Some my PC's just did the big lizardfolk battle at Blackwall Keep and were incredibly successful... as in hardly even touched. Anyways...
They enter the keep and are talking to the people when someone asks about the big locked door (hiding the Spawn of Kyuss). I punt and have one of the NPC's say it used to be an old escape tunnel that has collapsed about a year ago. So far the authorities have been too cheap to come out and either repair it or properly collapse it.
PC's seem to have bought it but it was near the end of the session and we were rushing some things. So anyways... how have others attempted to preserve this encounter for the end. Any other suggestions. It's sorta anti-climactic to fight the spawn in the middle of the adventure.
___________
On another note how have other parties dealt with the Kyuss Spawnlings. I'm seriously affraid my PC's will demolish this encounter with ease. The spawnlings are 1 hit dice undead and I have a 5 level cleric (with extra turning) and a 1 level cleric/4 level paladin in the party. Turn, Turn Turn... the end.
The only thing I can think of to make this encounter remotely threatening is to have the spawnling try to infect the corpses of the kobolds and raise them as Spawn of Kyuss... which could be pretty brutal.
Other thoughts. How did your parties deal with this encounter.
Thanks,
Shade325
Some my PC's just did the big lizardfolk battle at Blackwall Keep and were incredibly successful... as in hardly even touched. Anyways...
They enter the keep and are talking to the people when someone asks about the big locked door (hiding the Spawn of Kyuss). I punt and have one of the NPC's say it used to be an old escape tunnel that has collapsed about a year ago. So far the authorities have been too cheap to come out and either repair it or properly collapse it.
PC's seem to have bought it but it was near the end of the session and we were rushing some things. So anyways... how have others attempted to preserve this encounter for the end. Any other suggestions. It's sorta anti-climactic to fight the spawn in the middle of the adventure.
This has come up before and its been a problem. My suggestion is don't map the keep - don't mention a basement etc. The minute the battle is done move quickly to the bit were its suggested they head off to the swamp. If the DM does not draw attention to the basement the players are pretty unlikely to arbitrarly decide that they suddenly want to search this keep thing for a basement.
Your players feed a lot off of what you do and say - of you treat the tower as so much background fluff with an NPC encounter that leads them onward your players will almost certianly treat it as such as well.
Certianly when my players walk into a random Inn I have never once had them suddenly decide that they search every nook and cranny and take 20 searching every room in the Inn. Treat the keep in the same manner as you would treat any generic Inn they might stumble into and your players won't start taking 20 and searching it attic to basement. Start mapping it or hinting that all is not as it appears and they will do just the opposite - nothing will escape their notice.
I don't think there is much of a halfway solution most of the time. the minute the players are really suspicious there is a very good chance they won't let you talk them out of taking the place appart and many won't let you railroad them out of doing what they want - so I'd just never let them think there is anything of interest here in the first place.
My party plowed through the lizardfolk, both at the Keep and in their lair. Not much of a challenge, the nastiest encounter was with the harpies.
The spawn in the basement caused them to pause, but guarding the entrance with archers, they began constructing makeshift tower shields to advance. I had the spawn attempt some tricks of their own, to put a time limit on creative thinking (rolling oil barrels up to the barricade and attempting to light them, using pick axes to start digging through to the back of the barn, and a couple of mysterious noises). When push came to shove, though, the PC's charged in and it was over within three rounds. No serious injuries but a couple of scares with worms on flesh.
Yeah my group did fairly well with the Keep encounter as well. I had Allastun cast SToneskin on one of them so his abrupt leaving didn't leave to sour a taste in there mouth. Then with a combination of stealth and the Deep Slumber spell, they made fairly short work of the lizards folk (aalthouugh some did get away). The lair, while still not complete is going similarlly. The use of Deep Slumber on a room of lizard folk does a great job of swaying the battle to the PC's side.
When the keep battle was over, they were told about the captives and since one of them was Allastun's friend the left without going into the keep at all. The group wizard is pretty chummy with Allastun now so he really wanted to help out his friend.
I've been giving this a lot of thought, trying to come up with a way to make it work a little more smoothly. Here's what I plan to do when my PCs reach this part:
1) initially, a lizardman from a rival tribe (one actually wanting peace with humans - or at least afraid of the retaliation) shows up in Diamond Lake (maybe brought in for questioning after being encountered by a garrison patrol) and tries to warn everyone that a rogue tribe is planning to attack Blackwall Keep, start a war, etc. He does not know their reasons, motivation, etc.
2) The PCs get sent to BWK to warn the soldiers there of a (possible) attack. Allustan does not go with them!
The lizardman *might* go along as an NPC.
3) Once they arrive at the keep, they find that they are too late - it's already under attack. Give the lizardmen some barbarian levels (2 or 3)to make the fight more challenging.
Once it's over, one of the surviving soldiers is sent back to DL to summon more help. The PCs are sent into the swamp to rescue the kidnap victims. There is no zombie in the basement at this point! if the lizardman NPC goes along, the PCs have an advantage in possible negatiations with the lizardman chief.
4) While the PCs are away, the soldiers find a wounded lizard man on the battlefield and decide to take him prisoner - possibly for questioning. He has drunk a potion of cure light wounds given to him by the tribal druid/shaman. Unknown to all, this potion contains a "slow" worm of Kyuss - so the prisoner morphs into a Spawn of Kyuss shortly after being locked in the basement.
5) The PCs return to the keep, and the terrified soldiers tell them that there's an "unkillable zombie" in the basement they need to help deal with.
(note that previous "zombie sightings" referenced earlier in the campaign may refer to other lizard men infected the same way. Ilthane, of course, is the source of the tainted potions.
In summary, this flow helps get the PCs to Blackwall Keep, makes the initial battle more challenging, avoids Allustan's awkward exit scene, and also avoids the secret "zombie in the basement" problem. But the core of the adventure remains the same.
Assuming that talks with the lizardmen go well, the chief will ask the PCs to "put in a good word" with the authorities, which helps provide additional motivation for them to go to Greyhawk (or at least introduces a sidequest for them to explore once they're there).
I don't think he would be a normal spawn, which was why Ilithane used them in the first place. Perhaps one has drank the potion, and is killed by a soldier in melee in the basement, alone. He quickly dies and rises as a spawn of Kyuss.
Although I don't like that too much.
My group found the spawn in the basement when they liberated the keep . . . and I don't care. It defuses part of the mod's end game, but my players are already a bit off the rails anyway, so I'm ad libbing already.
The group took a lizardfolk prisoner and questioned him -- and, among other things, learned about the plague that wiped out an entire generation of young lizardfolk from all tribes in the marshes. Then, during one of the random encounters lizardfolk, one PC shouted out that they would bring back the plauge to wipe them out if they didn't leave the party alone.
That set up my new end game. The PCs yesterday finished wiping out the tribe, managed to save the druid from dying so they could question her, defeated the kobolds (piece of cake) found dragon egg and the loot, and packed it all up to travel. They have the egg packed in a spare chest to protect it, and have started their journey with the rescued prisoners back to the keep.
We ended the session on the morning of their second day of travel back to the keep, when they heard war drums. The drums started on one side, then new cadences started from a couple of other directions, and then finally there was a drum from behind, too. They figured out, in the cadence of the drums, that they believed there was some sort of message being sent back and forth, and I allowed a comprehend languages spell (which had to be prayed for into an empty slot in the cleric's spell list) to decipher some of the dialog of the drums . . . . and they now know that the other tribes of the marsh are being called out to encircle the "bringers of sickness" and even giving their location, although the drums are referring to landmarks the PCs don't recognize. Still, they know they're in trouble, and they have a week to think about it. And they've let the lizardfolk believe that they're responsible for the destruction of an entire generation of eggs . . . . something they're not likely to be taking very well.
Given all of this, and what they don't know about what they're carrying, they're in BIG trouble. And I'm not so worried about the loss of the end game against the spawn in the basement of the keep.
-j
I decided to change the idea that the spawn in the keep had been there for 2 years. Instead, one of the lizardfolk from the seige had been infected with a Slow Worm, and when he died, the thing was able to animate soon after (not sure if this is entirely by-the-book but it seemed close enough). So the guys in the keep are still cleaning up everything (after the PCs have left) when the critter animates and starts attacking. When the PCs returned to the keep, they find all the survivors camped in tents OUTSIDE the keep, whining about some scary critter that started attacking them at night and hauling folks down into the basement. (My group is oversized, so I also had a total of 5 spawn instead of just 3.)
I'm going the route of slow-worm-infected lizardfolk prisoner as well.
I decided to change the idea that the spawn in the keep had been there for 2 years. Instead, one of the lizardfolk from the seige had been infected with a Slow Worm, and when he died, the thing was able to animate soon after (not sure if this is entirely by-the-book but it seemed close enough). So the guys in the keep are still cleaning up everything (after the PCs have left) when the critter animates and starts attacking. When the PCs returned to the keep, they find all the survivors camped in tents OUTSIDE the keep, whining about some scary critter that started attacking them at night and hauling folks down into the basement. (My group is oversized, so I also had a total of 5 spawn instead of just 3.)
Not precisely by the book (when you die, the worms crawl out and die too, unless it was the worms as killed ya). However, this problem is easily resolved--a badly wounded lizardfolk stabilizes, but is overlooked in the initial search through the dead bodies. The soldiers find him after the party leaves, and take him prisoner for interrogation. Later, the worms reach his brain . . .
One other idea--the soldiers find one of Ilthane's slow worm healing potions while looting the lizardfolk, and use it on a wounded comrade. While the PCs are in the Mangaroo Grove, he transforms into a spawn and gets two of his buddies before they can barricade all three into the basement.
One other idea--the soldiers find one of Ilthane's slow worm healing potions while looting the lizardfolk, and use it on a wounded comrade. While the PCs are in the Mangaroo Grove, he transforms into a spawn and gets two of his buddies before they can barricade all three into the basement.
Yes, I like this one quite a bit. I am just about to start E@BK too.
One other idea--the soldiers find one of Ilthane's slow worm healing potions while looting the lizardfolk, and use it on a wounded comrade. While the PCs are in the Mangaroo Grove, he transforms into a spawn and gets two of his buddies before they can barricade all three into the basement.Yes, I like this one quite a bit. I am just about to start E@BK too.
Glad to have offered something useful.
Note that if the backstory for Spawn of Kyuss in the basement is changed, some small modifications to Marzena's backstory are also necessary. The guy she replaced either got eaten by the lizardfolk when he went to negotiate, or came back carrying a slow worm, then fled the keep when he transformed. (This latter is probably best--gives DM a chance to drop some vague hints about worms and/or spawn of Kyuss without giving too much away.)
I'll second the notion of having the spawn transformation happen while the PCs are in the swamp.
After my group defeated the besieging lizardfolk, they spent the night in the keep. I purposefully hastened them through and mentioned that they were bunked in the tower. They left early the next morning, before the rest of the guards were aware that the spawn was loose in the basement.
Upon returning from the swamp, they were met outside the keep by the remaining guardsmen. The guards came clean about the history of the spawn ("we didn't know it was still alive! we hoped it would just go away"). The PCs were astounded that these buffoons had kept an undead dude closeted in the basement for two years. They took to calling the place Fort Moron.
So yeah, looking back, creating the spawn while the PCs are in the swamp is a much more believable scenario.