Mr. James Jacobs,
I just wanted to thank you for this great adventure. I'm in the middle of running this one and it has been a great test of the characters in my group. I loved watching the blood drain from the player's faces when they realized they were up against a Death Slaad in the Trophy Room. Pandemonium ensued with cries of despair no less. Also, the location and set up was easily modified and dropped smoothly into Morvia, my campaign world, so much so that it now has me thinking of using that Slaad as an on-going villain.
Thanks again!!
PS. Has anyone else run this adventure? If you did how did you like it?
Choice adventure, truly choice.
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I absolutely loved this adventure as well. I actually placed it into the "Shackled City" adventure path I'm running...SPOILERS AHEAD*****
I had Eludra be a former Cagewright who had no intention of freeing Adimarchus. Instead she took the knowledge of the Soul Cages and tried to build one of her own. However, she realized that she was never going to get her derro hands on the shackle born that were already under lock and key and so she had to look for another source of power to run her artifact. Therefore, she used the souls of decapitated creatures and the energy from the Abysmal gate (all found in "Headless") to build the Deadgate (Deathgate? I can't remember off the top of my head). Oh man, was my party surprised when the Cagewrights actually sent them a thank you card of sorts after they defeated Eludra for them.
SPOILERS FOLLOW
Yeah, that adventure was a blast, even though we did end up with a TPK and it sent my campaign reeling off into a completely different direction for many, many sessions. Rather than abandon the campaign after their deaths, I figured that since they died right there by the Deadgate, their souls were sucked into the Abyss. The PCs "woke up" at the feet of Orcus himself with no memories of their past lives. Orcus informed them that they were demons who had failed in an attempt to overthrow him, that he had wiped their memories of their treachery and trapped them in the bodies of humans, and that they had to earn the right to regain their true demonic bodies by performing missions for him. They spent the next four or five adventures stealing powerful items for him, and once they finally regained their memories and escaped back to Oerth, they had to pick up where they left off. They managed to destroy the Deadgate the second time through, and they've spent the rest of the campaign so far trying to undo what they did while they were working for Orcus. (Right now, they're on their way back to seal off a planar rift they helped open up between Oerth and Gehenna, while trying to track down the succubus and marilith they summoned and set free on Oerth.) They're still being pursued by the awakened dire wolf of the NPC druid that died with them (unfortunately, they both were "left behind" during the escape back to Oerth and are still working for Orcus), and my players have unanimously decided they want the campaign to end at 20th level with a final showdown with Orcus himself.
I can honestly say that "Headless" has by far had the greatest impact on my campaign to date!
Johnathan
I've been waiting since its release (3 years?) for a chance to run this adventure, and finally it is approaching on the horizon.
I'm gonna set in Anauroch, tie it to Deep Horizon (with dwarves instead of bat folk), and set the stage for a final battle with Orcus when the characters reach epic levels.
I'm all giddy.
Thanks for the kind words, and thanks also to Chris Perkins for throwing the idea of a head-hunting derro my way in the first place! :)
Can't wait to hear how the final encounter turns out with your group, Edgewood!
Well we finished the adventure with the loss of three characters out of 8 (1 pc and 2 npcs). First, the battle with the Death Slaad. His Finger of Death spell proved to be more devastating than anticipated and outright killed the leader of the group. Rinzari was a long standing character with a deep, and fleshed out history by the player. It actually had an affect on the group, both on the characters, and on the players. I expected them to run in abject terror, but to my surprise, it was like the Charge of the Light Brigade!! The Death Slaad however did his damage, he reduced one character to 0 hit points, blinded the sorcerer with a Power Word Blind spell, and was intimidating enough to one player that he decided to retreat. However, the rest persevered. So what finally killed the Death Slaad? How about a well placed arrow by the female Rogue who rolled a Crit threat, then succeeded on the crit, and then rolled a 20 for the instant death variant rule (it's deadly to the players, I know, but it's a deliciously exciting one),and basically caused him to plummet about 70 ft to the floor. Of course he was already dead before he struck the cavern floor, but they didn't know that. Very dramatic!!
After playing out the after-effects of a PC's death, the game moved to the throne room where the Simulacrum of the Frost Giant Jarl awaited. They fell into his trap of revealing their plans to destroy Eldrua, after which he attacked, as did three of the Head Hunters. This battle, went easy for the group for some reason. They dispatch the Frost Giant quite quickly, and were able to destroy two of the hunters, the third one fled.
The final battle was simple a mess. Eldrua was quite devastating on the group. As the pcs attempted to get near the gate, Eldrua continued to gate in specters and wraiths. Also, the second Jarl simulacrum kept the spall casters busy enough for Eldrua to cast her more deadly spells. She even went one on one with the monk and survived his flurry of blows many times before hecould even land a hit. However, the Dwarven Cleric summond an Earth Elemental and ordered it to destroy the gate, which it did in short order. Eldrua flew into a fit of rage and nearly destroyed the elemental but was too late.
Now I substituted Orcus with Nerull as he has more of a presence in my game world (easy switch). So it was Nerull who appeared before them. The exploding gate killed one of the npcs outright while nearly killing another pc. All in all, the group was limping badly out of the stronghold, licking their many wounds. We still have to work out the final details, but this did elevate everyone to the next level. However, now they must deal with the death of a most loved comrade and leader. And of course, now they've ticked off a Greater Deity of the Undead. Things are getting interesting in Morvia...
Again, thanks alot for this adventure James. Everyone loved it and it was a great joy to run. Keep up the great work!!
