john figura's page

I divided city into 5 sections and had preplanned which events and occurences happened in each section. During heavy earthquakes , the pc's on their own had gone to see Jenya and the town guard to see if the city should be evacuated.....[made it easy for me]. They were already in process of dividing party into 2 groups to warn more people about the dangers coming. so at that point, i showed pc's map i printed with dividing lines and the like. [they didnt know what was in store for them though, they only thought it was gonna be an easy XP 'role play' night.....not]. 1 group went clockwise and the other went counter clockwise, clearing out city and trying to survive all hazards....they met at last section just as we were winding down for night..so we take up from last section next session.....with the morkoth encounter and soon after, hookface....but they had minimal casualties in party and quite a lot of civilians died....nothing they coul do.[i did this to show importance of doing things in timely manner].. oh well....

Besides...you can do what you want with npc's because as long as rest of story and plots play out the same in the end....doesn't matter how you change chance encounters and the like. I also completelyremoved the demonskar ball...seeing that most of the nobles and pc's had had previous encounters and the like...besides...can you see a barbarian with the cha. of a rock and the looks of a boot heel trying to dress up in his finest cod-piece and dance...really!! lol

I was having jill and 2 other last laugh goons following the party from alleys and rooftops, but one of the pc's decided to roll a spot check out of nowhere and rolled a lot more than my hide rolls...so i just had her cordially approach the pc's and basically went about...lying, lol....and she told them she was just scouting for new guild members and such....everything went on from there...

I had Jill slowly work her way into a cordial friendship with the pc's and over few adventures, was romantically involved with one of their party.....lol...little did they know she was only getting close so she could spy and the like on pc's. Used info. gathered to try and foil pc's exploits through las few chapters. Party was surprised when they went to rescue the strider and witnessed her plunge dagger into his neck...haha....dontcha just love it when pc's call you cruel....muhahahah.

As a DM, i was asked constantly as well "Why are we on Occipitus?" Luckily they remembered alec's last words after the fight with the glabrezu...so being that party is mostly LG, they trudged forward like good little automotons....lol

Kaurophan was kickin som serious butt! some pc's were knocked out of fight and the last 2 (barbarian and fighter) were still trying to figure out what "sacrifice" was needed. in the end, they barely got rid of kauro and the gnome fighter asked the barbarian to pick him up and throw him into the fire.
It worked...now the pc's have to deal with having a 3' tall fighter with goofy lookin eye with smoke pouring out of it......which brings up other thing.....one of the pc's said they were afraid to sleep in same room with him( you know...smoke inhalation or something...LOL!!)

My pc's have just finished the riot in the city and are on their way to redgorge....when is the ball supposed to take place?

That's funny. I had a goblin sorc. in that encounter as well, that also critted on a scorching ray. 2 of the party members were close to death (i rolled crappy on damage). 1 was knocked to zero because of an earlier lightning bolt from same sorc.

I haven't run into too many probs running my group. For the most part, the existing errata has been incorporated into the shackled city. I guess the exceptions would be any errata that came out after publication. Any way....i run with what the book has , and if pc's object.......kill them...muwhaaahaaa. lol. just kidding. My group is flexible and if a prob arises, we continue with current fight, and agree on proper stats that we use for rest of campaign.

john