Leozz's page

A small curiosity for everyone.
Don't know if it has already been said, however the octagonal fort presented in the module exists for real: it is obviously been inspired by Castel del Monte, in Apulia, Italy.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Castel_del_Monte_-_Apuli a.JPG

Anything open in Finance department? :-)

My PCs approached Thistletop by sea (they hired a fisherman to drop them off at the edge), and the rogue scaled the cliffs with pitons. This was after they had hit the brambles/hedge and slain all there except Gogmurt.

Same here, after an unlucky frontal assault, they decided to go by sea: hired two fishermen to transport them and keep the rowboats under the cliff, while the rogue and the barbarian climbed it.

The rest of the attack was through main door and developed as per the book.

Nah, too late, they're at mountain hook right now... :)

The Rogue in my group read through her lies without rolling and turned her advances down, by saying "Yeah, right, there are rats in the basement... and I'm the king of Varisia... I'm sorry young girl, but I'm a hero: i don't dig peasant girls...".
What a d**k!! :-D

A few hours until game-time. Right now, my plan is they encounter Bruthazmus and some goblins, on a mission of gather stray Birdcrusher gobs to bring back to Ripnugget.

One concern I do have about Bruthazmus is if they capture him at this point. I don't plan on it happening. I would like that they narrowly escape him with Shalelu's help. But in the case that they do, they would blow the lid off the whole operation, it seems like he knows quite a bit. How can I work around this possibility?

(I know I could simply not use him, and in his place a large group of goblins or even some other monster, but I think this would be an awesome way to show off the rivalry between the two characters.)

Maybe too late, but...

Bruthazmus attacks the characters, but instead of fighting in melee, he uses longbow or similar, always keeping distance from them.
When their HP have been depleted almost completely (eventually "round" the rolls in your favor after a while, to create a dramatic scene), Shalelu arrives to save the day:
at that point the two recognize themselves, being long time enemies, and Bruthazmus throws a final shot at her before leaving and commanding the goblins to cover him.

Shalelu takes care of remaining goblins, but instead of tracking the hobgoblin, prefers to take the wounded characters back to town.

Shalelu will explain that she's met him before, during an attack in the woods in which she lost some of her best men, bla bla bla...

I'm curious to read what changes you made, if any, to the *yawn* Vegepigmies sector...
Nice changes, i will steal some

RuyanVe wrote:

Have them encounter Brathamuz (spelling) the bugbear killing their tracker instantly and cornering the PCs; than have Shalelu arrive at the scene; 3d4 gobbos work, too, I guess.

This is a great idea.

It's actually a much better way to introduce Shalelu than as it's written in the campaign. Where she just shows up out of the blue and tells them a bunch of stuff they probably already mostly figured out for themselves.

My players were totally unimpressed with the way Shalelu showed up as written.
Oh, so you're keeping track of the local goblin tribes are you? and you showed up two days after they attacked Sandpoint to tell us this? Yeah, GOOD JOB, LADY.

Same here, reaction to Shalelu was tiepid, to say the least: that's why i decided to not have her show up again in Hook Mountain part.

Thanks all for advices :-)

thanks for the answers

Wand with Dimensional Anchor would work indeed.
I've to check with spell list, for sure there's some 2nd level spell i wouldn't use if i was a Sorceror.

As per Xanesha: true, same thought i had when reading her background, she wouldn't ally with Lucrecia.
A confrontation among Lucrecia and Xanesha would still be possible though, maybe some harsh words before Xanesha left.

I gave the hint to the players, when their characters talked to the innkeeper, that a lady passed through Turtleback Ferry a couple of weeks before them without specifying whoever she was.
"She said she was going trekking, looking for some herbs on the mountains, so she bought some supplies at the shop.." said the Innkeeper.
So, where make Xanesha appear? The only possible idea that comes to my mind is much later in time, when the characters will attack the Giant Fortress (she could have allied with the Giants following the orders of Kharzoug...?)

I am considering changing Lucrecia from a Sorcerer to Wizard and would like to hear ideas and suggestions.
A little background first on this choice (skip below if you’re not interested):

Party is composed of characters of 8th level, a Druid, a Rogue, a Ranger (TWF), a Wizard (Universalist) and a Barbarian (2H).
Players are not really experienced, they played one year more or less, and just asked me to raise the challenges – I haven’t infact ever used opponents at their full potential, in order for them to learn how to play; now they feel ready for “the real thing” and want a higher (..normal..) challenge.

During last two session they attacked Fort Rannick and had to retreat: after having the Druid transform in a bird and scout around the area (and ignoring all the hints that were given on possible “secret accesses”, sigh…), the players decided to attack with a very frontal tactic (no surprises or sneaking from their side).
The Druid flew over the ramparts, and the rest of the characters were transported (Dimension Door) on the terrace, entering directly the first floor of the fortress from the backdoor and the first door they found.

In five rounds they managed to kill the female Ogre shaman and the Ogre with wooden jaw, plus a basic Ogre, but had to retreat – teleporting and flying back, they were heavily wounded and out of high level spells - since alarm was raised and troops were starting to storm the floor.

They ran through the forest and then pursued till they arrived 10 miles away at the river crossing, where the bridge is (around 1 mile from Turtleback Ferry).
Druid remained back in animal form, to see if somebody was going to track them: indeed a scout troop was sent behind them few minutes later they left the fort and started hunting them down.
Druid then reached the party to report and raise alarm.

The party had a couple of hours advantage on the Ogres (I assumed the scout patrol was proceeding half cautiously), which were used to set up traps, and organize a battle plan: opponents arrived at the river crossing, were they were ambushed and slaughtered (9 ogres).

However, the captain of the troops and one Ogre remained behind, checking the actions of the characters, and retreated to the fort, to refer what they saw (tactics and spells – they’re not able to identify spells, but I assume a lightning bolt can be easily described even by a not very smart creature “…then furless tiny human shoot a storm out of fingers, killing Hurthar and Krag: they sleep with fish now…”)

So, the situation is this:
10 basic ogres, one ogre fighter and the shaman dead.
Lucrecia and Ogre Lord are aware of some of character tactics and spells (due to seeing them in action and having them reported by surviving ogres in the fort and ogre patrol).
Hence my idea of giving the players a fight against a modified Lucrecia, from Sorcerer to Wizard, in order to have her have available Dimensional Anchor (the Wizard uses a lot Blink and Dimension Door) and Resist Energy (lightning) due to big use of Call Lightning and Lightning Bolt from Wizard and Druid, to raise the challenge as per their request.

Ideas/suggestions?

Also, in previous adventure part Xanesha managed to escape their hunt, so I was thinking of have her appear some time during this adventure arch; I guess both Xanesha and Lucrecia together would be a bit too difficult for them to fight together. But if not now, when?

As others pointed out, having two characters per player would solve the issue.
However it would also complicate things for the players.

Maybe have a couple of NPCs that follow and help them, possibly fighting classes (easier to use as NPCs) that intervene in the combat, leaving to them the decisional part?

In nomen omen.

If you're Italian, Don Abbondio is a very well known fictional priest, since he's a character that is part of the studies that every Italian student has to read during his career: "The Bethrothed" by Alessandro Manzoni.
In the romance, Don Abbondio is described as a vase of earthenware among vases of iron, in other words a figure that never dared to try, due to his frail nature.
At the beginning of the book, he's ordered by the local boss to not marry Renzo and Lucia; fearing for his life and without showing any kind of bravery, he follows the order, starting a series of events that forego along the romance and create one of the masterpiece of Italian literature.

Said this, your player's character might be exactly the same: someone that knows something since a long time, but never had the courage to say or do anything due to fear of some retaliation from someone powerful in Sandpoint.
Maybe he is in some way in debt with Nualia's family?
Maybe the Scarnetti ordered him not to intervene in the local plots?
Maybe he knows enough but his a fearsome character never allowed him to take action so far?
There could be lot of reasons for him to know and not intervene...

As per the wearing the armor: it's a hot day and he lost a bet, having to suffer for heat during the ceremony?
(not necessarily it has to be a serious motivation :-)

thanks! :-)
I'll wait for more infos in next months... :-)

Hi, I don't know if this has been discussed already, however the product description goes like this:

"...Each cardstock pawn slots into a size-appropriate plastic base..."

Now, it's not clear if the bases are included in the box or not, hence my questions:

1) apart from the tokens, will the box contain also bases?
2) if yes, will the bases be differentiated according to the scale (small, medium, large, huge, etc.) of the monster?
3) how many bases will be included in the box?

And, not flaming, just a suggestion, a more clear list in the description of exactly what's in the box would be much appreciated, i.e.

"The box contains:
- 300 tokens (250 unique creatures, 5 ogres, 5 goblins...)
- 25 bases (14 medium sized, 4 large sized, 2 huge sized, 5 small sized...)
- a 4 pages manual with instructions on how to assemble and preserve your tokens."

Just an idea :-)