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My group of 6 is just about to descend into the Kopru ruins. They are all 4th but I am planning to award xp for the various Flood Festival activities they took part in, and am thinking of giving them enough to make all but one of them 5th. They have high stats though not great gear, and there are an awful lot of CRs down there. Do people think a group of 6 4ths can handle it - alternatively, will 5 5ths and a 4th be too strong?

My players are starting on the flood festival proper in their next session, having confronted the Stormblades in a battle of wits at the mayor's dinner. Thanks to all those whose ideas I have borrowed - including Chef's Slaad for the dinner idea and the many contributors to these boards (I'm not sure who invented 'Cauldron Alive' - but they will, I hope, enjoy the fact that I've adopted,and adapted, their idea).
Here's my attempt to give a bit back: a fairly detailed programme of events for the Festival. I haven't bothered with the mechanics of any competitions, nor the encounters the PCs might have during the Festival contests, but I hope it's useful.

For those who are interested, Sarcem's sending will be on the morning of day 3, and I have substituted scrolls of control weather for wands of control water for reasons I won't go into here. Here goes:

Flood Festival Events:

Drink Down the Flood
DDTF starts on the first night of the Festival proper – the night that the Lord Mayor opens the Festival officially, and runs for 6 days, with one knockout round per day.

Crater Lake Monster Hunt
Takes place on day 3 of the Festival.

The Brawler’s Games
Not a single event but a collection of athletic and martial contests sponsored by the temple of Kord and run for the whole week. Individual events include weightlifting, tossing the hammer, wrestling and tug of war, and are open to all comers. (More below)

Cauldron Alive
Every year at Festival time, renowned performer Erikus Schmurtzigwindel brings his troupe of players to Cauldron, where they perform for the masses and allow would-be entertainers to strut their stuff. Evenings at the Lakeside Pavilion are set aside for these events.

The Bluecrater Academy also has competitions during the festival, though in more learned or cultured activities – magical duels, debates, musical recitals and dance competitions of a more high-brow nature than those run by Erikus take place here, and are attended and judged by Cauldron’s elite.

In addition to these events, there are many less formal contests. Performers are allowed to show their talents at designated street locations, the populace can engage in games of dexterity and co-ordination, while the taverns abound with informal drinking games, gambling and carousing. Established shops compete with the street vendors who flock to the city to sell their wares, and give discounts of 10-25% on practically everything in stock.

Consistently with the Festival’s theme, the people wear the colours of rain or cloud for the first few days of the festival, while from day 5 onward the dress code is the opposite – golden outfits representing the sun or rainbow-coloured garb are traditional. All the while, people wear large rain hats and galoshes and carry umbrellas in the colours appropriate to the phase of the Festival. (Thanks talkflterx)

Programme in detail:

In the days before the Festival opens, entries are received for the Festival’s formal competitions, such as the Brawler’s Games and Drink Down the Flood. The official programme is as follows:

Day 1: Official opening by the Lord Mayor. Brawler’s Games events begin.
Night 1: DDTF Round 1. Cauldron Alive, Bluecrater programmes begin (see below)
Night 2: DDTF Round 2.
Day 3: Crater Lake Monster Hunt.
Night 3: DDTF Round 3.
Day 4: Street Performers’ Day.
Night 4: DDTF quarter-finals (the final two at each pub).
Night 5: DDTF Semi-finals – held at the pub that produced last year’s winner
Day 6: (Noon) DDTF Grand Final at the Lakeside pavilion.
Day 7: Closing Ceremony, Brawler’s Games Prize Ceremony, drink-off between DDTF winner and Lord Vhalantru.

The Festival is officially brought to a close when the High Priest of the Temple of St Cuthbert reads a scroll of control weather to bring out the sun and help give Crater Lake some time to drain the excess water brought by the rains.

These are the programmes of events run by the Bluecrater Academy, the temple of Kord and the visiting impresario Erikus Schmurtzigwindel:

Bluecrater Academy Programme

During the day there are talks, exhibitions and demonstrations on various esoteric or cultural subjects like fine arts, history, mathematics and alchemy. On days 2, 4 and 6 there are also magical competitions open to spellcasters:
Day 2: Conjuration Combat
Day 4: Magical Versatility Contest
Day 6: The Battle of Wills
Entry to these events must be registered on day 1, and is quite costly. Each potential entrant is tested by Academy staff to ensure they are not too weak, too powerful or too unscrupulous.

There is also a Night Programme, held in the Academy’s main lecture hall. Tickets are expensive and can be hard to come by.
Night 1: Concert featuring local and out-of-town performers of high quality.
Night 2: The “Knowledge Test” – essentially a quiz night for tables of up to 6.
Night 3: Performance of the epic play “Foundation” – an allegorical drama of the establishment of Cauldron and its history.
Night 4: A dance performance by a renowned Sasserine ballet company.
Night 5: The Great Debate – featuring speeches on a set subject by 4 speakers.
Night 6: Performance of the epic play “Foundation”.
Night 7: Closing concert featuring academy students and perhaps other locals rather than the famous performers of night 1, judged as a competition by the faculty and followed by the Faculty Dinner.

The Brawler’s Games

Events:
Tossing the hammer – a huge sledge that many people can barely lift.
Wrestling – 32 entries are open for this knockout event.
Tug-of-war – 16 teams of 3 compete in this knockout.
Throwing the greatsword – where accuracy as well as strength is needed.
Weightlifting – just as it implies.
The Mighty Blow Contest – who can do the stationary target the most damage in a single blow?
The Test of Endurance – This involves holding a weight above your head longer than anyone else can.
The Test of Courage – Walking furthest in a firepit.

Programme:
Day 1
Qualifying for the greatsword throw (best 12 make the final), weightlifting (anyone who can lift the qualifying weight on their first or second try makes the “final”), and wrestling (many competitors are seeded into the last 32, but there are spots for qualifiers).
Day 2
Tug of war eliminations if needed, qualification for the hammer toss (12 reach the final), wrestling round 1.
Day 3
Tug of war round 1, wrestling round 2, Test of Endurance (no qualification needed)
Day 4
Weightlifting final, tug of war round 2, wrestling round 3
Day 5
Mighty blow competition, greatsword throw final, tug of war and wrestling semi-finals, Test of Courage
Day 6
Finals of wrestling, tug of war and hammer toss. Evening – the feast of Kord.
Day 7
Prize presentation at the Festival Closing Ceremony.

In addition to prizes for individual winners there is an overall prize for the competitor who does best in four events. It is difficult, though just about possible, to enter every event, and priests of Kord are expected to take part in as many events as they can. The Temple’s Head Priest Asfelkir Hranleurt and his assistant Omar Tiskinsen are the chief judges of the events, and the temple's acolytes act as marshals.

Cauldron Alive Programme

Night 1: Erikus’s troupe performs one or more plays for the common folk – as the night gets later the plays get more bawdy.
Night 2: The troupe’s acrobats perform, and may invite audience members or other volunteers to perform too.
Night 3: Stand up comedy from Erikus and his guests.
Night 4: Same as night 1.
Night 5: The Big Dance – Erikus’s troupe do a dance presentation, then judge a dance contest open to individuals or pairs. The evening ends with a free for all dance for everyone, and a fair bit of hanky-panky. This is one night of the year when anything goes.
Night 6: Amateur Night – anyone who can pass a basic audition during the day gets to perform, and Erikus and the audience judge the winner, who earns a prize.

On day 7, Erikus packs up his troupe and heads off to his next gig. Sometimes young locals who dream of becoming performers go too – and sometimes members of his troupe stay behind.

There are, of course, many chances to foreshadow important NPCs and later events through the above. For example "Foundation" includes information about Surabar's defeat of Nabthatoron.

Thanks Robert. It won't be the first idea I've borrowed from you! (I found your language rules and real estate prices of great practical help, and plenty of other stuff from your site good reading too. Thanks again).

Chef,
Like many others, I am borrowing your Heroes' Feast idea for my group. In one of your posts you sketched the main participants and their motivations, and said you would follow up with an outline of the evening's events. I don't suppose you would mind sharing that outline?
Cheers.

There has been at least one thread started by Borealis about an alternative Drakthar - I think he was converted into a druid. I read it and really liked the idea (though I'm using Drakthar's Way differently IMC). Since I'm a bit thick I can't attach a link to the thread, but search Drakthar on the site and you're bound to find it. Oh, and if you read this Borealis - great work!

Thanks guys - loved the Satchel pooch cartoon too. I don't think I'll be playing "Trevor" as quite that thick though - with 10 Int he's smarter than one of my party's clerics.
The comedic possibilities have already started to manifest - picture a creature that's about 5 foot by 5 foot by 6 foot and weighs 2 tons trying to manoeuvre down the pulveriser tunnels...

Well I could, but I wouldn't have a clue what it means! Some cultural reference that eludes me, I'm afraid...

This one's a bit out of left field...
My PCs went into Jzadirune last night and managed to find the room containing Starbrow in about half-an-hour (they went down the pulveriser tunnel from room J4 into J59, found the secret door and bingo).
Anyhow, the half-drow sorcerer who speaks undercommon befriended the mimic, to a liking to it (the party has dubbed it "Trevor") and decided to keep it. They've taken it back to Ghelve's Locks and I can see them wanting to adopt it as a pet.
I see nothing inherently impossible about this - but what is a mimic's motivation? Reading the MM entry it seems like it just enjoys eating, and perhaps looking after things (like treasure). Does anyone have any ideas as to how to roleplay such a creature?

I like the idea of a trial too - not because I'm a criminal lawyer myself, but because of the role playing opportunities it creates. Killing can be excused completely in some circumstances, and in most medieval societies duelling - even to the death - was not uncommon among persons of noble rank. Of course, killing a noble when you are not tilts the scales of "justice" against you, but that provides a challenge.
The character could be tried for murder and/or manslaughter and the outcome could be anything from complete acquittal (but a vendetta from the Stormblades or the Vanderborens) to fines/reparation (including paying for a resurrection - I don't think raise dead works on the decapitated), community service (another good idea, Delvesdeep) up to jail, banishment or execution. Of course, as you control the trial outcome you can frighten the PCs with that but leave a lesser result. Delvesdeep's "jail and breakout" with Artus Shemwick is yet another great idea, and could lead the PCs in a challenging direction.
Losing huge amounts of positive opinion among the populace may be the most effective punishment of all, of course. The trick is to balance the "crime" in game terms (after all, the vast majority of fights in D and D are to the death) with a punishment that is not too feeble to strain the players' credulity but not too savage as to amount to "tearing up the character sheet - unless the latter outcome is one you judge the players can cope with. After all, characters do die...

There are some great ideas in this thread. Like so many others, I'm borrowing from Delevesdeep's brilliant Alternative Cagewrights document, and had planned to get rid of Thazo - I had a vague plan that he'd be found dead sometime earlyish in my campaign, evidence of the resolution of a power struggle within the Last Laugh but otherwise going nowhere - but I like him as the head Alleybasher. One of my PCs has Alleybasher connections - he is a Dreamhaunted orphan whose parents were adventurers and prepared a brilliant backstory involving running with a street gang as a youth, only to come back from a job to find his Fagin-type boss dead and mates gone. It makes sense to have them driven out of Cauldron and forced into banditry - I can't wait til the PC confronts one of his former street gang pals at the Lucky Monkey (let alone finding his parents' statues at Vhalantru's place!)
But I digress. Other potential Jesters who are mentioned in the Hardcover could be Finch, Xendro and Mokaius - all of whom are mentioned in Lords of Oblivion. Finch in particular looks to have "Underboss" potential as a level 5 rogue/6 sorcerer.

So when is Kristalyn (Junior?!) joining your game? My best mate (and regular DM) started indoctrinating his eldest quite young. After school holidays one year, the kids told the class what they'd spent their vacations doing. One child said "I went to the beach", one said "I played at the park". My friend's son said "I bought some elves and goblins".
Bless him...

Thanks for that link, Chef. Like Findas (and those who replied to his post) I'm glad I'm not the only number geek out there. One point, though, the HC gives Cauldron a population of 7500 ADULTS, and although I can undertsand the argument that 12.5 PEOPLE per building is not ridiculous, when you factor in children it gets awful squeezy.

balterk_n wrote:

Pg 11 lists Cauldron as a small city (population 7500) with a GP limit of 15,000.

In the Dungeon magazines, Cauldron is listed as a large town with a 3,000 GP limit. This is also consistent with the description of Skie's Treasury on page 20, with no item (except the scroll of raise dead) above 3,000.

Was this an intentional change in the population/max GP for Cauldron? Or was this a misprint?

I believe this was intentional. Cauldron has too much floor space for a 'large town'

Chef, I can't say I agree with that justification. I've actually counted all the buildings in Cauldron (yeah, I know, I have too much time on my hands) and while I might be out by 10 or so either way, I only got up to 750-odd. And I counted everything that LOOKED like a building. By that calculation, an average of 10 adults live in every building in Cauldron. Never mind the kids, or shops that people don't live in, or empty buildings. It's got to be a tight squeeze.

I have also noted something arguably a bit more significant. The map of Cauldron at the front of the book (and on page 75 of the HC) has a scale that makes Cauldron a bit over 3/4 of a mile across (4400 feet or so to be more precise). When you measure some buildings on that map, notably Maavu's warehouses and the Town Hall, they are about triple the size they are shown in later maps - like the ones for Umber Hulk Attack and Riot Scene. House Vhalantru has the same problem, whereas House Rhiavadi is about half the size in its "own" map as it is on the main one and the Church of Wee Jas seems about the same size in both.
In other words, I recommend that you don't rely too closely on the page 75 map for building sizes - or that you rescale the smaller maps if you think some of those buildings seem too small (the Town Hall, for instance, only has about twice the floor area of Orak's bathhouse).

I have half-decided that Terrem will not be returned to the orphanage, because the Cagewrights will not accept any more risk to their precious shackleborn. They have, after all, got 11 others in the Fiery Sanctum already by this point, and he will be beyond the PCs' reach.
This will, of course, draw a great deal of attention to him, but if that motivates the PCs to try researching the reason why, so much the better. I am pretty confident that I can plausibly control the information flow until the right time, while providing an early mystery to draw the players in (really, the same sort of mystery as the scenario as written creates).
One of my PCs grew up in the orphanage, and is likely to have met Terrem as an infant.

OK guys - you got me with the cool factor, which I hadn't actually considered. You're right - the party'll freak when he shows up. Thanks for your input.

Is it just me, or does something about the beholder's "rescue" of Terrem at the end of Life's Bazaar not feel right? I am about to start running SCAP for a group of experienced players, and every time I read this encounter I feel it should be different. Would Vhalantru really want to draw attention to the specialness of Terrem, even in this very low-risk way? He's a cunning creature, and in my opinion he'd rescue all 4, just to keep Terrem from becoming an object of interest to the party - information can be hard to control, after all, especially with people as naturally nosy and talkative as adventurers.
My idea is to have Vhalantru beam in in HALF ELF form to perform the rescue, with Thifirane staying out of sight. Vhalantru will have met some of the party at least, as all new adventurers entering my Cauldron have to register with the authorities. The law requires them to do so if they cast spells or want to wear medium or heavy armour around town (which my lot will - they're power-gamers to the core). I figure Vhalantru volunteers for this "irksome" public duty so he can keep a handle on all new adventurers.
He will only show up at all if the party looks like they won't be able to rescue Terrem, and if he does he helps kill or at least overpower Kazmojen and Pyllrak (as has been suggested in other threads, Kazmojen has become expendable). When the battle is over he explains that he had heard the party were trying to rescue the kidnapped orphans, and as he is keenly interested in seeing them rescued he had taken the liberty of following them with an arcane eye when he found out they had gone underground. He praises the bravery of the group, and says doesn't want to take any credit for the rescue - he says it is not widely known he has spellcasting ability, and he wants it to stay that way. He tells the party he will leave them to bring the children home and will himself supplement their reward from the Temple of St Cuthbert.
This seems to me to be in tune with Vhalantru's style - keeping his potential enemies close and engaging in several potentially useful kinds of misdirection, while enduring his real target - Terrem - is recovered without becoming conspicuous. Any thoughts?