I received my email stating that shipping is around the corner. Can't wait to see what you guys have come up with!
Search Posts
I dropped hints in my game that Balabar Smenk was a "made man" with the guild in Greyhawk... I left it vague as to which guild he might be a member. Otherwise, I didn't incorporate a true thieves' guild in Diamond Lake. I did however create an extortion ring that operated out of the emporium and used a couple of the NPCs there as mentors for the rogue PC.
For the first round of the champion's games, how are you computing the experience points? My first inclination is to award all of the CRs for the 3 other teams... but how to account for alliances, etc? What have you done? Thanks.
Check out the Death Domain... from the SRD:
In my campaign, I viewed the mine as such a politically sensitive part of society, that I never he allowed the possibility of PCs owning the mine... instead the Church of St. Cuthbert moved in and bought the mine. In the best interest of the people of Diamond Lake... of course, I've set up a little intrigue between Heironeous (PC cleric) and St. Cuthbert (PC palidin) by sowing doubt about the CoSC's motives...
Although none of the PCs perished in the fight against the stalkers in my campaign, it was nearly a TPK. My players also lit up detect magic and spotted the wand (the aura). And the cleric went out to get it... fortunately, the player was able to have his PC retreat back and the PCs attacked the stalkers from relative safety, otherwise it would have been disastrous. But, hey, it's a game... and if the players don't feel like their PC could die any second, then the experience, IMO, is not the same... For DMs getting ready to run this, just know this going in... if you set the scene well enough, your players will be adequately cautious...
My group has spent a few days in Greyhawk in the beginning stages of HoHR. The party rogue wasted no time in getting himself swapped out by a doppelganger. Finished the last session with the event at the Crooked House.
I ran this fight a couple of weeks ago. I too had read the same posts as you. Here's what I did... First I had the Orc attack from the wondering monster table happen in the morning... By itself it wasn't much, but it did force the Wizard to use his Haste spell. The orcs attacked the party while they were mounted on horses... regular horses that panic in battle. Then the PCs reached the keep. It was under siege. Four groups were advancing on the keep -- ten Lizardmen to the front, ten to the back. The PCs charged into battle. The wizard let off his big daddy spells. A 5D6 fireball didn't outright kill those that made their saves. But still the battle ended pretty quickly and the PCs felt like heroes. I had half the Lizardmen retreat back into the swamp. Then the PCs got the news that Marzena had been captured only hours earlier. I had foreshadowed a few things several sessions previously... Marzena was Allustan's apprentice prior to the PC Wizard, Allustan had been telling the PC wizard that he is in regular correspondence with Marzena. I even gave the PC wizard a picture of Marzena way in advance and told him that he always suspected that she might have feelings for him... then the last letter to Allustan hinted of terrible things in the Marsh... things that she couldn't commit to paper. Needless to say, when the PCs heard that she had been captured, they raced into the Marsh to rescue her. I figured that would be the case, and had the Huge Spider encounter ready to go for that evening. It ended up biting the Wizard and knocked his strength down to 1. After the spider was killed, the PCs were starting to question what they were doing... etc. So, all in all, I looked at the battle for Blackwall Keep as just a step in the progression and not the penultimate battle... and felt that in this sense, it was perfect.
Just finished 3FoE. We play about 10 hours per month plus email between sessions. I agree with others in this thread...
My players also forced Filge to surrender in a pitched battle that could have gone either way. What happened next surprised me, as after explaining what he was doing for Smenk and why, they paid him 500gp to hire living assistants and to report any findings to them first, before reporting to Smenk. He said to check back in a week... They returned the next day and found him gone of course. We had a good laugh about that one... but the best part is that I can have Filge return. Thanks for the ideas...
My PCs confronted Filge and then beat him to submission after a near TPK battle that all enjoyed. I had Filge gladly "sing" his song in exchange for his life. The PCs asked questions that covered about 75% of the material offered in there. What they did next was surprising (and where we ended the session). They decided to pay Filge 100gp to make sure that any research that he did was told to them first, before he reported anything to Smenk... the 100gp was an attempt to get him to stop using undead as "assistants" and instead hire a couple of living assistants... He gladly made the deal and told them to "come back in a week... (he) should have more answers by then..." So now I'm thinking that Filge is going to split back to Greyhawk. It will allow me an opportunity to bring him back. It'll be fun for them to bump into an old "friend".
I ran this encounter last Friday. I used visible rays, and allowed a bonus (+2) to spot checks after each ray attack. The other thing that I did was I had the strangler hiding beyond the range of torch light (my PCs don't have darkvision). Many of them assumed that the rays were coming farther down the hallway and double moved right past the strangler, which then changed tactics and lashed out at the closest character and coiled around his neck. No PC failed the will save.
Why choose? How about either? You can skew the information that you feed to the PC based on whether it's from Dungeoneering or Nature...
I adapted some of the feats from Faeraun... for example, if a player wanted his PC to be a graduate of the School of Clerkship in Greyhawk... then he takes the Mercantile Background feat at character creation (+2 to appraise, +2 to craft or profession skill of choice). Arcane Schooling and Courteous Magocracy were adapted for graduates of Univ. of Mag. Arts... Education feat for those of Grey College... Militia feat for those with a background in well... I think you get the point... |