Lima Beans's page

I'm a newer GM and I have a few spoilerific questions about Shore To Sea....

-the natatorium -- this is likely the first place my players will go, but it's supposed to be the last. The book says it should be hard for the players to find the entrance to and you should downplay it ... Not sure how to do that, put up some slippery steep steps and my players are definitely gonna climb down and check it out.. Probably finding the secret entrance even before they find out the villagers are enslaved... That's fine if they do that, but would like to make it slightly less likely... Also I'm not sure how the secret entrance works:

I really don't understand how this works... Need to disable device just to open it, then it attacks anyone who passes through it? That doesn't seem right...

-the observatory-- my players first reaction will be to SMASH IT! SHASH IT TO BITS! I seriously doubt a little called lightning or earthquake will be enough to change their mind.. Any other advice for what I could do if my players just try to tear the whole building down?

-how do you guys usually handle players exploring a big open space like this? There is a TON of place with no descriptions of any kind in the module.. Do you show them big portions of the map at once and ask them where they want to go? Then, calculate the hours it takes to get there and roll for Random encounters? What if they want to explore the main city, which is a big part of the map, but the module never mentions it? Just handwave it, and say they find nothing of interest?

-It seems from the map that the players are likely to go to the excavation site LAST. Which seems like it will cause a couple of problems of them trying to solve some of the puzzles before they have any context as to why... Im thinking of adding another encounter early on where they encounter a villager who resisted the domination and is living as a hidden hobo that could urge them towards the excavation site... How did other's campaigns go? Any other Island Events people found useful to add?

I spent a few hours reading every single thread about stealth and I am still confused. My main question is this:

1) if someone goes behind cover and successfully stealths. Then someone else moves to be in direct line of sight to them, or even right next to them. Are they still stealthed? Or is it broken once anyone can see their square?

2) how do you handle a surprise when someone is aware of some, but not all of their attackers.

Here is a simplified example from the game I just DM'd of enemies trying to stealth to ambush the players, and I'm not really sure how all the rules work for this situation..

2 monsters: Monster A and Monster B hear the players being loud in the next room so decide to ambush them when they come inside. They hide behind columns and use stealth.
Two players finish the loud combat in the next room and carefully open the door to the ambush room. Player A and Player B enter..

First initiative is rolled. Order: Player A, Player B, Monster A, Monster B.
Next, the players roll perception. Player B perceives nobody. Player A perceives just ONE monster (Monster A), but nobody perceives monster B.

So surprise round, what happens?
-Both monsters get to go because they knew the players were coming.
-Player B perceived nobody so he definitely is surprised and doesn't go.
-However what about player a? Who perceived SOME of the threats ?
-I ruled that he was not surprised, but I did not place the stealthed Monster B that he didn't seek onto the map..

So surprise round begins... Player A goes first.. Seeing only one threat he moves and moves to the *exact* spot that the stealthed Monster B was

What happens?

-Is the player told "something is in your way" ? And the monster gets an AoO?
-Is the monster revealed as soon as he enters LoS?
- should this never have happened and the stealthed monster should have been the only thing acting in the surprise round?