Benjamin Bruck's page

Sounds like you've already got some good ideas on how to tweak the Assault for your group. Filling in those quiet turns with Unorthodox Tactics is a great idea.

You might also consider getting creative with descriptions of events that fail. Frex, in Turn 1 they could see the Ironfang Legion deploying smaller siege weapons, perhaps scrapped together from pieces of broken catapults, that bounce harmlessly off Longshadow's walls. The point being to reinforce that their previous victories had real and meaningful consequences.

Aside from that, it looks like there are only three events that are completely eliminated due to PC sabotage--the others are instead weakened or changed. My suggestion would be to shuffle around the other events to fill in those quiet spots, and then hold back a few turns "in reserve" to pad out the battle if it looks like the PC's need a moment to catch their breath.

As a side note, the rules for the Assault changed a bit in development, so there may be things I missed on my quick readthrough. Other people may have better advice!

EDIT: Also maybe consider moving "Rallying the Troops" from Turn 0 to Turn 1. Flavor it as the PCs overseeing the initial phase of the battle, keeping the town defenders from breaking under the initial charge and directing their attacks to where they're needed most.

Looking for Voldan is the primary reason to explore the mine (for some groups, curiosity about this seemingly collapsed/uncollapsed mine might also be enough to bring them in). Originally, the only breadcrumb leading to the Ridgeline camp from Radya's Hollow was going to be the map they find in area I7, so by the time they get the idea to go look elsewhere, they're already halfway into the monkey trap.

If you're worried the PCs might opt to skip the mine altogether, you could alter the handout on page 11 to say something about Dargg deciding to abandon any survivors of the collapse rather than risk more soldiers/morlocks digging them out. Then, when the PCs see that the mine is strangely free of debris, they might decide to check it for Voldan.

Alternatively, it's completely fine if they tackle the Ridgeline camp before inspecting the mine. When they don't find Voldan there, Nibbitz or even Mahrzan can suggest the possibility of survivors trapped in the mine and encourage them to go back.

Primarily, it gives them a way to avoid fighting Navah. By bringing her the cloak and convincing her to put it on, they can negate her insanity long enough for the party to communicate their nonhostile intentions and cast recovery spells on her.

It also serves as a way to help Navah remain in control of her actions while seeking treatment. Bringing Navah back to town without either curing her madness or bringing her the Skelterhide puts both her and the people of Longshadow at risk, should she have a relapse.

You are correct that, without access to the proper spells, the players can’t really get Navah’s full aid in the coming battle, but she could help the PCs in later adventures once she completes her 12 weeks of treatment.

Aside from that, you might want to ask Thursty about it. I wrote Navah and pitched the skelterhide, but didn’t get the chance to write up the item before I handed things off, and I’m assuming he’s the one who fleshed the item out and added the “can’t speak or write” element (if not him, then someone in development).

As I built him, Dargg originally used a heavy flail, but they switched him to a light flail at some point during development (maybe the art came in different than they were expecting?).

It looks like whoever made that adjustment didn't switch his Weapon Focus over as well--probably just a minor mistake. I'd go ahead and swap his feat like you suggested.

How did the encounters with the kudimmu, the larvae of the outer gods, the shrike worms, and the Pallid Mask go?

Did they end up fighting the Kudimmu? Or did you run it as a benign encounter, like you were thinking?

Is that a Bulette on the cover!?!?!?!?!?

Why, yes it is :)

Wannabe Demon Lord wrote:

What are a Kudimmu and a Shrike Worm?

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

Jim Groves and I were trying to get every monster in the Bestiary into the adventure (and we would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for those meddling Great Old Ones!), and I'm not sure if a gentle race of philosopher poets would have been a great fit. That said, I love the idea. Maybe the ones from Earth were an enlightened offshoot?

PS-Anomalocaris is definitely on my list of creatures to shamefully plagiarize for monster ideas.

I'm really excited to see how the monsters turned out!

One of them is inspired by my favorite Cambrian critter.

Dragon78 wrote:

You mean a kineticist entry in spell sections like they are spell casters?

I think he's envisioning something like mighty fist of the earth and stone shield, which both have lines in them like:

Advanced Race Guide - Mighty Fist of the Earth wrote:

At 4th level, a qinggong monk may select this spell as a ki power costing 1 ki point to activate (if the monk has 0 ki points after activating this ki power, the rock does not count as a ki strike).

Advanced Race Guide - Stone Shield wrote:

At 4th level, a qinggong monk may select this spell as a ki power costing 1 ki point to activate.

So something like, "A kineticist may select this spell as a 2nd-level wild talent that costs 1 point of burn," could be possible.

Hey, those are both mine! :)

I wrote those spells specifically with monks in mind, which is why I added the Qinggong rules.

I curiously like the female Minotaur. Nice to see dimorphism in our anthropomorphised antagonists.

Wouldn't mind a mini of her...Erik?

YES

That would be killer.

That Halloween weekend special idea sounds killer, Mikko!

It was a pleasure working with you guys, and with our developer Amanda Hamon Kunz. Based on the little bit of your work I've seen, folks are in for a real treat!

Yay!

This was a lot of fun to write. I hope people enjoy it!

Man, that art for the Baron looks great! Props to Daniel Dussault.

Doh!

Yeah, Improved Two-Weapon Feint should definitely have Two-Weapon Feint as a prereq. It looks like I just left it off the list by accident when I wrote that feat.

The kijimuna - I ran this encounter at night. I described the village and the hundreds of goblins all watching them intently, being threatening enough that each group simply tried to hunker down and ride it out. After a couple rounds, random bands started following the ship, tossing dead fish and other detritus on board and taunting the "long-shanks." Soon, I had random goblins throw torches onto the boat (not relying on whether the PCs had them or not). One group was suspicious and started trying to get to the torches and throw them off. In the midst of this, one kijimuna group decides to attack, and the fun is on. I have the torches to steal flame from, and a peanut gallery to provide cheers and jeers, and things worked out pretty well. Again, no group ever doesn't hit a snag, and I had it be a kijimuna "man-fishing" net that the village tosses out at them in which the goblins laced trophies from their prior "catches." When the PCs cut their way free, they have the chance of noticing the mission objects.

This is pretty similar to how I've been running this encounter (at night, with torches). When I was writing the scenario, the stats for the kijimuna hadn't been finished yet, so I had no idea about their Steal Fire ability. Had I known, I definitely would have set this one at night, and/or had the kijimuna throw torches onto the boat during the fight.

The two groups I've run it for both tried to sneak the braid past the guards, with about a 50% success rate.

I haven't run this yet, but I'm slated to at a con this weekend. My initial readings bring up the following question:

If the PCs successfully sneak the Braid past the border guards, why would he send a ship after them anyway? He searched their ship already. They didn't have it.

Am I missing something?

(FWIW, I'll still send the ship after them in Act 3 - at that point it just happens to be a Lingshen patrol ship or something else...)

Basically the idea is that, whether he finds the braid or not, Cheyeng finds the PCs and their ship suspicious, so he reports his encounter with them to his superiors.

That gives someone higher up in the ranks the chance to put two and two together (possibly with the help of whoever is leaking Society secrets to the Lingshenese to begin with) and then order the Hailong to intercept the PC's on the Sea of Eels.

I don't recall if it mentions it anywhere but the Hailong is a patrol ship, assigned to patrol the Sea of Eels, so just having them stumble across the PCs works as well.

Hey folks,

I've been keeping an eye on the thread, and I wanted to say thanks for the feedback you've all given. I can definitely see there are some problems with this scenario, and if I get the chance to write another one, I'll keep these recommendations in mind.