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This almost cause the party (and players) to fall apart in my game! The party spent ages arguing why Avner shouldn't take Thunderstrike...... only once it was resolved for the party Druid to decide his new animal companion was going to be a horse, and he wanted to take it with him on the ship....
In the campaign I'm running, the party are coming close to the showdown with Vanthus in Divided's Ire, and I'm looking ahead to the segue into the next chapter. I'm wondering how much benefit there is from having the party travel to meet Red Shroud and get information, versus having Orgosh be the source of that information. Did people find a benefit from introducing more about the planar politics, succubi relations and providing Shadowfire as a planar guide? Or can this be done a little less heavy-handedly? IMC, I replaced Melcanthet with Talitha (in Mystara), and through a random roll on a drug effect, the Wizard PC ended up married to Tyrlandi, who is a worshipper of Talitha. She would seem a better substitute for Red Shroud. Plus, if Lynarra gets her way to escape Divided's Ire with the PCs, she could replace Shadowfire.. These seem more natural connections in the campaign I'm running, but I wanted to hear from people that have run Wells of Darkness to get their views of the pro's/con's
Hagor - I'd eb very interested in a copy too if that's ok? dsy21 'at' hotmail.com Thanks
I'm in the midst of CoBI at the moment, and looking ahead to the next phase in the adventure path. The players have felt a little bit rushed in the last few adventures, with various time deadlines and pressure to move on, and not having time to explore their own objectives. So what I want to do is break up the pace between CoBI and SoS. I always felt Lavinia's kidnap was a bit hackneyed, and as the party have had enough clues about Scuttlecove from pirates in ToD and soon from Thorogriff in CoBI, chances are they may have it on their list to visit sooner or later anyway. So what I was thinking is to pause and let them do whatever they want for a few months after CoBI, and maybe spring the Lavinia kidnap during their exploration of Scuttlecove, rather than being the impetus to drive them there. Whilst killing pirates, they find clues about the the kidnap plot, maybe get a chance to save her, and then hunt Vanthus to the prison. Any thoughts on things to be aware of with this? Knowing my players, there'll be a lot of groaning and rolling of eyes if I play things as written, so keen to make it feel a little more natural Also, in the 'downtime' adventures, I'd like to foreshadow the involvement of later key players in Enemies fo my Enemies, so they don;t seem too sprung out of the blue. Any ideas for bringing in the involvement of Iggwilv, Melcanthet etc in some sidequests?
PC: Stefanie (11th level Cleric of Vanya)
The party had found the village of Mantru deserted, and learnt of the attack by the skinwalkers, but a botched Knowledge check meant the party did not know about the shapeshifting demon. Travelling towards he lizard camp, they were set upon by a random flock of wyverns, which swooped by and were quickly killed, but not before one lucky strike poisoned the cleric. The poison was neutralised, but had still done significant damage (DM: which I'd assumed they'd heal...!). Arriving at the lizardfolk camp, they are greeted by Noltus and Bulgan. Stefanie is immediately suspicious, and tries to slink off to cast a divination, but is doggedly pursued by a soppy panting bloodhound. She tries to cast the spell anyway - at which point it attacks. Still very weak form the wyvern poison, the party loose their cleric in the first round of a difficult combat, as Noltus reveals his true nature.
So the party I'm running through STAP have been pretty much non-stop since crashing on the Isle of Dread, and I'm a little worried as we gear up for CoBI that there won't be many chances for breathers, downtime, and following PC-related goals outisde the main campaign if I stick too closely to the path as written. I'm encouraging a bit of downtime after Golismorga before heading to the plateau, but I think they feel that things are pressing (well, they kinda are) and that bad stuff will happen if they take too long before finding the source of the shadow pearl production. I'm worried that the set up to head to Scuttlecove won;t give them much chance for a rest either What have other people done to allow their parties to explore more of the world outside the campaign, and work in interludes between steps i nthe adventure path? I'm guessing the trigger for Serpents of Scuttlecove can happen at any time after CoBI, and I'm wondering about the party doing some globe trotting to head to different major cities and find Demogorgon cultist cabals that are guarding their shaodw pearls and awaiting the trigger - alllowing them to head to different terratories and explore their own PC paths, motivations and backgrounds for a bit. But any other thoughts on this? Whilst i like the helter-skelter we're on, a pause for toilet breaks and refreshments might be nice!
Has anybody made an attempt at condensing the Totemic Demonslayer PrC to five levels, without overloading the levels with abilities?
UPDATE
But then... they proceeded to not bother doing any scouting, tried to turn Rakis Ka as he was just greeting them, party wizard died due to a crit from the Nel-thaggu.... .. and they they decided to alert the entire ziggurat to their presence. We left it with the party bruised after only killing 2 naga, 6 kopru and a few trogs, and 2 kopru behemoths (whose tail grab+constrict was REALLY nasty). Some very poor tactical choices As far as can tell, the whole kopru army is on alert, and all of them are dishing out potions of fly to each other to tackle the intruders. So next session, I'm not sure how things will turn out. Unless the party flees (the cleric may have plane shift) - but what awaits them on the Ethereal plane around golismoga is another question....
Sounds like the power levels of your teams were a fair bit higher than my players and their PCs. They're mid-level 10, but there are 7 of them. I'm going to play Rakis-Ka as a sage, but tall hooded cloaked figure that has used planar ally to call in a formorian taskmaster to act as his scribe. Might offer scrolls and information, but will ultimately want to track the PCs to the Tear. As it turns out, the PCs found the aboleth out, and have decided to try and take the moral high ground - but leaving the tear intact and killing all the kopru themselves. Did anyone else's campaigns play out like that and how did it go? I'm thinking with that many dominate persons flying around, there's a strong chance of TPK or Total Party Slavery....
Thanks for all the pointers guys
Running this on Sunday, so we'll see how things go!
Just wondering how other DMs ran the whole exploration of Golismorga part of The Lightless Depths. My players will arrive at the start of the next session, and I was thinking of putting the map of the cavern (maybe with a fog-of-war to limit vision) up on a TV screen, and then answering any questions they had based on search checks to determine how well the PCs examine the landscape. But it seems the ziggurat and the crater will be readily apparent from a position 70 ft up where the party enters the cavern... I want to have some exploration and investigation aspects to this, but not sure how best to handle this - and I dont want it to turn into a bland "You're wondering around an alien landscape and *blam* hey, there's a stone building that looks out of place over there. oh, and it's covered in kopru...."
Bit late but as we had two deaths in the Tides of Dread climax on Sunday, figured I'd catch up Name: Koravel (elven duskblade 5)
Feeling cocky in the midst of a storm on the Sea of Dread, Koravel dives into the water using the newly-found cloak of the manta ray to swim beneath the ship - despite having seen several giant eels darting between the waves. He didn't see the one that swam up behind him... Name: Kathryn (human sorcerer (draconic) 6)
Exploring one of the other wrecked ships in the Sargasso, the party heard a loud banging from beneath a boarded hatch. They all stood around the hatch as it was opened - and a Drowned Dead emerged. Everyone failed their saves, and tried to flee the drowning aura - Kathryn reacted last, and could not outrun the dead, which clobbered her senseless Name: Profexion (human favoured soul 5)
No one thought to drag the immobilised drowning party member out of the drowned dead's aura.... Name: Jardek (dwarf ranger 5 / cleric 4)
After cleverly acting charmed to lure V'sesslin into a trap (Stygian Shark was floundering, and the mage had flown ashore), Jardek sadly too a lightning bolt to the face when his comrades gave up the ruse and charged the enemy Name: Krunk (human barbarian 9)
I'm running this on Mystara, and instead of yuan-ti, V'sesslin was accompanied by a Scoprionfolk Warrior, with a halberd and improved trip. Krunk couldn't get off the flor before the halberd pierced his heart. Running this with 7 players, so they are a little behind on recommended XP, but generally coping well. Lack of defensive gear is hurting them, but some better coordinated buffing would not hurt at all....
My reading of it is, at this point, Vanthus doesn't necessarily appreciate who's been pulling the strings on his ascent to power. At the moment, this is more about him wanting his share in the Vanderboren fortune, and some brotherly love for his sister wanting her to share in his glory - or at least not be in his way. His association with the Crimson Fleet and his rise through the ranks have been in part orchestrated by those wanting to use him, but I don't see Vanthus knowing the full details about Demogorgon's involvement until what happens to him after the Tides of Dread. (read ahead for the intro to Serpents of Scuttlecove and later for more background on Vanthus, and how he was 'chosen' for his path early on without him fully knowing the details) So I might play this that he uses Lavinia as a hostage, and then works out a way to kill the witnesses in Farshore, so he can claim it as his own, with no one to dispute it. A protracted siege, guerilla tactics etc. Vanthus has charms and dominates to sow confusion amongst those who remain in the settlement. And if he's ever cornered, he can threaten to neevr tell the party where they'll find Lavinia... Luna - I think you mean Serpents of Scuttlecove, not ToD in your post - but yes, that's another way to approach this
Thanks for the thoughts guys!
I'm in the midst of the Tides of Dread at the moment - the arrival of the Crimson Fleet is two weeks of game time away. The party have clued in on the fact that the only real leak about the location of Farshore outside the colony that could have fed back to the pirates is Vanthus. And with his abysmal Will save, they have managed to scry him. Rewarding ingenuity, they have also used the scrying to get a feel for where the sun is in the sky compared to them and try and find possible locations for Scuttlecove. With the battle coming up, I strongly suspect the party will capture some pirates and question them more about the location of Scuttlecove. What i'm wondering then, is why they wouldn't seek to head there themselves. I'm trying to keep things open and not on a railroad for the players, so do other people have ideas for how to handle this eventuality should it happen? Any adventure ideas to flesh out Scuttlecove having bypassed TLD and COBI?
I guess the question then becomes what was Zelkarune the dragon's role in it all? Wee Jas sends her cleric directly into the lair of a powerful black dragon - so assuming Wee Jas wants the dragon dead (more than the founding of a city), what was the dragon doing...?
I'm about to kick off a Savage Tide campaign, and one thing that's been bugging me is a bit of history that might never come up (unless I work it in as a subplot) - why was Sasserine the cleric sent to that spot? I'm running the STAP in Mystara, so Nyx is replacing WeeJas. So why would Nyx/WeeJas send one of her faithful to this location? What are the goals here? Some ideas for now
what are other people's thoughts? |
