Jacob Michaels's page

I'm trying to come up with an interim adventure after "Zenith Trajectory" to further the mystery/introduce some of the major NPCs that my characters haven't really had a chance to interact with, specifically the Last Laugh, Orbius and the Striders.

They never ended up running into Jil or the Striders in "Life's Bazaar," and while they've picked up some clues about the Striders elsewhere and have become friendly with Shensen, I'm hoping to add to the mystery of this group. For various reasons, they're a bit suspicious of both Tyro and Meerthan, whom they don't realize are one and the same (through some unintended but I think interesting consequences of another interim adventure designed to introduce them).

Since they missed Jil, I'd like to have them at least meet her, so her main scene later in the Path resonates more.

And other than the beholder's one appearance in "Life's Bazaar," they've had almost no interaction with Valhantru. I'd like to remind them there is a beholder in the area (since they pretty much ignored him at second level, figuring there was nothing they could do against him anyway and assuming it was plot fiat). I'd also like to inspire some feeling about Lord Orbius, though I'm not that concerned at this point whether it's suspicion or friendship. Either works fine for later on. (So far all they know about him is that he's on the Mayor's Council that advocated higher taxes, and they have a reason to think those taxes are designed to drive out adventurers).

And of course there's the rivalry with the Stormblades, which could be fun to exploit.

At the moment, I'm thinking someone's stolen a load of taxes, prompting threats of further levies, possibly from ol' Orbius (which leads nicely into the riot). Immediate suspicion would fall on the Last Laugh, who are somehow proven innocent. Then it becomes a race with the Stormblades to recover the loot (at the moment, I'm thinking the villain is a priest of Waukeen, who's made a gold golem). The beholder possibly appears in the denouement, claiming the money (and thus letting Orbius raise taxes anyway). I'm not really sure where the Striders would come in, since they're still trying to keep their roles secret from the PCs.

It's still pretty nebulous, so any further ideas, or help refining this, would be much appreciated.

I used Forest of Blood, from I forget which issue of Dungeon, after Flood Season. I just moved it to the village near Cauldron that doesn't get used in the path (Skyfisher Hollow ...?). The one potential problem is my players have noticed they're getting a lot of crazies -- the folks in that, Crazy Jared, etc., so I'm making Zenith be controlled by some type of beastie as opposed to just having gone around the bend.

Regarding the Zenith Trajectory pit, I just played up that it had been clearly weathered and had been there for a while. My players didn't worry too much about it beyond that.

I definitely did away with Gottrod, replacing it with just a simple band of ogres and an ogre mage that made for a fun fight.

Agreed that Zenith shouldn't be crazy, since it starts getting repetitive (I know it could be the shadow of Adimarchus, but I can hear my players scoffing). I gave him a Babylon 5-style keeper (more or less a large eye) that is dominating him and is the Kua-Toas' real "Eye in Darkness."

I'd definitely enjoy hearing what changes people made to The Demonskaar. I'm getting close to it and trying to figure out how to get around the death scene, which I think my PCs will absolutely rebel at (my cleric is very good about getting to people and healing them, so a death pronouncement won't work well). At this point, I'm thinking of having his spirit be led there by Nidrama or something along those lines.

I think you bring up many good points and I've been thinking about how I want to streamline the second half of the Path (though I did like the Foundations of Flame; I know my PCs are just waiting for the place to erupt, but I still think it's an interesting change from the normal dungeon crawl). But the follow-up where they go get the Tree of Souls seems very roll-play oriented. That's one I definitely need to change somehow.

One thing I'd add in is playing with the Striders has been a lot of fun. They didn't encounter them in "Life'S Bazaar" but they came up when I threw in another adventure ("Forests of Blood," I think, with the fey druids from the Frozen Inferno issue of Dungeon) after "Flood Season".

I had "Tyro" approach them and tell the party that he had been hired by a client -- Meerthan Eliothorn* -- to pick up a package from the Council of Pines. When they were attacked by the feral wolves, they immediately because suspicious of Tyro, then Meerthan and then Shensen (because she's a druid).

* Meerthan's thinking is that he's lost contact with the Council and is worried. The Striders, however, are all off defeating the bandit army mentioned in Zenith Trajectory. So he wants to find some way to sneak a message to the Council without revealing his real ID to the PCs. He figures the Council would send some message if they hear his name and the PCs would be none the wiser.

In Zenith Trajectory, the cryohydra's dead drow has been morphed into a member of the Striders who will have a torn map of the Underdark (since otherwise they don't know how to get from the Pit of Seven Jaws to Bhal-Hamatugn), a holy symbol (of Shaundakul in this case, since it's in the Realms) and a torn note that mentions "Shen" and "Meerthan." They should find it tomorrow and I'm anxious to see how they react to it.

I think I may insert another little adventure after that to whet their curiousity a bit more.

Lastly, if I were running this again, I'd really cut down on the dungeon crawling in "Life's Bazaar" and "Flood Season." It just went on way too long.

I like that idea, Diafanus. I'll have to take a look and make a quick conversion. I'd been trying to remember if Gortio comes up again, and he doesn't seem to.

Ah, thanks, Andorax, that does indeed solve the problem. I thought Dops were evil. That's what I get for not reading my Monster Manual.

Looking at the map, you seem to have a point. I'll just remove the gaps, make it one solid balcony.

I'm debating whether I need to give Gortio a ring of undetectable alignment when he's posing as Zenith's pop. One of my players' characters is a paladin and I imagine she'll detect evil. Now, I do occasionally have people show up as evil even if they aren't big baddies (and his "background" could even make them think he's trying to redeem his prior evilhood), but I'm a bit concerned they'll just bag the mission (which is OK for the campaign, but a pain for me as DM). Anyone have any experience with this type of situation?