Dichotomy's page

My PCs defeated Telakin and survived Zyrxog's ambush from area D19. No one in the party has any decent tracking ability, so they didn't venture far into the sewers. Instead, they returned topside to relocate (since the Crooked House was apparently not a safe base of operations), sell some loot, and decide what to do next. They discovered what Beggar's Gold is and learned that "cold forge" in the note Telakin had refers to the Cold Forge smithy.

The problem is that I think the PCs are going to decline to act on their knowledge, hoping to wait for Eligos to get back to them first. Of course, their meeting with Eligos to discuss his findings is supposed to occur after the PCs have discovered the connection of Raknian's purchase of the Apostolic Scrolls and that he was the one that hired Zyrxog to kill them.

I'd also think that, since Zyrxog now knows that the PCs have destroyed his doppelganger servants (and are a bigger threat than Zyrxog thought), that Zyrxog is not simply going to wait if the PCs don't come after him.

I'd appreciate any ideas for how to prod things in the right direction, or, as an alternative, rework the story to allow the PCs to wait.

My PCs just defeated Telakin and will soon be examining his abode. I don't know what to do with the device that creates the mind clones. Does it radiate magic? Can they figure out (with either spells or knowledge checks) what it does and how it works? Is it possible for them to move it? If so, how much might it be worth?

@ hogarth:
I HAVE seriously considered that option. Absent some better idea, I would do that.

@ Chris Mortika:
I really like this idea. Yes, the current PCs are picking up secondary classes to fill the roles the leaving PCs had.

The only concern I have is that, at this point, the PCs haven't figured out that doppelgangers are involved. In both the fight with Elaxan (Event 3) and with Martal and Regim (Area D6), they knocked the doppelgangers out without killing them. Also, one of the remaining PCs is still being impersonated by Ixiaxian (Body Thief).

I'm willing to sacrifice the surprise of doppelganger involvement to use it as an explanation for the gestalt abilities, but I'd need to think of a plausible way to give extra powers to Ixiaxian as well as the PC being impersonated.

Any thoughts on that or other ideas in general?

Thanks for the help so far.

This is a pretty odd question, but I wanted to see if any of you have a creative solution I could use.

Long story short, my gaming group has been drastically altered. We've gone from 5 PCs to 3. We've decided to have the two leaving PCs "go away" somehow and the remaining there are going to "magically" become gestalt characters. We have worked out all of the mechanical details. I'm just trying to find some halfway-decent in-game scenario to at least attempt to have the situation make sense.

We are in the Hall of Harsh Reflections adventure. The PCs were kidnapped per the sidebar, escaped, fought the invisible stalkers, but had to run away. The group fled to a secluded area to rest, and that's where we are now.

The simplest solution is for the two leaving PCs to just be gone (or be dead) when the party wakes up and to just say that the other three have mysteriously acquired these new powers. But that seems very uncreative. My players have decided that they don't necessarily want to roleplay whatever think up to make the switch, but, to the extent possible, I'd like some kind of scenario that weaves the story into it.

Anyone have any creative ideas?

Thanks.

My PCs were taken captive per the "Delivered into Danger" sidebar in the Hall of Harsh Reflections adventure. The PCs managed to escape, beat Martal and Regim into unconsciousness, freed Ilya, and left Gattel for dead. They then made their way out of the building (killing the mimics) and let Ilya go. They spent a good couple of hours searching the warehouse rooms (during which time, I decided that the doppelgangers would have come to mind clone the first PC, but saw them gone).

The party then went back in, to "finish going through" the warehouse. The reached area D7 and got walloped by the invisible stalkers (fortunately, they realized they couldn't do anything with the spells they currently had, so they fled). The ended up hiding out for the next day and purchasing some scrolls to help them.

Now, all prepped to fight invisible stalkers, they are going to go back in. But it has been probably some 12-16 hours since they left the place, and the doppelgangers know the PCs escaped and might come back.

I do not want to slaughter the PCs, but I don't want to just pretend the doppelgangers are stupid. Any ideas on what they might have planned in store for a return assault by the PCs?

I'm hoping that I can get some assistance with this adventure. I have searched the archives, and I know there is a LOT of helpful information, errata, explanations, etc. However, it is hard to find specific information that is pertinent. I was hoping that I might be able to convince you fine folk to help me collect some of it here.

Specifically, I know that DMs have come up with unofficial errata (e.g. the DC on the mind blast being 20 rather than 23). I also know that Jason Bulmahn posted at least once that the "shaded planks" in D7 are meant to be the three surrounding the middle pillar (I certainly couldn't tell).

So, if you are willing, please share what you can.

Oh, and I've read the room description several times, but I can't seem to get my head around D9.

My party just got through the Hextorite base (and the whole encounter truly displayed their ingenuity and luck). They have indicated that they are likely to go to the labyrinth next.

I have two questions. First, are the doors into both the grimlock caves and the labyrinth actually locked in anyway? I know that there is the stone key found in area 10. The key certainly SUGGESTS that the door is locked, but I've failed to find anything else about either door. When the PCs try to get into the labyrinth, does the door just swing open?

Second, and related to the first, is there any reason why the PCs need to go through the caves before the labyrinth? I know the adventure seems to assume that direction, and the story to some extent flows better in that order, but I don't see anything making that order for some reason important.

I'm running a play-by-post game with some friends of mine. They've managed to track the missing Land family to Kullen and his gang. The PCs hung around the Feral Dog waiting for the gang to leave in their drunken stupor. Rather than confront them, the party decided to tail the gang after they left the Feral Dog.

I wasn't certain about where the gang stayed, so I decided that they are still low-lifes like everyone else, but perhaps have curried a enough favor to get their own place. I decided that the gang lives together in a shack that it probably only better than staying in the flophouse by virtue of being shared by only the 4 gang members.

The party has easily tailed the drunk gang to this shack and waited for them to bed down for the night. Does anyone have any thoughts on how things ought to or might progress if the party decides to sneak in and attack the gang?