It seems like the troll, ice dragon, three guards and Radosek is going to be way too difficult a fight for my party (three players, level 4), but I have a couple of fun ideas to even the playing field. :)
Does anyone have interesting physical puzzle based ideas on how to make the closing of the portal more fun?
The troll, ice dragon, and Radosek definitely sounds like a TPK for the party.
You could do what I did, which was have Hatch the domovai hide in one of the characters packs using his "compression" ability and then pop out and start hurling things at enemies with telekinesis. Not super effective, but it helps.
I'm working on a ridiculous scenario for closing the winter portal that I'll be springing on my players on Wednesday. But it's not a physical puzzle, it's a combination of a battle against an animated object, a hazard, and a sort of skill challenge.
Tamago, I'm still working on them. Once I get them worked out and the players play through it (next week), I'll post them in detail.
Spoiler:
I'm going to have to play test them, I think. It's inspired by the 4E skill challenge concept, but diverges quite a bit.
My initial concept is that the portal has four elements powering it. The pentagram on the floor, the glowing globe in the air, and the two ends of the portal, one in Irrisen, and one in the Land of the Linnorm Kings (I moved Heldren to the NW end of the Grungir Forest).
First, the party is going to have to do some research to figure out just what the heck is going on. Knowledge (arcana) using the notes and books and scrolls and magical stuffs in the room and in the library to work it out. They will discover that the key to shutting it down is manipulating the arcane energies of the glowing globe, but, that those energies have inertia and will not be easy to disrupt and shut down safely without blowing off the top of the Pale Tower and killing themselves.
Whoever is manipulating the glowing globe will have to be in the pentagram. Someone else will have to damage/injure the pentagram, which will be regenerating. Once the pentagram is injured to a certain level, then the linkage to the two portals will be active. Someone is going to have to attempt to hold back the winter cold and gales of freezing wind from the portals, by pure force of will, while the person manipulating the glowing globe then works on shutting it down.
There will be attack roles and strength checks required by the people attempting to disrupt the pentagram. Will saves and Charisma checks by the people trying to hold back the power of both ends of the portals. And then Knowledge (arcana), spellcraft, and UMD checks by the person manipulating the glowing globe. I'm thinking that the DC of all of these checks will be cumulatively reduced by pieces getting shut down/disabled, and then eventually, they'll be able to shut it all down. The penalty for failing checks will be damage from cold and shards of ice blowing out of the winter portals, confusion, stunning effects, blinding effects, and/or stuff along those lines. I'm still working on all of it. Basically, I'm trying to turn the portal into a "monster" that is defeated through the use of skills instead of just physical attacks. Hopefully I can make it work!
My players began the battle with Radosek last night during our weekly game. They are trying to do the entire tower without rest. They're mythic (one tier from the Black Rider), they're 4th level, and there are 7 of them, so it's going OK, but they're about out of resources.
Spoiler:
I ran the courtyard as written. The troll was a bad ass, and nearly took out a couple of players. One of the guards successfully opened one of the doors on the battlements, shouting "To Arms! To Arms!" into the tower, which alerted the rest of the guards. They mobilized, moving to bar the doors. They got one of them barred, but the party barely got, literally, a foot in the door, before they could bar the other one.
This resulted in a battle on the stairs coming down from the door and then in the first floor room. They battled all of the guards plus Yana, who I had beefed up a few levels and given a magic sword.
They defeated them and then debated continuing or trying to rest. Their idea for defending the first floor was to pile a bunch of beds on the teleporters, hoping that they would "block" someone from teleporting onto the first floor. Fortunately, they instead decided to continue, and so I didn't have to rule how that would work.
They teleported up to the second floor, two at a time. I had added five new soldiers; an elite crew consisting of a 3rd level rogue, 2nd level barbarian, 2nd level winter oracle, 2nd level fey blooded sorcerer, and 2nd level fighter. They were dining, being entertained by the sprites. The battle started badly, the party being hamstrung by showing up two at a time. The wizard went first for some foolish reason, and he was color sprayed by the sorcerer right away, getting stunned, but enough other folks were coming through the teleporters that he didn’t get finished. They started slicing and dicing the foes, though, and it was over quick, except for the sorcerer and the two sprites. (At one point, the cleric of Desna was also color sprayed, and a couple of the players saw Hatch, the domovai, peeking out of the cleric’s pack, telling him to “wake up, wake up!”, but that was all they saw of Hatch, until later.)
Then Hestrig came out of the library, growing from medium to large size as she did. The battle with Hestrig was not going well until the party’s druid, who is taking a grappling angle and who had taken on a bear aspect, successfully grappled her. The large sized fighter/sorcerer. I had beefed Hestrig up with a few extra levels, too, and I never thought he’d successfully grapple her, but he did with some great roles. After getting her to the ground (he freaking successfully pinned her, too, because she didn’t break the grapple), it was over for her.
They searched a little, and ran into the mandragora in the Conservatory. The scream from the mandragora got the attention of the spriggan, and it joined in the battle. Two of the party members were nauseated by the mandragora’s scream, and one of them and another were successfully scared by the spriggan, but they defeated both foes.
Then the party continued exploring. They found Mierul’s room, and saw a letter she was writing to Nazhena, which mentioned that she had met a group that claimed to have met the black rider… the party had totally spilled their guts to her when they first met her earlier on the way from the Winter Portal to Heldren. That gave them some pause. Then, they found “Lady Argentea”.
The Lady had them going for a while, but eventually the inquisitor sensed that she was not who she said she was, and it tried to flee after first altering form to appear like the elven ranger/oracle, but the party quickly cut it down.
They then tried to figure out where they could go. They had the keys from Yana and Hestrig, and it took a while, but they finally decided they could try using them. They went to the teleporter in the Mirror Hall at the end of the red carpet, and both of the key holders stood on the teleporter. Which was funny, because they learned that you can only go one at a time when using the teleporters from the first floor to the second. I’m not sure what they thought they were going to do; how they were going to get the key to anyone else to use, but the keys didn’t work, anyway, and the animated ice nymphs (dubbed nym-foes, but my players) attacked. The battle went quickly, and the nymfoes were destroyed.
They then decided to try the other teleporter, the two players once again climbing up on it. Of course, only one of them started getting covered in ice, and, thinking quickly as I repeated a couple of times, “You’re slowly being covered with ice,” he threw the key to another player. That player repeated the process, etc. And they arrived at the aerie. They didn’t end up fighting the sylph; she first tried to parley, and they went along with it, and eventually they got her to tell her how to “get the witch”, and she told them and gave them the key on their word that they would not hurt her or the ravens.
So, back it was to the second floor and the Hall of Mirrors. The party arranged themselves for the one by one teleportation to Nazhena’s lair, expecting Radosek and possibly more. And that’s what they got!
Mierul was there, along with Yurik, a 4th level fighter/bodyguard. Radosek was hidden in the alcove with the cauldron. Yurik attacked, and Mierul cast spells, while Radosek began summoning ice elementals. The party members, as they slowly arrived, were occupied by Yurik and the ice elementals and Radosek cast ice spears and flurry of snowballs and Mierul chord of shards and ear piercing scream. Yurik nearly killed the arctic elf ranger/oracle with a 39 hp critical with his battle axe (power attacking) and did a ton of damage to the ulfen barbarian skald. Both went down, but reinforcements were arriving. Hatch made an appearance, hurling the cauldron into the back of Radosek with telekinesis. The fight was a draw without Hatch, really, but he was the tipping point, and Radosek fled, flying to the teleporter. We had to end the night with Radosek on the teleporter, Mierul and the ice elementals facing down the rest of the party, doomed.
Next week, we’ll finish the book. I have some great ideas for how they’re going to have to work to shut down the Winter Portal. It’s not going to be nearly as easy as in the book. It’s going to be a “battle of skills and wills” as the party pits their minds, bodies, and souls against the arcane inertia of the Winter Portal. I had originally thought they I would wait to advance them to mythic Tier 2 until they defeat the dawn pipers and take control of the Dancing Hut, but closing the winter portal is going to take mythic levels of effort, and I am thinking they will get Tier 2 out of it.
Hatch knows the layout, so you could just place the maps on the table. I'd only go floor by floor, though.
I use the digital copy of the Reign of Winter maps product, click on the "remove DM notes" button, copy the images into photoshop, scale them up so one square is roughly an inch, and then print them off on the printer at work on 11 x 17 pages and then tape the pages together with clear packing tape. It works pretty well, and you get to use the cool artwork in the book.
For the weather, I saw someone post an idea of having the snow and winds gust and blow with variable strength, which I think is pretty cool. So, at the top of each round, I rolled 1d4 x 5 as the visibility for that round, to simulate gusts of wind and snow resulting in visibility getting worse then better.
My party had 6 PCs and a DMPC, so, with 7 characters, I decided that Teb should be a Mythic Moss Troll. The fight started with the sprites and Homelstaub, then Teb heard it and showed up. The party still pretty much tore him up. They had heard about the troll from their prisoner, Rokhar, and so came prepared with a bunch of alchemist's fire. It was a good battle, but they dealt with a mythic Teb without losing anyone.
Tangent and Necrovox, thanks for the great ideas. I also have the same issues with Books 3 and 4, and the comparison to the Doctor and his chicken legged Tardis is hysterical.
My approach is to add two subplots to the campaign. First, I'm adding an overall First World plot wherein some of the Eldest are manipulating the threads of fate, long term, to both create Baba Yaga and then be the tool of her downfall. Second, I'm making Kostchtchie a much larger player in the overall adventure path. If the campaign makes it that far, I'll eventually have the party run through the Witchwar Legacy after the end of the campaign (the plot will have to be revised, but not much). Kostchtchie will be the next villian after Elvanna.
Then, probably something with the winter collectors.
Then, a confrontation with Baba Yaga in the Thrice Tenth Kingdom, pulling many elements from The Sound of a Thousand Screams.
And then, and only then, a confrontation with some of the Eldest.
Since dragonriders just don't interest me personally, I'll be replacing Part 2 of Book 4 with something completely different, and I'll move Part 2 and Part 3 completely into the First World, making the white dragon an ice linnorm.
- A Kellid druid from the Realm of the Mammoth Lords
- A snow elf void wizard
- An Ulfen barbarian
The three new characters had been individually captured by winter fey and stuffed into a cave near the sprite encounter. The arrival of the rest of the party gave them the chance the needed to test their bonds and escape.
Spoiler:
I added two additional sprites, giving each of them a different 1st level spell, replacing color spray on four of them with ice sheet (grease), ice spray (burning hands), sleep, and chill touch. One character fell to color spray, they all made saves against sleep, the ice sheet and ice spray were fun, but didn't do much damage.
Eventually, two of the sprites were killed, and the rest fled, muttering, "We should tell Izoze."
The party decided to camp for the night in the cave. Before evening, they encountered Fawfein and the talking stag. They completely thought the stag was a messenger from Erastil, and only one character rolled high enough to see through Fawfein's bluff, and he decided not to say anything about it. So, they told the stag everything, and then it walked off so that Fawfein could go tell Izoze.
In the morning, the party continued following the trail. After crossing over a ridge, I added the following supplemental encounter:
Spoiler:
The trail turns left and crosses over the ridge, leading down into a shallow valley. The trail is somewhat easy here, the snow isn’t as deep, and seems to have blown further down the valley. The wind is harsh, blowing strongly from the right to the left, whipping the snow in front of you. Suddenly, you hear a low buzzing sound, that rapidly increases in pitch and volume, and within the whipping snow, you see a swarm of white, sparrow-sized wasps closing on you.
The wasps fly/get blown into the squares of the party, attacking at the end of their move, the next round, they get blown away, and the party may relax, but the round following, the wasp swarm long steps back upwind, preparing for another fly by attack. The next time if flies by, it blows downwind, then changes shape and flies back to the party, attacking as a giant wasp.
Winter-Touched Fey Wasp Swarm CR 4
XP 1,200
CN Tiny fey (swarm)
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +9
DEFENSE
AC 16, touch 16, flat-footed 14; (+2 Dex, +4 size)
hp 34 (7d8)
Fort +5, Ref +3, Will +8
DR 5/cold iron
Defensive Abilities swarm traits; Immune weapon damage is halved; Resist cold and electricity 10;
Vulnerable fire
OFFENSE
Speed 10 ft., fly 40 ft. (perfect)
Melee swarm (2d6 plus poison)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks distraction (DC 13), poison
STATISTICS
Str 1, Dex 16, Con 10, Int 3, Wis 14, Cha 9
Base Atk +5; CMB —; CMD —
Feats Improved Initiative
Skills Fly +11, Perception +9; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception
SQ swarm traits, fey traits
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Poison (Ex) save Fort DC 13; frequency 1/round for 4 rounds; effect 1 Dexterity damage; cure 1 save. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Numbing Cold (Ex) Any creature hit by a winter-touched creature’s attacks must succeed at a Fort Save DC 13 or be staggered for 1 round. The save DC is constitution-based.
Distraction (Ex) A creature with this ability can nauseate the creatures that it damages. Any living creature that takes damage from a creature with the distraction ability is nauseated for 1 round; a Fortitude save (DC 13) negates the effect.
Change Shape (Su) The fey swarm can change shape into a large giant wasp. The giant wasp has the same AC, hit points, and saving throws, Melee sting +7, 1d8+6, plus poison (DC 18, save 6 rounds, 1d2 dex damage, cure 1 save), CMB +8, and CMD 21.
Long Step (Su) The fey swarm can teleport up to 70 feet per Hit Die as a move action. It may use this ability once every 1d4 rounds.
A wasp swarm is a flying mass of a thousand of carnivorous wasps. In such large numbers, they become voracious hunters, capable of taking down large creatures with their venom-filled stings. While a wasp swarm is capable of inflicting hundreds of stings, its true danger arises from its insatiable appetite for meat.
Wasp swarms surround and attack any living prey in their paths, and are swift to seek out new prey once their anger is aroused. An enraged wasp swarm often loses track of its hive or the original source of its anger, and presented with a constant series of new targets to swarm and sting, a swarm can continue its rampage nonstop until it is destroyed or dispersed.
The players loved that encounter! They continued down the hill to Wishbone Creek.
Spoiler:
The battle at Wishbone Creek with the ice elementals was not changed. After triggering the trap, they threw a grappling hook and rope across the creek into the rocks on the other side. They moved across. After one got across, the ice elementals attacked the second one. The battle was pretty one sided, and the party quickly dispatched the elementals.
I'm still getting a feel for the party. It's a lot of PCs, seven, and I will have to add encounters and beef up encounters to keep it challenging, but I love this adventure. I'll keep posting updates as we continue with the campaign. We're taking this week off, which is a bummer, but will be back at it the week after.
Fantastic. Escaped prisoners of Rokhar, camping off the side of the trail with a fire to keep warm.
I plan on the lodge being an Ulfen hunting hall, Rokhar having killed the hunters, but with this idea, I'll adjust it so that Rokhar killed most of them, but was holding onto these two for some reason related to their backstory (one will probably be a wizard, so maybe Rokhar was acting like he was keeping him alive to interrogate him, when really he was just trying to come up with a suitably grisly murder.) These two could have escaped a couple days ago while they were unguarded when the raiders were out kidnapping Lady Argentea.
With this route, the two new characters will have an idea of the layout of the lodge, which will give the players the chance to play the raid. With 6 characters and advanced knowledge of the layout, I will have the freedom to really lay into the party with some of the tactics I've seen in this post.
