It will be the 5th day and they are not yet in the Malachite Fortress, they cleared nearly all Jzadirune but because they lost 2 characters to the dark ones they think that the way down is in their rooms...they never found the secret passage in the staircase!!!!!
They where attacked in the home of Keygan (they use the home as a camp) this night because the dark ones went down and told the hobgobelins about people searching here and there.
The 6 hobgobs nearly killed the group, the chief retreated alone, I think that they can now find the way by clever questioning or intimidation.
I give them 2 more days before the child is brought back by Val.
IMC, news of what the PCs were doing reached the Stormblades and they came in after the PCs were done for the day and finished the fortress, taking Kajomen's phat loot (after rolling Search checks for each NPC; they didn't find the spindels that were in the constructs). For some silly reason, the PCs really hate the Stormblades. ;)
My PCs hit Malachite hold on day 1!
The Elf and her lucky secret door search rolls lead the party straight to the elevator. So the group of level one heroes take out the Stone Spike in one round and the Ogre in about 4 (2 near deaths). 3 of 5 characters leveled and the PCs decided to rest before they fought any more ogres. (They think the "Tall Ones" Ghelve was telling them about are ogres).
Hi All,
I was wondering how long it has taken for your players to return the kidnapped children back to the orphanage?
And what penalties, if any, have you applied for taking to long?
Howdy! It took my group over a week's worth of game time to get down to the children; actually closer to two, I think. I didn't penalize my players because I didn't feel they did anything wrong. They didn't dawdle, they just happened to explore Jzadirune in a way that the elevator room was about the last thing they found. Along the way, some crappy dice rolling hurt them, causing them to need to rest often. We were all having fun, so I saw no need to mete out any "punishment".
While it may not be realistic to have an open-ended time frame, I don't think any of us would be having nearly as much fun if I was pressuring the group to find the children, finish the mission while they were struggling through Jzadirune.