I take these questions as more World Design, less PC management. As in, I'm going for a "realistic" feel to my campaign setting, rather than worrying about how it impacts the PC's. So my approach with Skie's magic shop is: 1) Skie has a certain inventory, that I'm getting from fan-written material. It is what it is. It's a medieval game, and these are high-cost items, so limited choice is logical to me. 2) The taxes I've imposed (I'm in Zenith Trajectory) are 10%. I think that's from the book. Some of my PC's hate this and protested to the Mayor, because the players aren't used to taxes impacting their purchasing power. Role-playing fun-ness. 3) Some magic items I treat as "fast moving consumer goods" that Skie tries to always have in stock. Specifically, if you buy all the CLW potions or the Fireball scroll, wait a week and it will be in stock again. 4) The prices magic items are sold for are non-negotiable and the same anywhere there's a legitimate dealer in the World of Greyhawk, set by the Mage's Guild in Greyhawk City. People don't mess with the Mage's Guild. 5) Ditto on robbing a magic store. You probably can, but nobody wants to find out what threat the Mage's Guild really is. 6) Every magic shop can BUY for whatever price they want. The rules in SCAP are fine on this, as I remember. Since it costs 50% of value to make an item, 60% of "guild retail price" is the minimum, and from there is negotiable to a max of about 80%. 7) If you want something Skie doesn't have in Cauldron, you could ask her to get it for you. Some items could be locally made. Others would need to be imported from Sasserine, and if Sasserine doesn't have it, imported from across the Azure Sea -- most likely from Keoland, but it could be from Greyhawk City or Ahlissa. A ship carrying it could be waylaid by pirates from the Scarlet Brotherhood, and Skie would need the money up front. I think we're talking a few weeks delay from overseas, and 20% "shipping and handling fee". 8) The other possibility would be to contact Saeker, a retired PC from a different campaign, whose player wanted to retired him as an NPC trading magic items. He was active as an NPC in one of my campaigns, trading magic items for the small fee of his Greater Teleport spells to bring them from the great city of Rel Astra or another contact elsewhere. My SCAP party doesn't know Saeker yet, but it's a possibility they could learn about at higher level. The "Saeker option" is fun to me, and basically means: if you got the money and connections, and it exists and is for sale, you can get it. +1 Flaming Mighty +4 STR Composite Longbow? No prob. +5 Holy Avenger, nope, none currently for sale, even through the Saeker network. Give him a couple months, and he might someone willing to trade it for a quest . . .
Mykull wrote: The volcano rises out of a jungle. Cauldron itself is cooler than the jungle because Crater Lake acts as a heat sink and the city is at a higher elevation than the jungle below it. The rains in "Flood Season" definitely paint the picture of a monsoon season. I'd say that the climate is equatorial (not a lot of variation and still warm at night) and tropical (humid and hot). Absolutely. In my Greyhawk campaign, this part of the world is modeled after the early Caribbean:
-- The plantations in the lowlands are slave plantations, with slaves captured from the nearby jungles, both Amedi (Nordic) and Olman (Central American). -- Outside the plantations, the lowlands are untamed tropical jungle with predators including dinosaurs. -- There are also Maroons out there - a historical Caribbean term for villages of escaped slaves -- who plot against Cauldron. The Maroons replace the Hillfolk barbarians. The Maroons are working for Triel for arms and armor for their revolution! -- Cauldron as a hill station, a refuge from the heat and humidity of the jungle, like the British had in Malaysia and India. Slaves are not permitted in Cauldron, to try to keep Maroon infiltrators out. But Maroons have their ways in and out . . . -- Cauldron and Sasserine were colonies of the Hold of Sea Princes, pirate/slavers from the mainland. They have only been independent for 5 years, since the Scarlet Brotherhood attacked the Hold of Sea Princes and plunged it into anarchy. -- The Malachite Fortress has a magic gate connecting to the mainland of Greyhawk, and was taken over my Duergar refugees from the Underdark, where the kingdom of the Ghouls is taking over! The slaves sold from the Malachite Fortress went to a number of places, including the Vault of the Drow. Loves my Greyhawk setting, and especially "filling in the blanks" to make it awesome for me.
I like the idea of trouble obtaining the property, Mykull. But I would not do forms, because it doesn't fit with my medieval vision of the D&D world.
-- Bureaucracy with forms feels 19th century or later. Another way to make the player's lives difficult would be to have contractors refuse to go into the Malachite Fortress, because it's just too scary.
I'm thinking maybe the short path is: -- Life's Bazaar, Level 1-3 -- Flood Season, Level 4-6 -- Zenith Trajectory, Level 6-8
-- Demonskar Legacy, Level 8-10
-- Foundation of Flame, intended to be level 15-16
I like that a lot, Mykull. Thanks for your help. I will have Skaven and Gutterrut flee to Sasserine (where my notes say Skaven is from, though I'm not sure if I made up his backstory). Skaven will bring the wands, and his collection of books and scrolls. He'll warn the Harpoon Spider, and leave the Air Elemental and Tarkilar behind unwarned. He'll also leave a scroll on his desk, speculating that underground rivers connect Phantom Lake to the Underdark, and that the kopru came here that way, and may have left for the Underdark when the Kopru Ruins were abandoned. Towards the end of the scroll is a Sepia Snake Sigil, in the hopes of slowing the PC's down, even if they don't read the scroll on the wall. As a post-script it says in Draconic: "Tarkilar, I have fled into the Underdark with the wands, through the chamber of spiders. They are trained to scare but not harm, so come join me if the Cauldron men cause you too much trouble." Skaven knows Tarkilar can't read Draconic, but he suspects the PC's will either have someone who can read it, or will find an expert in Cauldron, to lead them on a red herring to delay and kill.
Very interesting Mykull. Before the party killed Triel, they parlayed with her, by succeeding on Intimidate with a very high roll and because it was reasonable for her to try and talk her way out, since her minions had been bested twice before, at the Lucky Monkey and in their first foray into the Kopru Ruins, and she was caught unaware they'd defeated her guards. She told them about her ally Skaven and former ally Tarkilar as part of the parlay. I missed that Triel didn't know she was missing a wand, and had her say that one was with Tarkilar. The only reason the parlay turned violent is because one of the PC's is Dominated by the Kopru with the mission to kill every intruder into his realm . . . the other PC's haven't noticed this one has become extra bloodthirsty, starting that unnecessary fight for instance. Still, Skaven has no idea there even was a parlay, so could try the innocent routine. And Gutterrut and Skaven "trading up" and cooperating, with the quasit on guard duty, makes sense to me. From a metagaming POV, I'm quite sure the PC's would attack Skaven and any ally (such as Kaurophon), because the dominated PC wants to kill everything. Since Kaurophon is necessary to the later plot, I'm not going that direction. I think Gutterrut and Skaven are on their own. I can see 3 logical courses of action for Skaven:
2) Run away. Leave Cauldron and don't look back. Live to fight another day. 3) Hide with the Harpoon Spider. Random determination says "run away". Hmmm.
Very cool, Werecorpse. My take is:
-- Alleybashers see the handwriting on the wall and leave. -- Tarkilar is too crazy to know or care, so he stays. -- Skaven hides out with the Harpoon Spider hoping things blow over. He might even leave his wands "in plain sight" in the hopes the party takes it and goes. Yes, perhaps with a passive aggressive note saying to take them back if they want them so bad?
I just ran my second session in the Kopru Ruins. Intro to the situation is below. Question:
First session, the players killed the skulvyn, got into the main dungeon, were scared off by Triel's traps (found them, afraid to disarm) and fought a bunch of Hill Folk. (In my campaign Greyhawk flavored campaign, Hill Folk are Maroons -- escaped plantation slaves -- from the Amedio and Olman people, working for the Ebon Triad to get weapons to fight Cauldron). The best part was when the fighter fell in the water trap, the paladin tried to pull him out with a rope, and a Maroon Bull Rushed the paladin in, so both were drowning and being zapped by Blood Bloaters. Second session, after 2 days recovery in town, the Maroons had gotten two ballistae and alchemist fire. The PC's defeated the ballistae crews and got in. They got into Triel's room, and with an amazing success on Intimidate, got her to agree to hand over her Wands of Control Water in exchange for letting her go. She told them (vaguely) about undead Tarkilar and wizard Skaven and his spider friends. One of the PC's (dominated by the kopru to want to clear the dungeon) then started a fight, and the PC's defeated her with Hold Person and some crits on Sneak Attacks. They then killed more Maroons (Hill Folk) and blasted Alleybashers lying in wait at an entrance with a Fireball and other spells and arrows. So Triel, 8 Maroons, and 4 Alleybashers dead on this second session, PC's beat up and low on spells. They returned to town to buy and sell gear, and told the Cauldron Guard where the lava tube entrance is. I've decide what the Maroons and Alleybashers do. The Maroons get an Alleybasher to pick the lock to the armory and steal all the weapons they were promised, and escape through the lava tubes before the Cauldron Guard shows up. So back to the question at the top: What do Skaven and the Alleybashers do? I'm thinking in terms of running them for their own interest, not "what is a good game". To me, a good game is when the monsters are thoughtful.
Oliver von Spreckelsen wrote:
I totally agree with this. Starting the adventure in a "used" adventure world, where the actions of the former party matters, is great. For about 15 years, my players in all campaigns have been in my version of Greyhawk, so actions are permanent, retired characters become NPCs, dead characters leaving their stuff behind. It makes things more meaningful everyone. My current SCAP campaign began with Jzidrune mostly cleared (party I played in was TPK'd in the Malachite Fortress), and like Oliver suggested, I ran unrelated adventures to get the party ready.
Patman wrote: An interesting turn of events. The party doesn't want to give up the Monkey. What they have done, and it makes me smile, is hire several of the people they rescued in Chapter 1 (Coryston Pyke, Gryphon Malek and his fiance ) to oversee the operations. They have representatives of 3 faiths ( CC, Sarenrae and Iomedae ) in their party, and have decided to set up shrines to each Diety in the tavern and rename it the 3 Shrines tavern and Inn. They have put forward almost 1000gp for repairs, supplies and staff, and set Coryston up as the General Manager of the place. They just care about breaking even for the first 3-6 months and having rooms for themselves, should they want them. That's cool. My players just completed the Lucky Monkey fight, and I've been wondering what should happen to the place. 1) PC takeover. No player has thought of this yet, but I have. 2) Lord Vhalantru buys it. Because. 3) Striders of Fharlanghn buy it. In my campaign, Cauldron/Sasserine has a heavy overlay of Caribbean/Hold of Sea Princes feel, with an economy based on slave plantations. The Lucky Monkey is no man's land halfway between Cauldron & Sasserine. Besides being a caravan stop, it's also a lonely outpost of civilization, and the stop on the Underground Railroad run by the Striders of Fharlanghn, helping escaped Amedi (Suloise barbarian) and Olman slaves make it to the Maroon (Caribbean term for escaped slave communities) villages. The "hillfolk" who are working for the baddies in my campaign are Maroons, so it's a bit odd that they attacked this place. The to-be-discovered truth is, Triel's baddies (spoilers, so I won't say who they are) have promised a faction of the Maroons arms, armor, and help in infiltrating Cauldron to rob the Cauldron Guard's armory and start a massive slave revolt. Basically, the John Brown scenario. All that is fun . . . but who is going to take the Lucky Monkey?
For Underdark ideas, given the location in Greyhawk near the Hellfurnaces, it's not terribly far from the Vault of the Drow. In my campaign, I had many of the slaves being sold to the Drow, as Kazmojen & Pyllrak with duergar guards as refugees from the aggression of the Kingdom of the Ghouls. I had the Stormblades sticking a toe into the Underdark, but both parties fear it so far. The city wants the opening to the Underdark for trade, since Cauldron iz isolated, and because I added teleportal gate to another fallen dwarvish holding now taken over by duergar -- the Forge of Fury -- in the Malachite Fortress. With an Underdark entrance and teleport to mainland Greyhawk, the Malachite Fortress is a critical trade resource for the city, like the port it so sorely lacks.
I ran the Flood Festival and the Demonskar Ball today, gaming at AFK Tavern in Everett, WA. It's the first time my group played a session with serious roleplaying, as opposed to combat. After they caught Fario and Fellian spying on them and used the diplomatic approach to become friendly with them, I had the Stormblades crash a wedding of one of the PC's friends (the barman at the Tipped Tankard, rescued from the Malachite Fortress). They dealt with that diplomatically too, amazingly, and took the Stormblades jabs and insults in stride, after the Fighter/Best Man got Annah Taskerhill to back down with a 27 or so Intimidate check. They really enjoyed the Drink Down the Flood drinking contest -- the party rogue made it to the final round on the last day but lost to Tieran Wispwort, the gnome alchemist they'd rescued from the Malachite Fortress. The Crater Lake Monster Hunt was a hit too. I rolled at the beginning that it would 17 rounds before somebody else won, and told them so. I rolled for Cora Lathenmire and Zachary Aslaxin to compete. In round 16, the paladin finally won it, and as a result Zachary (who I play as not a jerk) invited him to the Demonskar Ball. The paladin asked if the others could come and Zachary agreed. The rogue got the Nabthataron invitation, but refused to go, thinking it had to be a set up of some sort. The paladin talked him into it. I gave half the party Founder invites and half Demon. I actually did a shorter version of the scenario, without Diplomacy challenges over dinner -- their table mates were just Jenya, Alek, and the Dipinshires -- with "only" three dance events. It was interesting to see the PC's pick dance partners -- there were enough NPC's they'd met that it worked well. The final dance with the Stormblades trying to mess with them went down very well -- in the end, Todd tripped a female PC and the Fighter tackled him. I was pretty easy on them - I let them get away with doing it lightheartedly, like the Rogue saying, "Huh, you're rich" to Lady Ophella Knowlern, if they made high Diplomacy checks -- he got like a 25 on that one, so I had her be amused instead of looking down on him. Embril chatting with the paladin and the Rogue trying to seduce Celeste were also amusing, especially if one knows who those folks are. :) After all that, in the morning I had them fight a Dire Tiger on the way to the Lucky Monkey, and they finished their first fight before we called it a night. Since in my version of Cauldron, it's important to the setting that the nobles are slaveholding plantation owners (except Lady Ophella and Alek have freed their former slaves), I replaced the random, uninteresting hillfolk with Maroons -- desperate outlaw escaped slaves living in the jungle, in this case hired by Triel hired as the bandits. So far, the PC's have no sympathy for murderous bandits, regardless of the backstory, which I don't think they paid much attention to. Later on, if she survives, Shensen will tell them the Lucky Monkey, with its chapel of Fharlanghn, was a depot in the Underground Railroad out of the plantations and back into the Amedio's Maroon camps. Which makes it strange Maroons would attack it . . . adding additional mystery. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maroon_(people)
Thanks Dave. Found the map on p. 31 of Dungeon 141. Nod, I think it looks about 3/4 of the way across the first box on the mileage chart, which I assumed was 100 miles and thus that you were right. But I counted and there are 12 boxes in the 900 mile scale, so each box is 75 miles, and 3/4 of one is 56 miles. Not that it matters all that much -- I like your estimate better. Here's what I'll put on the road from Sasserine to Caudron: 1) 16 miles from Cauldron(one day's wagon ride)= Kingfisher Hollow plantations 2) 31 miles from Cauldron = The Lucky Monkey Roadhouse (a coaching inn in the traditional sense of "roadhouse") 3) 54 miles from Cauldron = Rakin's Fort, fortified roadhouse at the edge of the region controlled by Sasserine 4) 70 miles from Cauldron = Sasserine So Sasserine is slightly too far from Cauldron for a single's day ride on a light horse (60 miles), and it's not unreasonable for Sacrem to have stopped overnight at the Lucky Monkey. I like this resource, which I think might be fan created, though I haven't looked through my Savage Tide materials in years: http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/savagetideadventurepath/wikis/enviro ns
I've been searching online for that, and took a look in the SCAP hard cover, but I don't see an answer. Was there an official one from Paizo? If not, I'm going to estimate 110 miles -- the approximate road distance from Leavenworth, WA up in the Cascade Mountains to the coast near Seattle. Seems right for a Paizo product.
What have other people done for the Flood Festival, besides the excellent Demonscar Ball scenario? I want to have some fun with contests, and competition with the Stormblades especially. Here's what I've come up with: -- Drink Down the Flood. Day 1-6. As described in SCAP, except 3rd day opponent is Cora Lathemire (Con +1), 4th day is Zachary Aslaxin (Con +3), 5th day is Skylar Krewis (Con +2), and 6th day is Tieran Wispport (gnome alchemist rescued from Malachite Fortress, who I'm giving Con +4). -- Crater Lake Monster Hunt. Day 2. As described in SCAP, except that Cora and Zachary are contestants, and Zachary has Luck (1 re-roll/day). Also, since this is medieval, the swimmers will either be nude or in undergarments. Cora and Zachary will be nude, and at the end of the contest, Cora will insult any male PC likewise attired, with Todd and Annah laughing about it. -- Lakeside Idol. Day 3. Win 6 of 10 DC20 Perform checks to get picked as one of 6 finalists, performing for judges and a large audience at the Lakeside Pavilion. Best Perform check wins. Annah Taskerhill is Perform 10 (Lute). Judges are Lady Ophellha Knowlern, Lady Thifirane Rhiavadi, and Maavu Arlintal. Winner gets asked to compose an original work for the Cusp of Sunrise high-class club owned by Lady Knowlern. -- Shot the Duck. Day 4. Shoot a small, floating duck target, moved further out each round. DC20 to start +1 per round. After 5 rounds, its down to any surviving PC's or Stormblades. Annah +4 on light crossbow, Cora +6 on masterwork composite longbow, Todd +6 on masterwork shortbow, Zachary +6 on masterwork composite longbow. -- Boil the Cauldron. Day 5. Cooking contest. Best dish wins. Best NPC dish is DC30 to beat. -- Demonscar Ball. Day 6. Not sure my PC's should get invited, but the winner of any contest above should get an invite +1.
It's a fantasy game, so what exactly fits or is anachronistic is a matter of taste. After all, not everyone plays D&D/Pathfinder as medieval European fantasy . . . However, I do not enjoy being insulted, so I feel compelled to explain my rationale. Did you ever think about WHY 1450 is said to be the end of the Middle Ages? Could it be (a) that's a nice round date for an epochal change and (b) that's the first date Gutenberg is KNOWN to have done printing with his new idea of moveable type, a pivotal historical event that changed human history by making literacy cheaper, supporting the Renaissance and making the Reformation possible? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gutenberg
The latter says: "The Reformation was a triumph of literacy and the new printing press. Luther's translation of the Bible into German was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy, and stimulated as well the printing and distribution of religious books and pamphlets. From 1517 onward, religious pamphlets flooded Germany and much of Europe." As for newspapers, the oldest that's anything like a modern newspaper is from Germany in 1605. Not medieval. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_oldest_newspapers Your argument is similar to saying, the Chinese were using gunpowder in war by 1200 AD (and possibly invented it as early as the 850's), so I'm a blithering idiot to say firearms don't belong in a game based on a fantasy version of medieval Europe. Or actually, it's more like you're saying calling REVOLVERS anachronistic for the Middle Ages is stupid, because you're conflating gunpowder's existence with the invention of a latter technology (revolvers in 1597, newspapers in 1605). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder
Nod. Cauldron is a hill station. That's a colonial outpost for the rich colonizers who moved in, while the plantation laborers work and die in the tropical. There's a lot of references to British imperialism and Caribbean slavery in my Cauldron. I think it's all there, but I'm not sure it's intentional. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_station
To me, it all depends on when you want Flood Season to start. Since Cauldron's environs are tropical - in my home version the economy is based on tropical slave plantations outside the city - the Flood Season is the local name for the monsoon. Monsoons are interesting, as they happen at different times in different tropics. For West Africa and India, the wet season starts in June. For Thailand, it's more like October. For my home , it will be September, but it's an arbitrary choice based on a pre-existing timeline in my campaign. If you want to be "authentic" to the original intent of the adventure, I'd bet it's based on Seattle weather, as Paizo and WOTC are both here, and the threat of the Howard Hanson dam potentially bursting in the winter rains was a huge issue locally for several years. Seattle's climate is long dry summers and long wet winters, with the rain typically starting in October, often with a major storm. So make Flood Season October if you want the likely (and seemingly unstated) "original intent", otherwise chose a monsoon timing that suits you. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsoons http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_season http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Hanson_Dam http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate.php?location=USWA0395
Marionnen wrote: OP, as soon as your players rescued Star (Keygan's familiar) and got the prisoners out, there is no story-based reason not to seal the entrance to Jzadirune up for good and leave the monsters down there to rot. No plot reason not to seal off Jzazidrune and Malachite Fortress, but good setting reasons not to. The Malachite Fortress under both dwarves and slavers obviously traded with the Underdark. A fortified trading entrepot with "another world" might be of great value to isolated Cauldron. Also if you don't like hunt for the missing dwarf leader might make more sense as an Underdark trek, rather than overland to the hermit's hut and gratuitous dragon fight.
It was a few years back, but when I did it as a player, we lost 1 PC to Dark Creepers, all but 2 PC's (3 I think) plus Jenya from the Temple of St. Cuthbert to the Mimic, and then got TPK'd in the market scene in the Malachite Fortress. So 10 dead without even finishing the first chapter, Life's Bazaar. As a DM now, I continued the dungeon as left it so many years we completed the remaining part of Life's Bazaar with no losses, though I pulled some punches in the Market scene. And we had a party of 4 4th level and 1 2nd level PC. When I was a player, I had one of only two PC's to survive that far, I think two at 3rd or 4th level, three at 2nd, clearly wasn't enough.
As a player, I played through about 3/4 of Life's Bazaar with 5 player parties. We had a dead PC, then lost 3 of 5 PC's plus an NPC we'd brought in for help, and finally TPK. Running it as a DM, I did the last part (Malachite Fortress), modified to have the monsters better organized in their response to the party. I had a party of 5 - Rogue 4, Ranger 4, Cleric 4, Wizard 4, and Paladin 2. They had two tough fights - one got close to a TPK, with only a run of good luck and a retreat preventing it. So, 6 might be a good idea!
I'm a bit intrigued by the mix of exotic races in your party. Non-standard races are vanishingly rare in campaigns I've played in or DM'd, but Shackled City is somewhere between my norm and yours, I think - in Life's Bazaar, the prisoners are all PHB races, but the "half a dwarf" hint about Kazmojen was completely misunderstood, none of us having encountered a half dwarf before. Do you think the citizens of Cauldron should have a different reaction to your party than one with PHB races? I.e., is there even a chance Jil would fall for the efreeti?
I second a Patman's recommendation. You can find a ton of Greyhawk info on GHwiki. In general, I run my Greyhawk with Drow as they were when the Against the Giants (G1-2-3) adventure series introduced them to Greyhawk and D&D in general. That is, their existence isn't widely known beyond elves, they live in the Underdark only, most non-adventurers know nothing of the Underdark, and virtualy all Drow are extremely evil and female-dominated. No PC Drow in Greyhawk, except by extreme exception.
Did you guys make your noble PC's "waste a level on Aristocrat"? I've ruled that noble (or otherwise upper class) PC's don't have to do that, but don't get a lot of tangible benefits from being noble either. They get the same starting equipment as a PC with a "street thug" background would, it's just the people they know and people's reactions are a bit different.
We've all heard the trials of Keygan Ghelve, but I don't think anyone has asked this question about a humanoid monster. My PC's just captured two goblin cooks and a hobgoblin soldier in the Malachite Fortress (the slaving operation in "Life's Bazaar"). As one of the PC's is a paladin and two are good, there's a good chance they will bring them back alive to Cauldron as prisoners for the City to deal with. What would the city do with them? Execute them, banish them from the city, jail them, enslave them, let them go? With or without a trial? If it matters, the backstory in my campaign is that the hobgoblins were mercenary guards working for Kozmojen. They were not involved in kidnapping people, but they were involved in guarding prisoners and protecting Kozmojen. They also helped Kozmojen defeat an earlier adventuring party, and ate them. The goblin cooks worked for the hobgoblins for food and protection . . . not exactly slaves, not exactly free either . . . they never fought anyone, but they made sure the human prisoner cook (Gryffon Malek) didn't try anything, and they helped butcher dead adventurers for the hobgoblins' dining delight. If allowed a trial, they'd claim "just following orders". If allowed a defense attorney (seems unlikely), they might point out any or all of the following arguments:
Apologies if this is boring, but I like reading about other people's campaigns, so I figure others might want to read about mine. I finally decided what will happen next. This Saturday should be the first time we play since December (life as grown ups is tough!). After the fight in the Slave Bazaar, which Pyllrak Shyraat escaped invisibly, he returns. He decides the Malachite Fortress is just too valuable (to him and to the duergar cause) to give up “without a fight”, and in any case he wants to find Kazmojen’s hidden treasure, so he stays and declares himself in charge. The Dark Stalker, Dark Creepers, and hobgoblin rally behind him – because the Underdark is too dangerous, they can’t operate the gates without him, and the city above is also no refuge. Pyllrak moves into M10 (Kazmojen’s Quarters) with his lemures and treasure (from M25). He also takes the skeleton keys to the city and crystal keys to Jzadirune from the Dark Stalker (from M4). From Zarhad, he learns of the existence of the treasury (M11) and the mimic, and he convinces the mimic to move to the gate room. When the PC’s return:
o So when the PC’s arrive via the gate, 4 hobgoblin warriors (on alert) and the Mimic, in the form of a chest, await them. The hobgoblins says their master wants to parlay, and the chest is tribute for them.
• If there is a parlay, Pyllrak comes in full force, but leaves the hobgoblins, Dark Creeper, and Dark Stalkers in the hall and expects to talk.
About Cauldron, Pyllrak knows only that the city sits on the crater lake of a volcano, and that it's called The Shackled City because it's wealth comes slave plantations. About Kozmojen's situations and the war between the True Ghouls and the Duergar, he knows much, but I'll bore you with it. We'll see if the players ask. :)
hogarth wrote: Your truncated version sounds pretty good! I like the idea of combining the Rhiavadi/cathedral bits, replacing the derro (I didn't like that bit much, either) and replacing Hookface with Gottrod. I agree. And thanks Cleanthes, for postings the stats. It's always cool to see how other people stat up the villains. :)
If the durzagon, Pyllrak, is still alive, I'd have him take over the slaving operation directly, and pull back everyone in Jzadirune into the Malachite Fortress, to defend it better. Then after the kidnappings continue apace, and PC's are shamed into finishing the job, only the challenge just leveled up (more monsters per room and on guard). If the PC's won't do it, the Stormblades do, and get all the treasure listed in the whole module, plus XP equal to all the remaining monsters, plus the glory of rescuing the slaves and solving the problem. If that makes the Stormblades level up faster than the PCs, so be it. :)
So, we've just about finished up Life's Bazaar in my weird version of SCAP. My campaign background: PC's gated in from WOTC's Forge of Fury as 2nd-4th level characters, are fighting their way through the Malachite Fortress. Another PC party (different players) long ago cleared most of Jzazidrune but got TPK'd soon after entering the Malachite Fortress. 2 of my 4 players (all over the age of 30) have asked to have 12 year olds join up.
So I'm thinking, they need an intro adventure to teach them the game, and since there are two of them, do it together. The questions are:
Or is SCAP too weird a setting for new players/kids, so I should run something more European medieval/hobbity? I mean kidnapping, an economy built on slavery (in my version), outer plane stuff, seems a bit unsavory. On the other hand, -I- wouldn't have minded it at age 12, and their guardians don't seem to mind either. Assuming I go for a "build a 1st level beginning SCAP adventure", ideas? I'm thinking maybe a nerfed version of Drakthar's Way (which I was playing to skip anyhow). 2) Should their guardians play with them too? That would get us to 4 players. I think "yes", but I might be overlooking something here. 3) Should the intent be for them to join the main group? I guess there's no particular reason not to . . . but I've never DM'd at all with anything like this age difference. Maybe try it on first and see if it works as a more-or-less one-shot? If you have advice, let me know.
Thanks, Werecorpse. Your vision that Pyllrak's decision is the key makes sense. So I'm thinking I roll some dice to decide between those options, with Pyllrak as the decider: 1) Pyllrak just leaves, after buying Jasper the gnome mathematician (good eats for the mindflayers he traded with). Hobgoblins and creepers sit on their hands for a day waiting to figure out a better idea. (So static dungeon.) -- In the this option, the Stormblades ambush Pyllrak -- I'll figure out offline the results of that fight -- and may try to break into the Malachite Fortress with Pyllrak as a hostage. Otherwise, assuming they survive and likely kill Pyllrak, they will stake out the bridge into Fortress, and attack it when the PC's fight the creepers guarding it. 2) Pyllrak allies with the creepers, ransacks the place, and flees, while the hobgoblins remain and hold the slaves. The hobgoblins will try to negotiate with the adventurers (let them use the gate to leave in exchange for the slaves lives) and failing that will try to capture the PC dwarf alive to use the gate. (My campaign background: The hobgoblins are from the Red Hand, on the other side of the gate they can't operate (dwarves only, and no dwarf slaves), working as mercenaries in a deal with the duergar,so they don't want to flee to the Underdark unless it's their only option for survival.) -- In this option, the Stormblades ignore Pyllrak and the creepers (Pyllrak, 6 creepers, 1 stalker, and the automatons is too dangerous for them), and sneak up towards the bridge into the Malachite Fortress. Finding it empty, they attempt to loot, and likely are fighting the hammerer automatons near the cells when the PC's get there. 3) Pyllrak allies with the hobgoblins and creepers, tries to hold on and defeat the PC's, to continue the duergar business here. (Pretty much a static dungeon.) -- In this option, the Stormblades are staking out the bridge, and is Option 1, their queue to enter the stage is the PC's fighting in the creepers in the guard room for the bridge. Should I just roll dice, or is one of these options clearly more reasonable/more fun?
Let me try again only shorter. I'm looking for ideas on how the remaining monsters in the Malachite Fortress should react, during a day after the PC's killed Kazmojen and got away. Remaining folks in/near the Malachite Fortress:
-- Dark Stalker and 6 Dark Creepers. When another party of PC's (TPK'd in the Malachite Fortress 10 days ago in game time) killed off the Skulks, Kazmojen gave them kidnapping duty (the kidnapped the kids) and moved them from Jzazidrune to the door to the Underdark (M6). -- Surviving hobgoblin mercenaries. 12 plus leader/torturer Zarkad remain alive -- 6 were killed.
-- Slaves. Kryllscar the drunkard militiaman, Jasper the mathematician, Deven the lamplighter, Irruth the chandler, and Gryffon the cook. -- The treasure room Mimic. Alone in the dark, it knows nothing. -- The Stormblades. They are hiding in a cave in the Underdark, hoping to ambush those coming and going to the Underdark, having been sent in by the Temple of St. Cuthbert to find the kids, after the first PC party got TPK'd and the Dark Creepers invaded the orphanage. Background in my campaign:
So, after a pause since I first posted this (in April 2011), we finally played on Saturday. It was a marathon session by our standards (nearly 7 hours). In "The Forge of Fury", the PC's faced off with the duergar and defeated them handlily (almost no injuries) in 3 fights. They freed the Duergar's slaves working in the Bladeworks -- Lorthan Ironfold the dwarvish cartwright, Sondor Ironfold his wife, Maple the halfling "laborer" (actually rogue), Janeer the halfling jeweler's apprentice, and forgot-the-name the gnome alchemist (first person kidnapped). The alchemist told them about the gate to the Malachite Fortress, and had learned the command words -- "Ice" to come to the Forge, "Malachite" to go to the Fortress, and must be said by a dwarf. After regaining spells and healing overnight, the PC's gated in. I had the Malachite Fortress gate in what's shown as the forge room (M27, I believe). I had it guarded by 4 bored hobgoblin mercenaries. Unfortunately, one of the hobgoblin's survived long enough to open a door to the main hall (M22), drawing the attention of the hobgoblins there, who wisely alerted Kazmojen to intruders, instead of quitely dealing with it (i.e., just getting killed). In the resulting big fight, the bad guys had two surviving hobgoblin guards, two Duergar guards (Warrior 2's), Kazmojen (Duergar Fighter 5), and Prickles. The party's rogue ran in from the dining room and backstabbed Prickles, who spotted him first. Bad call -- it was a Critical Hit with Sneak Attack damage, but not enough to down the howler, who took him out in one round, to -8. From the other direction (M22), those two pesky hobgoblins kept 3 PC's bottled up in a narrow cooridor to the gate room for far too long (4 rounds?). The other PC -- the dwarf wizard -- dove into M34 (The Slave Bazaar) alone to pour a Cure Medium Wounds down the Rogue's throat. The rogue stabilized at -1, doh. The Wizard then kept backing away from Prickles and letting off spells, getting mauled for his trouble more often than not, while the folks bottled up by the hobgoblins finally Bull Rushed out and mixed it up with the hobs, duergar guards, and Kazmojen (enlarged but somewhat immobile given the crowded fight). Hold Person (from the PC halfling cleric) and Deep Slumber (from a scroll by the dwarf wizard) both failed completely. The human paladin managed to get some hits on Kazmojen, but he went down too. So just the halfling cleric, the elf ranger (archer), and the dwarf wizard left conscious. Then the tide finally turned. The halfling revived the paladin. The paladin got some solid hits in on the duergar. The duergar guards missed everyone for at least two rounds straight, while the elf archer dealt with them. The dwarf wizard landed two Scorching Rays -- both with near max damage -- on Kazmojen and took him down. Then it was just clean up -- killing two now unlucky rolling duergar, and that darn Prickles. The PC's won, but were all near death, so they rescued the kids, coup de grace'd the duergar, and ran for the gate room. Meanwhile, Pyllrak Shyraat had turned invisible and walked out at the end of this. So all that's left are:
-- Dark Stalker and about a half dozen Dark Creepers. They were moved down to the Malachite Fortress and given the kidnapping duty after another party of PC's (TPK'd in M34 years ago in real life with totally different players, a week ago in game time)killed all the skulks and cleared most of Jzadirune. -- The other hobgoblins. I had 18 to start with, and 6 got killed, so there should be 12, plus the torturer leader, around somewhere. -- Two goblin cooks. -- Slaves. Kryllscar, Jasper, Deven, Irruth, I forget-his-name the cook, and I-forget-her-name the rogue/sorcerer. -- The treasure room Mimic. So what happens next? Should Pyllrak Shyraat take the remaining useful slaves (I'm thinking just Jasper, as a math teacher might make a yummy lunch for Mind Flayer customers, and the cook) and flee into the Underdark?
What about the hobgoblins? In my campaign (IMC), they are high-morale members of the Red Hand, working as mercenaries as a deal for weapons from the Duergar.
What about the Dark Stalker and Dark Creepers? IMC, they are Underdark mercenaries, with no particularly loyalty to the duergar. If Pyllrak goes, I think they will flee too, shortly afterwards. If Pyllrak takes over, they will follow his lead. The final X factor -- the Stormblades. The offline backstory I made up is that after the first party (which was in close contact with Jenya of the Church of St. Cuthbert) was lost, Jenya asked the Stormblades to look for the missing orphans. The Stormblades had a map from the TPK'd party and got to the elevator with only a few minor mishaps. They killed hobgoblin replacement guards there (the first party killed the Mimic and other stuff on its way in) and more at M6 (the bridge to the Underdark). Then they had the "bright idea" of leaving blood trails into the Underdark with the hobgoblins, to draw out more of them. It didn't work. Kazmojen instead pulled in everyone and gave the Dark Ones the job of defending the Underdark entrance. So the Stormblades have been stuck, in the dark, trying to figure out what to do and planning some sort of eventual assault across the bridge. I'm thinking if Pyllrak leaves (with Jasper and the cook), the Stormblades will ambush him. I may actually run that fight myself to see the outcome. :) Then they will sneak towards the bridge, and ambush the Dark Ones when they leave, getting in that way, probably "today", before the PC's lick their wounds and return to the Malachite Fortress. I think the Stormblades would try to hole up again in the Major Domo's room (assuming they are heavily beat up) rather than clearing the whole place. The Stormblades will, as appropriate, be very mad the interlopers moving in on the dungeon "they'd also cleared". If Pyllrak doesn't leave, the Stormblades will still be waiting in the Underdark, and will storm the bridge while the PC's are fighting the Dark Ones -- which means the PC's and Stormblades will meet fighting a common enemy, which might change the dynamic a lot -- at least for the cleric, but not for Annah and the others. What do you all think should happen with the monsters and the Stormblades, overnight before the PC's can return?
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