scottsch's page

What is the best way to handle darkvision with the nexus of evil? This combat is especially important to me for 2 reasons. 1) One of my PCs has a lich nemesis in his backstory, so, of course, this will be him! And 2) they just rested, so I need to wear them down a bit so Kaurophon can actually make them sweat.

If the half-orc or psionic munchkin characters see the lich in the Nexus right away, it'll be over pretty quickly. If not, the lich has a tactical problem.

My current idea is to have the lich scatter summoned animals around randomly at first, then toward sounds of combat. When he finally casts True Seeing, then he'll be able to see out of the Nexus.

Yeah, I am not too impressed with +1 to various things. It may add up to +1 LA, but it's boring.

I like the idea from the RP genius version where characters get additional bonuses while on Occipitus. I plan to give the character the ability to cast 0-level spells at will -- a hint of divinity.

I plan to change the bonuses for the template, but I'm going to wait to see which character gets the template (and whether by self- or other-sacrifice) before I design it.

Thanks -- those are good ideas. I can have Kaurophon reveal more information to them as well. My group tends to overlook clues, preferring to explode things first, ask questions later.

One of the characters has the Carcerian sign (unbeknown to him). It might be more in character for Kaurophon to keep the meaning of this secret for use in the future, but for the sake of the story, I think I'll have him explain that instead.

This is what my party will ask. Alek/Nidrama told them their foes in Cauldron are too powerful and they should seek the Smoking Eye. After they get the Smoking Eye, they will inevitably ask how it actually helps and why they bothered to get it. They gained a few levels and one of them has a relatively minor buff that doesn't seem to have anything to do with Cauldron. And why should they go back to Cauldron, a city full of powerful enemies, to twiddle their thumbs and be sitting ducks? They still don't have much of an idea of who the Cagewrights are.

I was afraid of a TPK and nerfed Nabby too much. I had him not use his ring of force shield most of the time so he could use all his attacks. I had Reverse Gravity affect only a few targets and he only used it once. The Monk 1 / Druid 8 summoned a bunch of dire wolves (plus a large astral construct from the psion) and Nabby's damage output wasn't really that impressive. The wolves did ~80 damage through the combat, even after DR.

I give people awards for role-playing: usually XP, but sometimes bonus skill points or things like that. I'm also generous with magic items and sometimes extra abilities for good role-players. The min-maxers need to stick within the rules. (And the psion gets nerfed at every turn!)

We did the Starry Mirror last night and I, at least, had a good time with it. Some of the players are frustrated, but most will ultimately be happy when they figure it out. They spent about a half hour poking around outside of it and a bit more than an hour inside. They didn't quite figure it out by the end of the night, though afterwards, one player e-mailed our list with the correct solution (which he hasn't tried yet).

After they wandered around inside for a bit, I had them start making Fortitude checks, DC 15 and increasing by 1. Failure makes a character increasingly sleepy and they fall asleep at 3 failures. I did this so that the cleric could pray for Divination and also so the group could be fully rested for Nabby.

They had figured out a lot of the nature of the place on their own. Divination* was the only hint they needed: it pointed them at the plate. One of the characters said, "Hey, wasn't there some detail on this thing the DM said the printout was too low res to show?" (I had mentioned this a month ago.) They tried mapping the numbers directly to colors, which didn't work. That's where we wrapped up. Later, over e-mail, one character said, "Wait a second, these numbers only go to 5, not 6." And then he figured it out.

*The divination was pretty funny. Our cleric has a great back-story: he's the first cleric of the demi-god son of St. Cuthbert, who is basically a divine trust fund baby. The cleric was talking about casting Divination a bit earlier, so I wrote a limerick for that and then just changed the last line, since he was actually in the Starry Mirror:

There once was a p'ladin named Tercival
Whose absence was felt quite erstwhile.
He got trapped in a mirror
To his utter terror,
But he made it out even without a fancy plate.

The cleric started looking at the plate, which he was carrying. He then mused, "Perhaps the message means that if Alek Tercival can make it through without the plate, so can we." His god added, "That's not what it means." heehee!

Thanks for all the tips!

scottsch wrote:

They emerge to find dozens of kuo toa awaiting them. If they look ragged, the kuo toa attack them to provide great sacrifices to the Sea Mother. I'll position the kuo toa so the players have an avenue of escape.

This would (read: did) wipe out my PCs... for some reason, they really struggled with Dhorlot (but beat Gottrod handily). Only you know your players, but this is the one place where it's good to analyze possible results...

I already knocked a HD off of Dhorlott. The party is missing its two biggest damage-dealers this week, so... hm... I suppose Dhorlott is still wounded from his battle with Gottrod.

Those crazy players... who ever knows what they're going to do? They started with a flaming-sphere-first-ask-questions-later attitude, then switched gears to watch poor Jared get eaten by Gottrod. Just to confound me, they peacefully hopped in the kuo toa ferryman's canoe and opened negotiations at the entrance to Bhal Hamatugn. What do I do with this?

The easiest options are 1) to put the adventure back on the rails by having the kuo toa shut up and just shoot or 2) have them disarm and be brought before Xenith. 1 is boring -- I want to reward the players for role-playing reasonably well. 2 would most likely be an auto-TPK.

Here is what I came up with, but I'd like to hear your suggestions.

1) Have them leave and come back the next day. This gives the kuo toa a chance to consult with their leader and gives the party a chance to rest.
2) Bring them to the central worship room. A cleric suppresses the statue's planar ally effect. He charges them with slaying Dhorlott if they wish to see Xenith. The kuo toa have decided that they don't entirely trust the dragon. The fingerlings have started nibbling. And, obviously, they don't feel up to the task of defeating the dragon themselves.
3) The players defeat the fingerlings and Dhorlott. I probably will adjust his stats a bit.
4) They emerge to find dozens of kuo toa awaiting them. If they look ragged, the kuo toa attack them to provide great sacrifices to the Sea Mother. I'll position the kuo toa so the players have an avenue of escape. They'll then have to fight their way back in, though if they do enough damage, the kuo toa will let them reopen negotiations. If they emerge from Dhorlott's lair, looking strong, then they are brought before Xenith.
5) Either way, they get to Xenith. They must subdue him and get away with him. The difference from the adventure as written is that there might still be a lot of kuo toa around to hamper their escape.

I probably will pare down elements of Bhal Hamatugn that aren't related to this, e.g. that assassin kuo toa.