gorum's Thorn... thank you! We have no followers of Gorum in our group so I think I'll just leave this treasure as-is. Although I might change the scimitar to an orc bane scimitar as you did... instead of changing it to a +2 flaming scimitar. That's good advice. And not a minute too soon... they should be finishing the Vault in tonight's session.
Janderhoff is a cool place. Our dwarf character was going to be from that city, in his original backstory; but he changed his hometown to High Helm in the Five Kings Mountains instead (which matched the other characters' backstories much better).
One of our characters was interested in traveling to Vigil as a side-trip, since it looks relatively close on the map... but the rest of the party vetoed it.
Actually, I changed the +1 flaming scimitar to a +1 orc bane short sword. The ranger can use it, but he certainly won't want to keep it forever since orcs only feature in the first 2 adventures. That said, it makes sense to have an orc bane sword in a hoard filled with anti-orc treasures.
Go right ahead and change Uskroth's armor anyway. Your players will appreciate it.
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Pedantic note on Bloodtusk's Keelboat.
More broadly, the lack of any details and interaction at Everstand in the module at all is a bit of a problem for me that I will be fixing. Everstand is a major location on the front line with Belkzen and the tale of Everstand's creation is a bit of an awesome bit of Golarion's history as set out in Castles of the Inner Sea.
The central castle keep was created on the spot to defend against the advancing orc hordes literally out of nothing; the defending soldiers at the crossing planned to draw two cards from a Deck of Many Things one of them had: the first...
I'm glad I am not the only person that thought the exclusion of material relating to castle Everstand a significant Faux Pas. Fortunately, appropriate back matter is provided in Castles of the Inner Sea; just as you mentioned Steel_Wind. My group had a half day stop at Everstand and met both the Castilian and head priest. For flavor purposes, I had the 1/2 orcs stay on the Chelish Devil for fear of being persecuted (even though I made it clear to my group that the Bloodtusk's keelboat had safe passage rights).
btw love your adventure reviews ..keep um coming (hopefully you and Asmyth can find time to do another Podcast this year!)
Pedantic note on Bloodtusk's Keelboat.
More broadly, the lack of any details and interaction at Everstand in the module at all is a bit of a problem for me that I will be fixing. Everstand is a major location on the front line with Belkzen and the tale of Everstand's creation is a bit of an awesome bit of Golarion's history as set out in Castles of the Inner Sea.
The central castle keep was created on the spot to defend against the advancing orc hordes literally out of nothing; the defending soldiers at the crossing planned to draw two cards from a Deck of Many Things one of them had: the first...
I'm glad I am not the only person that thought the exclusion of material relating to castle Everstand a significant Faux Pas. Fortunately, appropriate back matter is provided in Castles of the Inner Sea; just as you mentioned Steel_Wind. My group had a half day stop at Everstand and met both the Castilian and head priest. For flavor purposes, I had the 1/2 orcs stay on the Chelish Devil for fear of being persecuted (even though I made it clear to my group that the Bloodtusk's keelboat had safe passage rights).
btw love your adventure reviews ..keep um coming (hopefully you and Asmyth can find time to do another Podcast this year!)
I did something similar at this point and had some interactions (albeit on the boat) at Castle Everstand. It's just too cool of a place to not include it. My PCs also made a side trip to Castle Firrine after the encounter at the waypost on the River Esk.
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I made a player handout of Redlake Fort as well. Tried to give it a more hand drawn vibe, as well as fixing the damage that has been done to the walls and re-hydrating the moat. The map only shows the top levels of every building so Calrianne will have to inform them about the sewer tunnel verbally.
I just recently started this AP with my group and so far I have to say, everybody is enjoying the gear switch from the assault on Trunau to the river journey. It's good to see that everybody is on their toes and trying to use their resources as efficient and sparse as possible, having learned from the marathon of encounters during the siege. They're all doing very poorly with their daily duties on board, but at least the gnome druid can use speak with animals so the horses can tell him face to face how useless he is. Him and Lucky the horse had some nice conversations so far and if they should acquire the magical saddle from Calrianne, I think they'll try to talk the captain into selling the horse to them.
Having browsed through the thread, I think I'm going to include Castle Everstand a bit more myself. Not sure yet if the group will pick up on it, but I might as well provide the possibility. We have a warpriest of Gorum after all.
I can't really say much else yet, other than I enjoyed what I was GMing so far, and I liked what I have been reading and prepping. I mainly wanted to share the map handout, so feel free to use it if you like it.
The river journey was my favorite part until book 3 in the valley.
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Thanks for reminding me. I also created a map handout of Redlake Fort for my players awhile back. Completely forgot I wanted to post it here. I kind of reverse engineered it to look as I imagined an architectural map of its construction might have appeared; minus the post-siege alterations that the orcs carried out. I also threw in a brief footnote.
I similarly added in an evening stopover in Squirestone and Castle Everstand during the river trip. Captain Bloodtusk had some business meetings to conduct at the Squirestone dock, so the party headed into the village to socialize away from the barge's half-orc crew while they could. They found the local watering hole and, being out-of-towners, folk asked them to share what news they had. So they started recounting the events of the raid on Truneau. Since it had happened only a few days earlier, folk in Lastwall hadn't yet heard of it, so news spread quickly in the small town. Soon Captain Gauntwood showed up with a small retinue of guards to see these orc-raid survivors for himself. After a bit of conversation, he invited the party to spend the night in Castle Everstand as his guests. Being a military officer on the border, he was quite interested in hearing anything they could tell him of this significant event so he could determine the level of threat still remaining for the area so to later submit an official report to his superiors. When the party told him of their intention to counterattack Redlake Fort, he recalled a book he'd had with a chapter about the Fort. Unfortunately, he'd lent it out to a friend of his, Dame Calrianne Blix, who'd been curious to read about an ancestor of hers detailed therein. Luckily, she was stationed at a waystation only a day or two's sail downriver... :)
Plot question that I just can't find the answer to.
How does Melira find out about the PCs and their exact destination (right down to the specific stone marker they are told to look for) in time to send Tark a letter and sneak aboard the boat?
My current theory is she found and seduced Tom Exposition...
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How does Melira find out about the PCs and their exact destination (right down to the specific stone marker they are told to look for) in time to send Tark a letter and sneak aboard the boat?
There are many many background details that are ignored in the first and second modules; this being a significant one.
After carefully going over the first module, I concluded that the saboteurs had no plausible skills with which to locate the tomb entrance nor to paint giant white crosses on vertical surfaces without being detected. As it turns out, Melira has access to spells, a wand of invisibility as well as the best ranks in Climb and Stealth among Skreed's crew, so I added her to the ranks of the saboteurs and gave these tasks to her. That placed her within Trunau before the raid.
She being entirely human however, unlike the other saboteurs, Skreed feared that the orc raiders might attack her on sight so he had her leave town shortly beforehand for safety's sake. I figured they had a rendezvous spot picked out a few hours outside of town where she waited out the raid.
Once Skreed was killed or captured and disarmed, his locket ceased functioning and Melira panicked; sneaking back into town the morning after the raid to see what had befallen her lover. She quickly zeroed in on the PCs since their heroics during the raid were all anyone was talking about in town. Then she used her stealth abilities and her wand to get close enough to overhear their conversation with Helgra and hatched her plan; hooking up with one of the undiscovered half-orc saboteurs (quite a few of them aren't detailed in the first module) and sent him with her message to Tark while she herself made her way to the river to infiltrate Bloodtusk's barge.
It seems highly unlikely that Helgra and Silvermane's conversations with the PCs or their mission was public knowledge; likely being known only to them and possibly the other council members. Getting Melira into position to eavesdrop on these exchanges seemed the only way for her to have enacted her plan so quickly unless the PCs sat around in town for weeks after raid talking about it; which I knew my players wouldn't. 2¢
I noticed this seemed to have been overlooked on the initial readthrough and did something very similar to Ambrus. She knew he was dead when the locket told her, and she knew he had been in Trunau. I had placed her in Freedom Town about the time that the orc raid began, and as soon as the destitute people in Freedom Town heard that Trunau was getting sacked, they knew that if the orcs were repelled, the people of Trunau would need a bunch of cheap, available labor to rebuild. A mass of poor laborers traveled from Freedom Town to Trunau to "make themselves available" to be hired as cheap labor and Melira snuck in as a part of them. I had to make this a detail because my PCs were members of the local guard/militia and took responsibility for watching the gates of Trunau, so when they figured out that was how she got in to eavesdrop it made sense to them. She then just did some basic gather information to find out what the PCs had accomplished, including killing the orc that must have been Skreed, and when she saw Bloodtusk in town and knew him as a riverboat captain, she put two and two together. When the locals started talking about the Trunau heroes going to Redlake, she knew how they were getting there and left the night before by horse and got to the riverboat first. And that's pretty much where the module picks up.