Were anybody's players actually surprised that a guy with the name Orbius turned out to be a beholder. I think that this might have had that "I can't believe we missed that clue" effect for newer players, but my players were talking about killing him (when they got powerful enough) after the first mention of his name.
Player 1: "Lord Orbius Val bla bla...? You're kidding right? This guy is a Beholder"
Player 2: "Yep"
Player 3: "You know he's going to set us up?"
Player 2: "Yep"
Player 4: "Let's kill him as sonn as we are powerfull enough."
Player 2: "Yep"
ASEO out
We're going to find out, as my party meets him in the last couple sessions.
I suspect that they won't suspect. But I'll let you know.
i hope my players don't figure it out it would screw up most of the adventure path
I just changed his name... My players suspected he was a bad guy, but they were pretty suprised to find out that he was the Beholder they had encountered in the first adventure.
I introduced the main characters in the city in a document describing the setting and background. It seems my players missed the fairly obvious "Orbius" clue, so in the future I will simply refer to him as Lord Vhalantru. Orbius will still be in the setting and background document, but I see no reason to point it out for them...
My players never pegged on Orbius' real identity. I had his mage assistant polymorph him into a half elf every time he had to make a public appearance. He even met the pcs and shook their hands. They suspected he was a bad guy, but they never acted on it until they had proof.
Squid
I did the same thing as Evilash. I introduced him as lord Orbius Vhalantru, but ususally refer to him as Lord Vhalantru. The players have yet to catch on.
Right now, they don't even suspect he's all that bad. of course that may all change once he sends them hunting for Zennith Splintershield.
insert evil grin
We're going to find out, as my party meets him in the last couple sessions.
I suspect that they won't suspect. But I'll let you know.
Sorry, I meant NEXT couple sessions.
Actually, this is a real, legitimate concern. Thus far (and we're currently in the middle of Secrets of the Soul Pillars) I've simply referred to him as Lord Vhalantru and have not mentioned his first name. In fact, I may not use it at all! At this point, my players are convinced that Alek Tercival was the Beholder (don't ask -- they have a bad habit of putting 2 and 2 together to get 17) and so I'm letting them think that.
Another serious problem... In the artwork of "Faces of Cauldron" Lord Vhalentru's shadow is in the shape of a behoder. The party's cleric noticed that as soon as I placed the handout on my DM screen.
Sorry to post off-topic, but I gotta say, nice handle Blix.
"black as midnight, black as pitch. Blacker than the darkest witch." -Blix
Another serious problem... In the artwork of "Faces of Cauldron" Lord Vhalentru's shadow is in the shape of a behoder. The party's cleric noticed that as soon as I placed the handout on my DM screen.
Yeah, I showed my players that thing too. Haven't noticed it yet, fortunately. Are they thick or what? :-)
I'm thinking even if they do figure out Vhalantru's a beholder, so what? Their characters don't nescesarily believe it. And even if they do, they'll probably just be laughed at if they don't present some convincing proof. And even if they do have the proof, Vhalantru has his tendrils (I mean eyestalks) pretty deep in cauldron politics. He probably has Terson Skellerang under his control. And there's a good chance he has some leverage on many of the other movers and shakers as well. Maybe even Jenya.
I'm pretty sure that even if the players figure it out, they don't nescersarily have the means and opertunity to act on it until the end of the AP.
Come to think of it, it's pretty much like the whole vulcano part of the sotry arch. One of my players immediately sugested it was going to erupt near the end of the story. And she's right of course. But so what? Her player lived there all her life. Everyone knows it's dead, so why worry right? If she starts running arround warning everyone to leave before the imminent eruption, they'll either put her in the gatehouse or drown her in the central lake.
My group has just started Foundation of Flame. As others did I mentioned his full name once and then simply called him Lord Vhalantru. Even after finishing him off they didn't make the connection, despite keeping good adventure notes. I had to point it out to them later! I can't wait til he comes back in the last episode. Nothing like having a recurring villam return from the dead. In a past campaign (2e) that I ran I had a Necromancer villan keep returning by using spells such as corpse host and clone. It drove the party nuts, but I always had a laugh when he returned.
My players have no idea. In fact, because I've used Vhalantru kind of aggressively in my campaign, making him into a sort of patron for the adventurers and a foil to the Stormblades, my party cleric is pondering confiding in him that there is a beholder beneath Cauldron! I'm having a hard time keeping a straight face.
that awsome... i wish i had a rues like that going on... i found out that one of my players read one of the later adventures when it came out before i said i was going to run it... So he know exeactly who vhalantru is
Heh. I just played with the syllables and pronunciation:
He was Lord Or-Bye-Us Vhalantru, and even my seasoned folk didn't bat an eye.
If the players don't figure out that the beholder=Lord Vhalantru before LoO, how (and when) are they going to figure it? There's no event or scene where the PC see vhalantru shifting shape. any ideas?
If the players don't figure out that the beholder=Lord Vhalantru before LoO, how (and when) are they going to figure it? There's no event or scene where the PC see vhalantru shifting shape. any ideas?
The players don't need to know that Vhalantru is the beholder, merely that he is the next big player in the Cagewrights' plot. There are plenty of opportunities before, during, or after the battle in House Rhiavadi to drop that kernel. I personally want to keep it from my players that Vhalantru is the beholder until they find the well surrounded by statues, and realize why all those Free Companies with their names engraved on Skie's shop have "retired."
Some specific ideas:
1) Vhalantru was supposed to preside over the meeting at House Rhiavadi, but some other engagement has forced Thrifirane to take over the presentation for him. She opens the meeting by apologizing for his absence, linking him to the Cagewrights' plot for PCs discriminating enough not to just kick down the door.
2). In Rhiavadi's house is a crystal ball she uses to communicate with Vhalantru (like the palantiri in LotR). The PCs discover it, and Vhalantru, not immediately perceiving who is on the other end of the connection, reveals himself to the party.
3). Incriminating documentation in House Rhiavadi leads the party to Cauldron's government. They confront Vhalantru with evidence of his role in the plot at some official government meeting in front of his advisors and cronies or some other public venue (this could be good rehabilitation for the PCs' popular reputation after breaking into both the Temple of Wee Jas and House Rhiavadi).
Well, I feel pretty safe, I showed the picture to my brother (the faces of Cauldron), and he didn't see Vhalantrus shadow until I openly pointed it out to him!
Of course I have no problem showing this to him, as my one group has already quit playing it. They whined when 2 of them caught the Vanishing, and quit out.
Had no problem with the Lord Orbius thing... when my party first found out that there even WAS such a person, I threw his name out with a number of OTHER names on the town council... the Lords of the Five Families, for instance (had to make them up, just knew that Alex Tercival's family was one of the five most influential), and of course still had the party know that the leader was the Lord Mayor... Once the party found out about the existence of J'zadirune, they tried to get an audience with the Lord Mayor, but were firmly put off by acres of red tape and bureaucracy. After all, no high level bureaucrat is EVER going to make time to see a crew of 1st level wandering adventurers; I don't care WHAT your Diplomacy score is!!
As the campaign has been going on, I've lightly dropped hints in their Gather Info rumor mills about the Lord Mayor being seen less and less... but I've also inundated the rumor mill with other outlandish tales (planted by the Last Laugh and agents of the Cagewrights) that has the party baffled as to how the political cogs of Cauldron actually work! Maybe they'll eventually put it together, but right now I've given them far too much haystack to sift through. And at low levels, when they're s'posed to be concentrating on the dungeon crawls, I think that's for the best...
I like the Tenebris thing, I may just use it myself.
But change him being a beholder? I think he needs to stay the same, no matter what.
I renamed him "Tenebris" Valanthru, as in "shadow".
Of course, I also changed his being a Beholder since 3.5 spells don't work that way anymore.
Don't you mean Tenebrous?
A few years back there was this Planescape adventure. Well actually, it was a mega adventure that brought PC's from level 4 up to level 16 or 20 or somewhere in that vicinity. (sound familiar anyone?) The Adventure's name was Dead Gods. Anyway, the backstory was that a God had risen from its astral grave to exact its revenge on those that killed it and reclaim its rightfull place as lord of a great number of abyssal layers. He took on the name Tenebrous and skulked about a bit before the PC’s find him and put him back in his grave. What was the god’s real name, you ask? Why it was Orcus.
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I had a similiar problem,
I know my players would never miss a clue like that so I changed his name to Lord Orvius Vhalantru. Seems to have worked. I've also threaded him into one of the players background as the former patron of her adventuring parents before she was orphaned. She's going to have a very interesting moment in LoO when she discovers a pair of statues that bear an amazing family resemblance.
Jack
I've also threaded him into one of the players background as the former patron of her adventuring parents before she was orphaned. She's going to have a very interesting moment in LoO when she discovers a pair of statues that bear an amazing family resemblance.
That's EVIL! (I am going to have to use it as well)
Dear audience,
although the magazines clearly state that Lord V and the terrible beholder share the first name, it is certainly a bad idea to stick with. I think the hardcover edition corrected this mistake (I´m not really sure, because I didn´t buy the book)- Lord V got the first name of Alahind instead - which also can be used as a hint, albeit a hint in disguise, because a little shifting of syllables is necesary to get it:
Alahind Valanthru gets changed to D´valan thru´alah´in, an elven expression for "he, who perceives all" - a quite catchy name for the most important advisor of the lordmayor ... but , translated literally the same phrase means "he, who got his eyes everywhere" ...
hopefully that little lession of elfish language helps,
best regards, Claremont the Elder, Lord Buckley
The obvious first name was indeed corrected in the Hardcover.
The name Orbius isn't mentioned (at least in the first 4 chapters) except to say that Kazmojen knows the beholder as "Orbius", but that even he has no clue that Orbius and Lord Vhalantru are the same being.
Besides the obvious first name in the original magazine run and the shadow on the Villians of Cauldron artwork, the 'headshot' sketch of Lord Vhalantru even has a beholder-esque shape on his golden necklace.
I wrote up a few foreshadowing ideas in this article on the big fella if people are interested -
http://therpgenius.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=17
Sorry it is not hyperlinked.
Delvesdeep
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Dear audience,
although the magazines clearly state that Lord V and the terrible beholder share the first name, it is certainly a bad idea to stick with. I think the hardcover edition corrected this mistake (I´m not really sure, because I didn´t buy the book)- Lord V got the first name of Alahind instead - which also can be used as a hint, albeit a hint in disguise, because a little shifting of syllables is necesary to get it:Alahind Valanthru gets changed to D´valan thru´alah´in, an elven expression for "he, who perceives all" - a quite catchy name for the most important advisor of the lordmayor ... but , translated literally the same phrase means "he, who got his eyes everywhere" ...
hopefully that little lession of elfish language helps,
best regards, Claremont the Elder, Lord Buckley
Is the name Alahind actually in the HC, or is it just off of the nobility of cauldron download from therpgenius.com?
Did anybody try the Mike Mearls' Monster Makeover version of the beholder instead of the regular version?
Here is the link:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20061028a
I just noticed that the beholder shadow was removed from the Faces of Cauldron art in the back of the Hardcover.
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Being that I have two brand new players getting introduced to D&D for the first time in this campaign (hell of an initiation ceremony, huh?), they wouldn't have made the connection anyway. They didn't know much about beholders anyway. ^_^ The fighter confided that he thought Vhalantru had been killed when his usefulness ran out. Imagine their surprise when they free Celeste and she tells them the truth? Even the statues didn't really tip them off.