This thread contains spoilers so if you don't want to know about Chapter Six bail out now.
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Ok, so the idea behind Chapter Six is that Kaurophon (a half-fiend) shows up to save the day and then says, "Hey, by the way. Do you think you could help me pass the test to rule one of the layers of the Abyss so I could have a place to live where people won't hate me?"
I don't know about your players, but mine would just say, "No thanks. We need to start walking we have 500 miles to cover to get back to Cauldron."
I know the Paladin says "Listen to the Smoking Eye" and Kaurophon makes the connection to the Smoking Eye and says he'll tell them important information about the evil growing in cauldron, but it's not nearly a compelling enough reason for my players to want to go to the Abyss.
I think what I'm going to have to do is have the spell weavers vault moved to Occipitus. So when the players emerge they are not in the desert, but in the Abyss. Then Kaurophon could promise them help to leave the Abyss if they help him with the Test of the Smoking Eye.
Anyone have experince with this chapter already? Did the players really just get all gung-ho about jumping into the Abyss?
Thanks!
Sean Macdonald
http://www.kencyclopedia.com/freelance/
I'm playing through "Test" as we speak, this Friday should see the group completing the final test. But after the cryptic message that Alek gave about NOT returning to Cauldron, they were realtively eager to go to Occipitus. They are definitely suspicious of Kaurophon, but after he gave them the scrolls of Planeshift, they realized they could return if they needed to. Plus the prospect of trekking through miles of unknown desert for an ill prepared party didn't hurt either.
I think what I'm going to have to do is have the spell weavers vault moved to Occipitus. So when the players emerge they are not in the desert, but in the Abyss. Then Kaurophon could promise them help to leave the Abyss if they help him with the Test of the Smoking Eye.
I like your idea. The players are sent to the middle of nowhere in any event (the desert) so why not just have them appear in the Abyss?! The only possible problem I can forsee is sending the party straight into the action before they have time to recover, purchase items etc but in all honesty this is how this stage of the Path runs anyway only that you need to planeshift first. There is no time to rest, create items, purchase goods, train, met with allies/informants etc its just straight into the next adventure, so I don't see much of a problem with having them appear in the Abyss - in fact it makes more sense.
One other problem could be a logical explanation as to why the gate/mirror would have an exit on the Abyss. Was it how the demons first entered the region in the first place? Was it a means for the Spell Weavers to gate in demonic servants/allies? Was the gate changed by the big bad demon from the end of the adventure? What are your thoughts here?
Delvesdeep
In the case of my group, the AP was based in Greyhawk, using Rauxes as the setting instead of Cauldron:
*Read about it here*
* ...and here*
Since the nearest deserts were a half- and whole continent away, respectively, my group needed little motivation to join Kaurophon...since their other option would be a several month journey back home. The easier option for them was to Plane Shift with Kaurophon, finish the mission, and then Plane Shift directly back to Rauxes (or at least within a couple hundred miles of it...) after it was done - which they did, once they killed him and took his amulet.
M
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In my campaign I took this all a step forward. The Cagewrights and Lord Vhlantru were trying to remove powerful adventurers from region, correct? Well I made "The Demonskar Legacy" one giant Cagewright trap. I had it so that the spell weavers implemented an anti-burglar trap into the Starry Mirror. If someone is intelligent enough to figure out how to navigate the mirror (which the PCs hopefully figure out how to do) then they still left a little trap in the form of one of the exits leading to a small planetoid on Carceri.
As a rule in my worlds, planer travel is quite dangerous and Carceri is no exception. A trait that appears every so often is a suppression of magic that prevents "prisoners" from leaving Carceri. Both Alek and my PCs emerged from the mirror to find themselves trapped on this planetoid with no hope of escape, or so the Cagewrights hoped...
After about fourth months of misery, though, in comes Karuphon (sp?) a half-ghereleth/demodand (the native outsiders of Carceri)who could easily planeshift the party off the prison. He also claimed that he could NOT pass the test and therefore wanted one of the PCs to in exchange for letting him live on the plane when they were done (lying of course), but it was enough incentive to get the party into the next quest.
Don't the PCs also need to get back so they can stop Skellerang from attacking Redgorge? I see my players having no reason to go to Occiputis either (Occitipus? What's that? There's no mention of it earlier in the arc) AND having a very good reason NOT to go. They get plane shift scrolls from Karuphon? Great, go to Occipitus, immediately plane shift back thus avoiding the trek through the desert.
Having the Demonskar exit on Occipitus gets around the "why go there" problem by railroading them. "You'll go there because I say so". While there they have an adventure that has nothing to do with their plans, an adventure they don't understand, an adventure that forces them to ally with someone who will betray them, an adventure that causes them to sacrifice to obtain something they don't want.
I'm thinking of yanking the whole thing and replacing with something else. While it's a really interesting, creepy adventure; it just doesn't seem to tie in with the rest of the arc.