| domicilius |
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Ran the majority of this book recently as a one-shot over several sessions. My party had to retreat from the final fight and we're gonna try it again tomorrow. Was just going to detail my experiences in case anyone found them useful.
My party was composed of three gestalt characters 1 level higher than normal. My players know how to optimize and were all playing strong characters, but I wouldn't call them min-maxed or munchkins. They consisted of:
- T, Occultist/Alchemist, using Battle Host to get full-plate at level 1 and his spells/extracts to go and go and go and go.
- P, Zen Archer Monk/Shaman, building mainly for support. Despite ZAM's usual power, the shaman half was by far more relevant. He brought the wand for part 1.
-H, Unchained Scaled Fist Monk/Sorcerer (Aquatic? bloodline) w/ the archetype that gives martial flexibility building a ball of AC and fists and saves. I think she was using the sorc spells mainly for buffing like T, mainly casts of shield/grease/mage armor.
As you can see, my party was fairly powerful. Initially I was expecting only 2 players, which was why I bumped the level and allowed gestalt, but we had a surprise third interested person, which lead to me balancing a lot on the fly. I already knew that I'd need to rebalance for just 2 players, as my table tends to destroy APs if run as-written.
Part 1:
Introduced the players, got them to go on the investigative visit to Talmandor's Bounty with very little trouble. Encounters written in order of party discovery.
Welcoming Committee: Bumped the number of grindylows up to 4. This fight would be an initial warning of how much of a joke grindylows would be in our playthrough. T and H were rowing, being the only ones with a positive STR score. The grindylows got a surprise round and rolled high on their initiatives, giving them a huge advantage, but only really got damage on P, who was in the front of the boat. 1 ended up climbing in the front to disrupt P's casting of a Summon Nature's Ally spell, the other 3 attacking T and H over the sides. The low to-hit and the low damage even if they do hit combined to form a rather lackluster encounter, with T and H teaming up to eliminate the attackers. 1 ended up escaping, shaking its fist and clacking its clamshells angrily (I gave all the Shellcrackers these loud shells, which the players loved).
The point of this encounter is to show that the island is dangerous and that the colony wants the players to succeed, and it is successful in that respect. I don't recommend having the grindylows climb over the side, their objective is to annoy and drive off, not fight to the death.
A1: The Lonely Dock
I moved the Fuath to the later Beach Battle w/ the skum. It didn't have much of a chance and would have just been killed out of hand by my players. I feel like the point of this encounter is to possibly show the existence of the canoe by the dock, but it also doesn't even attack unless the PCs are very loud or have already discovered the canoe, so I ended up just moving it out of confusion. My players didn't discover the canoe, for what its worth.
A5: Smithy
I stuck another monkey goblin here, and made them actively looking out for threats. I figured the Ghosthaters would be looking around fore easier prey and loot, spooked by Silas in A7. They saw the party and set up an ambush, pulling tripwires across the door and the open wall into the covered forge/workshop. T ended up running right over the tripwire, but made the Reflex DC. P fought the two who ended up climbing onto the roof while H and T made short work of the two inside. I was much more impressed by the Ghosthaters, who got more than a few hits in before the last survivor retreated, running along the palisade to escape into the woods.
I gave the Ghosthaters small necklaces with angry pacman ghosts to mirror the Shellcrackers, which the players also loved. I threw around the idea of having a Shellcracker-Ghosthater rivalry at this point, but figured they wouldn't interact very often (their territory and desired territory being entirely disparate). The party found the +1 darkwood shield, but discarded it (nobody used shields). In retrospect, I would have changed the shield to a magic set of medium or heavy armor instead.
A10: Government House
My PCs heard "the only two-story building here" and immediately headed here after the smithy. They discovered the logbook and spent a long time puzzling over what it could mean. They were very interested in the entries that "become sporadic and stop altogether" in the last week, but the AP doesn't really go into detail what life was like for the villagers in the last week during the captures. I made up some catty factional tension entries based on Una's note at A17, which made them *very* interested. They discussed the possibility that the villagers killed each other, but didn't seem very sold due to the lack of large bloodstains and piles of bodies.
They were going to miss the clockwork spy, so I had the recording gem "conveniently" run up against its capacity and give an (muffled) audible "Recording capacity full! Please replace recording gem!" in Azlanti. P shot down the poor spy and they investigated, ultimately hearing their entire conversation after they found the logbook. They figured out how to access its programming and once they heard "predetermined location," they immediately wanted to follow it. I had to remind them what they were in the colony for to get them to keep going!
A14: Main Street
Nothing interesting.
A16: Undisturbed Garden and A18: Levin Farm
Initially, I thought the blood maize encounter was a little lame. 3 really low to-hit attacks, low HP, low AC, some do-nothing abilities... I couldn't be more wrong. I ruled that the fields were difficult terrain, and that the party could see that there was *something* in the fields, but not what it was. The animal skeletons and the monkey goblin skull kinda freaked 'em out, but they entered anyway.
The blood maize got its surprise round, using it to activate its Blinding Bloom. The entire party failed their saves versus the blind. The blood maize then rolled high on initiative and got to full attack H, hitting her twice. The damage got her to 3/4 HP, but the bleed was the real killer. Due to the difficult terrain and the blinding cloud, P couldn't even get to H to heal her with their wand for several rounds. P took a few hits as well trying to approach while T fumbled around in the difficult terrain, unable to get into a position to hit due to his heavy armor. P actually went down below 0 this fight as the party up and left the fields entirely, the blood maize still almost entirely unscathed. T fended off the blood maize from P while H now struggled to get out of the field, but T continued to roll abysmally on his attack rolls. I had the drunk choker approach at this point, drawn by the shouts, the long fight, and the heady scent of blood in the air. H finally got close enough to kill the blood maize, just in time for T to turn and stop the choker from dragging away P's unconscious body. T made up for his previous low rolls and one-shot the choker while H staggered over to P. T used one of his infusions to feed P a CLW and bring him back to consciousness, whereupon the whole party took a few hits off the wand.
My party loved this fight. The derpy corn monster, its horrific bleed damage, and the long fight the difficult terrain caused all added up to a fight was the hallmark of the night. They even loved the drunk choker, whom I played up as *very* drunk, moaning and swerving as it tried to steal P's body. I had thought this would be a do-nothing filler encounter, and ultimately it was, but I'm glad I included it. If the poor colonists had discovered the blood maize, there would definitely have been deaths, but practically, I'm also glad there was an encounter that challenged my players.
A15: Infested Patches
I wasn't sure if these were 2 encounters, or just 2 encounters of 1 nymph each. I decided to play it by ear and started with an encounter vs 2 nymphs. The party was beating them handily, so I had 2 more nymphs approach from behind, despite the large distance between the two fields. The nymphs got some good positioning in, but my players had high enough AC that most of the attacks missed. The attacks that got through definitely got their attention -- 3d4+1 damage is quite a bit, even with level 2 HP! I would cut these encounters down to just 1 group of 2 with a normal party, possibly combining them with the adult ankheg (A13) showing up in the later rounds for more capable parties. T ended up going down here, but H and P were able to get him back up.
The rest of area A passed without a whole lot of event. A3 might prove a bit of a challenge for many parties, but mine ended up kiting the cockroach swarm while T threw bombs at it. It says that the swarm is loathe to go very far from the provisions building, so they killed it over about 15 minutes, letting it come out and approach, hit it with a bomb, run far enough away for them to run back, and repeat. This may seem a little MMO-esque for some GMs, but I thought it was a clever solution to what otherwise would have been H tanking the swarm while T bombed it anyway.
The Chapel (A6) interested my players, but they quickly retreated once they realized there was a poltergeist inside. They could tell they wouldn't be able to lay him to rest, so they just left Silas alone until they could get support from the colony's clerics.
They found the Azlanti timepiece and almost immediately guessed that the colony had been captured "by the aboleths." Might have been just shots in the dark, but they thought it was very weird that everyone was gone and had been fighting beforehand, which they blamed on magical domination. The AP is about the Azlanti and my players knew that the aboleth were ultimately the cause of death for the Azlanti, so it may have also been a bit of metagaming.
Part II:
B: I moved these boars over to the Hunting section in Part III. I knew it would just be a waste of time for my party, and that I could accomplish the same "the island is WILD!" feel by just vividly describing seeing lots of wildlife. I recommend removing or moving this encounter.
C: I moved this encounter to the Beach Battle in Part III as well. The Incutilis and pet Zombie weren't going to get a whole lot done all by themselves, and I figured that the Incutilis would partner up w/ the Skum to take down their new competition (and possibly score some new slaves!).
D: The trail tripped up my players a lot. They immediately knew it was a swarm of some kind, but the combination of smoothed and spikey portions really tripped them up. They were also confused by the lack of concerted direction ("Where is it going? A water feature? A food source?") but I decided that they wouldn't be able to figure out the warden jack's motives until they saw it in person.
E: My party loved the echeneisis fight. I bumped the number of time-fish up to 3 and while they didn't provide much of a challenge, they did give my party a lot of WTF moments. While the blood maize fight was the hallmark of day 1, the echeneisis fight really showed just what bizarre monsters they would fight in this AP. My players wiped the floor with the fish but loved talking about the "fish that break physics with their teeth." I'd recommend playing up the derpy faces that they have in the Bestiary, as well as their silly antics.
My players didn't have any trouble with being underwater, as I had an aquatic elf (T), an undine (P) and a human aquatic sorcerer with a good enough CON (H). All of them had a swim speed and zero problem being underwater for long. I think they thought underwater combat would be a much bigger part of the AP. This encounter provides a good wake up call for the party -- if they can't easily deal with the time-fish underwater, they need to take some steps to correct that.
The tension aboard was a fun distraction from combat for my party. They had a good spread of skills, and I played up each of the personalities they encountered along the way. They loved talking to Harcourt, whom they failed all of their rolls with. I threw Luetin into the mix, mainly so they would know who the heck I meant when they encountered him later. The party took one look at his picture and thought he was Nigel Thornberry.
This encounter was pretty obviously for any face characters in the party, and it should stay in, even if you have to have your characters just RP, no rolls involved. I probably didn't get quite the right serious tone for the encounter, but my party liked the hammy mess we had instead.
F. Shellcracker Caves
This dungeon was a bit of a joke. I already ranted a bit about the Grindylows earlier, but this cave just stood no challenge to my party. They all had no problem swimming and navigating the cave, and while P couldn't shoot very well with all the water, T and H had no problems wiping the floor with the poor 5 HP mooks. The traps did quite a number to the party, who walked through both of them. The 2 octopus pets the Shellcrackers kept ended up dying without even touching H.
I had Brinetooth try Diplomacy on her own after seeing the massacre of much of her tribe. My party offered to strike a deal with Brinetooth and what was left of the Shellcrackers, giving them metal weapons and not interfering with their activity as long as the Grindylows kept the surrounding waters relatively clear. They also implied that they could just as easily deal with her as well as they dealt with her tribe. I recognized an easy future plot hook, and had Brinetooth trade all her treasure and gear for her life and the deal. If I ever run the rest of the AP, I'll try and integrate the Shellcracker tribe in as a potential plot arc.
This dungeon seems to be an obvious "how do we give the party enough magical help to deal with underwater combat" hook. I don't think my party will be singular in their floor-wiping of the Shellcrackers, and all of the gear will go far to helping normal PCs (ones not super prepared for underwater combat) cope with any future underwater plotlines. Its necessary for this transfer of gear, but I would recommend either revamping the dungeon or just giving the gear over. The grindylow massacre felt much closer to genocide than problem-solving.
Areas G, I, J: I explained these encounters to my players and that they were essentially just filler encounters, because that is what they are. While it may build up the feeling that the island is uncivilized and filled with danger and needs the attention of the players, it felt more like Ramona was just using the PCs as her tactical problem-solving squad. I wanted to keep up the momentum of looking for the lost colonists, and I explained to my party as such. We decided to skip actually playing through the encounters and explained the party's handling of each with a short montage. I'd recommend either skipping the encounters or coming up with some that keep the mystery theme of the rest of the book.
Area L: My party was super jazzed about this area. I didn't have the monkey goblins attack (they'd been tipped off by the one that escaped in Area A) and instead had them run off. My party loved seeing the "mystical dude" and trying to interpret what the hell his speech meant. I didn't see how the party was supposed to find the tower (Area P), so I had them get a glimpse of it through the trees from the dais here.
Area M: I worked the Shellcrackers into this. I had them notify the colony about an incoming patrol force, and then had 4 of the Grindylows face the force with the party in a pincer movement. I had no confidence the Grindylows would contribute to combat, and I had beefed up the encounter with the Fuath and the Incutilis/Zombie, so I was a little worried, but the party wiped the floor with them. The Skum were quickly revealing to me that they were about Shellcracker level of combat-competence.
Area N: I skipped this encounter to avoid confusing my players. It feels a little shoehorned in to allow the party to learn Azlanti, but otherwise super out of place. Why are they here? I didn't feel right about the statues attacking the party if they refused to sit and listen, so I just removed the encounter entirely. T had Azlanti learned and had been translating the whole time, so I didn't feel like I was removing an opportunity from my party.
Area O: I moved this encounter inside the tower.
Area P: My PCs loved the tower. Which is good, because they ended up fighting nearly the entire thing all at once.
P1/P2: I had just seen the combat capability of the Skum, and decided that they wouldn't come out until the crossbow trap activated in P3. My PCs were intrigued by the hologram, especially because of its description as a "statue." They kept wanting to talk, but disappointedly continued when it remained silent. In the future, I'd have Jazradan talk about Spindle Solutions with some infomercial buzzwordy babble, my party got a kick out of the similar sign out front.
P3, P4, P5, P6, P7: We loved this floor. My party entered P3 and immediately encountered the crossbow traps, as written. The way they're described, they almost feel like regular enemy combatants that can't move, so that is how I treated them. T took a couple bolts trying to get close (he was the one in the party with Disable Device), but was dismayed to learn he'd need a couple rounds to disable the turrets. I had the Skum from P2 ambush the party here, as H and P were hiding back in P1 to avoid the bolts. T discovered he'd need 7 rounds (I rolled 2d4) to disable the turrets, and he retreated back into P1 to regroup.
The party decided that they would tank the super accurate turrets (+15?! So high!) by having H use Mage Armor, Shield, and get a Shield of Faith from P and martial flexibility into Deflect Arrows, which worked a treat. She had to stand over T while he worked, but not a single bolt connected after the party re-entered the room.
The party decided to then open up P6 while the buffs were still active. This is where I had placed the warden jack, thinking it might have been needing repairs from the clockwork servants (but practically, thinking I needed to challenge my players). The clockwork servants were a surprise, and H was dismayed to a see a swarm ("nooooo! not the auto damage!") while she still had her buffs up. The warden decided to open up P4 fairly early on in the fight as well with its ability, getting the Skum there to join the fight as well. The warden jack also has a really high AC, especially its touch AC.
While the warden jack is CR 4, it functioned best in this fight as a mobile Grease spell. The clockwork servants went down very slowly to H's continued beatdown while T focused on killing the swarm and P focused on the Skum. P had made his spirit animal a Mauler familiar, and the mighty crab he had chosen made short work of the mutant fishmen. Towards the end of the fight, the warden jack joined the servants in P6, and H had cast her own Grease spell, causing a huge mess in the enclosed room. I loved describing the bloody, greasy, clockwork-y, ball-bearing-y, smoke filled mess that P6 became by the end of the drawn-out fight (H was nigh unkillable but couldn't deal very much damage per round, T and P were both busy dealing with the rest of the encounter).
P8-12: My party ended up dealing with the rest of the tower all at once, and ultimately they had to retreat at the end of that battle. We're going to pick right back up tomorrow with how they deal with Rayland and Eliza, who are still alive. I anticipate they'll heal up and head right back in while Eliza is out of level 2 spells before the two of them escape and report to Ochynua.
My party entered the library of P9 and made a beeline for the books. I had moved Urlgryber inside the central room to allow him to escape more easily (I really didn't want to have a closet monster fight with him after the disappointment with Brinetooth). The party unfortunately fell prey to the Explosive Rune trap, which alerted the rest of the tower. Url came running out of the central room and ran smack dab into H and T, shouting all the while for Eliza and Rayland. P started summoning, having his familiar move in to flank as Eliza and Rayland came down through the water tank. Url and Rayland blocked up the narrow hallways, allowing Eliza to cast essentially unimpeded.
Eliza's Mind Thrusts are super lethal. Its 5d8 on a failed DC 15 save, and half that for a successful one. Rayland and Url ultimately ended up bringing H down to the negatives, but Eliza was doing constant damage for 4 rounds before the party decided to bring H back up and run. My party had been relying on their very high AC to mostly negate encounters, but that didn't do anything versus the Mind Thrusts. I had Url drop his glaive almost immediately once the reach wasn't necessary; Rayland and Url both having 3 attacks on a full attack was very rough.
I have to admit that I played Eliza as essentially just a sorcerer. I didn't have enough time to fully internalize all of her psychic abilities, and trying to do so in the middle of battle wasn't working out, so I just ignored them. Now that I have a chance to look at them, Dark Half *will* rip any group apart that lets Eliza cast, and it protects her from psychic casting's biggest weakness, fear effects. Defensive Prognostication combined with Mage Armor means she can maintain 20 AC most of the fight, and Mirror Images is just going to make it worse. Intense Focus helps her cast defensively if she needs to. If Dark Half is active, she'll have DR 5 on top of all this! Be very very careful with Eliza, or she will TPK your players!
So that was our run through of the Lost Outpost. I get that my explanation was kind of a highlight reel on easy mode than perhaps an "authentic" play through would be, but my group had a real blast playing through. We'll probably be talking about the "stupid corn monster that almost TPK'd us" for the next couple years and all of us loved the crossbow traps in P3. Maybe this should have been a separate post, but I felt like I didn't have enough unique content to post it anywhere else.