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The more I think about this section of the campaign, the more I get annoyed and want to completely drop it. As others have mentioned, it's fairly well written, but still seems like nothing but filler, with very little at all to attach itself to the overall theme...anyone got any good ideas about a whole adventure I can throw in here to replace HoHR? I'm also somewhat amiss to learn a doppleganger is neutral, when teh creatures clearly act evil 99% of the time...just neutral to 'throw off' a Paladin's detect ability? Maybe I really WILL bring The Hand and The Eye out from Vecna Lives! as a main adventure alternate?
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If your characters have initiated the beginnings of a treaty with the lizard folk between them and the Free City, I'd focus on that. During the negotiation process an attempt can be made against the PCs' lives. Allow the characters to have a chance to pursue the perps through the streets of the Free City, heading down into the sewers and leading to the lair Zyrxog. Replace Zyrxog with another critter you'd prefer.
This will shorten up the "filler" and still plant the evidence that Loris Raknian hired someone/thing to kill the PCs.
I may need to do something like this if the PCs are advancing too quickly.
Creative Director
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The most important thing, from the campaign's perspective, is that the PCs learn about Loris Raknian's involvement, so whatever you end up running in place of Hall of Harsh Reflections, just make sure you include that cruical bit of evidence.
That said... "Hall of Harsh Reflections" is only tangentially related to the main continuity of the campaign for a specific reason. If everything that the PCs come up against is directly related to the overarching story, it can start to seem a little too convenient. This adventure is, in many ways, a "break" from the storyline of the campaign. It has a few minor bits of related events associated with the Age of Worms, but it's not supposed to advance the plotline in any real significant way. This adventure also gives us a chance to feature villians who aren't undead or cultists, something that the PCs in the campaign will have more than their fill of by the time they're 20th level.
Part 6, "A Gathering of Winds," is a similar beast.
Not every episode of the X-Files was about the ciggarette smoking man. Not every installment in Stephen King's Gunslinger books is exactly about the quest to reach the Dark Tower. And not every adventure in a campaign has to tie in to the campaign's story arc on every level.
It would be pretty easy to strengthen the focus and add to the overall sense of dread "the Age of Worms is coming ooooh!"
For example:
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Put some spawn of kyuss in a crate in the main lair. Add notes somewhere that these were found in the sewers and need to be examined.
Put in some journal entries in the boss's lair about a connection to the black dragon in the swamps.
Add a pretty easy encounter with a group of ebon triad cultists bent on revenge for sacking the Triad HQ. Describe them as cultists, but when they die have worms crawl out from under their robes.
Add in a rumor about a section of the city that is closed off due to "plague" Then let them overhear guards talking about the plague: " Drognan went down under a mob of zombie things, and then a minue later I saw him running around with worms leaking out of his eyes!"
" Drognan went down under a mob of zombie things, and then a minue later I saw him running around with worms leaking out of his eyes!"
Wow! Cool idea, snag
The players in our group were very interested in the Seekers organization.
Perhaps the players learn the Seekers are interested in a weapon at White Plume Mountain, and run the downloadable adventure. You can find it at the WotC web site and it is converted from 1st edition to 3rd edition. Perhaps they even find/buy a map to the mountain with the Dragotha reference.
IMC, Zyrxog traded the apostolic scrolls for Kyuss worms and was trying to taint his nursery pool in the Cathedral of the Mind. He was developing a method of undead ceremorphosis. He was planning to lead an army of psionic alhoons during the Age of Worms. The pool was green, and the tadpoles resembled Kyuss worms (though they were harmless when the PCs encountered them).
By adding this minor detail, you easily tie in the mind flayer and his minions to the overall plot, and give the PCs a taste of the wheels in motion for the apocalypse to come.
" Drognan went down under a mob of zombie things, and then a minue later I saw him running around with worms leaking out of his eyes!"Wow! Cool idea, snag
Gonna write it in right away!!! Excellent intro to the worm-infestation! :-))
I'm gonna make it a quarantined house filled with zombies, like the beginning of Dawn ot Dead (original).
I'm thinking of borrowing heavily from the module "Speaker in Dreams", as well as the Freeport Trilogy (the first two parts, at least) - both involve lots of good city adventuring. The mindflayer in "Speaker" will be one and the same as the one in HoHR. There are many other parallels available for possible substitutions here or there.
IMC, Zyrxog traded the apostolic scrolls for Kyuss worms and was trying to taint his nursery pool in the Cathedral of the Mind. He was developing a method of undead ceremorphosis. He was planning to lead an army of psionic alhoons during the Age of Worms. The pool was green, and the tadpoles resembled Kyuss worms (though they were harmless when the PCs encountered them).
By adding this minor detail, you easily tie in the mind flayer and his minions to the overall plot, and give the PCs a taste of the wheels in motion for the apocalypse to come.
Perhaps Zyrxog tried to alter himself as well. Imagine the mind flayer's tentacles being wormy green instead of mauve? While he can just eat a PCs brain, maybe his tentacles can also act like worms of Kyuss? When they attach and get into the brain he can turn the creature into an instant spawn of Kyuss under his diabolical control!
The Drognan thing was great, by the way.
IMC, I had issues over the beginning sections with finding a suitable BBEG to help tie the whole introduction together. I decided that the faceless one would survive. He managed to run away in 3foE, and the party will soon find traces of his handiwork in the Encounter at Blackwall keep setup.
they should finally track him down in the free city (while at the same time goign to speak with eligos), and I'm considering methods of tying zyrxog to the faceless one at the moment. I figure they should have an all-out slugfest/showdown with the faceless one at some point while they're in the free city. I'm even considering changing the Pitch Blade fight to be a mid-arena showdown with the facless one and his two Kenku Assasin allies....
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The more I think about this section of the campaign, the more I get annoyed and want to completely drop it. As others have mentioned, it's fairly well written, but still seems like nothing but filler, with very little at all to attach itself to the overall theme...anyone got any good ideas about a whole adventure I can throw in here to replace HoHR? I'm also somewhat amiss to learn a doppleganger is neutral, when teh creatures clearly act evil 99% of the time...just neutral to 'throw off' a Paladin's detect ability? Maybe I really WILL bring The Hand and The Eye out from Vecna Lives! as a main adventure alternate?
FWIW, I have tentiatively rewritten HoHR to play up the involvement of Ragnar Dourstone.
Ragnar was the "villain" in the eyes of the PCs from Diamond Lake and his involvement in the Ebon Triad.
Balabar Smenk ended up being a cutthroat businessman. Ragnar, otoh, was *evil* and escaped the PCs clutches and the justice of Captain Trask.
Ragnar's bid for revenge will make the adventure more tied into the plot.
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The players in our group were very interested in the Seekers organization.
Perhaps the players learn the Seekers are interested in a weapon at White Plume Mountain, and run the downloadable adventure. You can find it at the WotC web site and it is converted from 1st edition to 3rd edition. Perhaps they even find/buy a map to the mountain with the Dragotha reference.
I really want to tie in the revised White Plume Mountain somewhere in the AP. It would be great to have a PC or 2 score a legacy weapon, and snagging them from the infamous White Plume Mountain would be amazing. If you run it, please post how it went :)
It would be pretty easy to strengthen the focus and add to the overall sense of dread "the Age of Worms is coming ooooh!"
.Put some spawn of kyuss in a crate in the main lair. Add notes somewhere that these were found in the sewers and need to be examined.
Put in some journal entries in the boss's lair about a connection to the black dragon in the swamps.
Add a pretty easy encounter with a group of ebon triad cultists bent on revenge for sacking the Triad HQ. Describe them as cultists, but when they die have worms crawl out from under their robes.
Add in a rumor about a section of the city that is closed off due to "plague" Then let them overhear guards talking about the plague: " Drognan went down under a mob of zombie things, and then a minue later I saw him running around with worms leaking out of his eyes!"
Time to put my money where my mouth is. I'm running Hall of Harsh Reflections and finding it does a great job strengthening The Age of Worms with a little work. My party is in Sodden Hold having just bested the Mimics pretty easily. I was fearing a near TPK as the wizard player was absent.
Here's the tweaks I ended up using (and will use):
The party is not here in Hillsfar (= my Free City) to investigate anything as they haven't learned a lot of information yet about the Age of Worms. Its more creepy stuff in the background. The triad talked about it in 3 faces, and they encountered some spawn in Blackwall, but thats about it. Even the worm from Whispering Cairne is in the back of their minds. Lots of notes and rumors, no substance.
So far the two spawn they have met (one in blackwall, one in the swamps from sick lizardmen) has really lived up to being "unkillable" Basically I tripled their HP, gave them regeneration 10, and had them keep squirming even as the entire party kept piling damage on them for many rounds until the wizard could burn them.
HoHR is going to hammer things home.
They met the rain barrel man and heard some creepy things from him. They also learned that a sector of the city (5 houses) were quarintined after some outbreak. They didn't investigate yet, but have a week between finish HoHR and Champion's belt, so I'm sure that they will. Getting drawn into a house to rescue a sick individual only to be surrounded by 4-5 of these unkillable worm zombies should show them that the evil is spreading.
Jars of worms and some research notes will be found in the dungeon beneath Sodden Hold. As will another one of these unkillable zombies chained in a side room where the party can crisp it at ease.
After reading the DMG 2, I plan on including a big of "player" specific challanges to make sure each player feels they are doing their part. In my case, solving some runes on a box, for the runecaster (silly prestige choice) and an encounter with Eldrith Velthrua (human hating elves) for the Justice of Wield and Woe in my group.
I'm removing the "search the sewers at random" for Zyrzog's lair. That seems way to random and dull for my tastes. I can't believe the author though that would be interesting for a group. Random sewer encounters minus maps or directives = not fun for most people. A direct path 2 set encounters seems decent enough. Probably 1 life leach otyugh and maybe a pack of cultists bent on revenge. I like to use 2 random encounters with 1 being a big nasty and the other a pack of something to suck up a few spells of each type from the casters before they reach the "meat" of the adventure. The cultists will have worms crawl from their robes as described above.
Zyrzog of course will have clues in his lair about Raknian as well as notes that cultists have been sharing their secrets with a black dragon in the swamps to the south (Ilithane)
Finally after besting Zyrzog, the party will be able to finish the reason that brought them to Hillsfar: Meeting a cleric of Bane and recieve the information reward from him for defeating the cultists in 3 faces. This specific Banite tasked them with destroying the renegade banites that were involved in 3 Faces. He had been recieving troubling visions from Bane about the return of Kyuss and is working to prevent it.
Once armed with the information they need, they will be able to enter the arena's to go after Raknian and figure out how he is tied into the Age of Worms.
Its deliciously painful to watch the Paladin (used to be 2 of them) squirm everytime he has to work with a Cleric of Bane to avert a greater evil. I find him a much better font of information than a "friendly bunch of wizards" that you keep having to search out for information. The party does not want to trust him, but keep finding they have to. Eventually they will get a chance at him but not before having to rescue him (in Gathering of Winds) and then "go undercover" with him (in Prince of Redhand/Zhentil Keep). He will eventually go mad and they will have to fight him and I know that will be a happy day for my group.
Me and my group liked HoHR for a few reasons:
1) It adds a lot to Eberron flavor, as I changed the doppelgangers to an arm of Sharns Tyrants organisation. This gaves the players a chance to unviel one of the most influencing rogue organisations in Sharn and earn the favour of a few city people (the ones that should be replaced by Dopplegangers).
2) Playing with one of the players as my ally was really fun exspecially when he decided to stab the groups wizard in the back just when they confrontex Telaxin.
But I must confess, that HoHR does not contribute much to the story, something that was critizized by my players too. For this reason, I skipped the mindflayer lair completly. The illithid will show up with his vrock companion to battle the PCs and might have a chance to escape and thats it. Of course the player will find the notes regarding Raknian involvement somewhere.