So, as you may have seen from my recent obituary, the entire party has fallen in the temple of Hextor.
However, the party wants to continue the AoW campaign, so I'm trying to determine the best way to continue the plot.
What I need to figure out before this Saturday (I know, I should have asked before now) is a) If I want to even try continuing the 3FoE adventure, b) If I do, do I need to adjust the strength of the monsters, c) How to correctly play the opposing forces.
Issues with the previous set of PCs:
Lack of melee fighters - We had a barbarian and a rogue which prefered ranged combat. We also had two gnomes, one of which could only score 1 pt of damage in melee (Str of 7).
Tendency to burn spells instead of potions - Because the cleric was always converting spells to cures, he wasn't able to buff the party adequetly.
New party:
(I've permitted them to generate 4th level characters instead of 3rd level characters - I'm aiming for survivability here).
Human Paladin 4 w/ Cure Light Wounds wand
Dwarf Fighter 4
Human Rogue 1/Wizard 3
Spirit Shaman 4
This time we have better offense, and the lack of a "real" cleric should be offset by the wand of CLW with the Paladin.
Plot setup idea:
Allustan knows about the worm found in the mine. My plan is that he is concerned when the original party fails to resurface from Dourstone, so he contacts Melinde at the Garrison. Melinde isn't about to let petty issues of property rights to prevent her from uncovering an evil cult, so she assembles a strike force. Here she gets in touch with the Paladin PC, and the rest of his party (which is a roving band of do-gooders).
My plan is to have Melinde and a band of 6 1st-level Warriors from the garrison escort the party. This way we can see how well the Paladin manages the care of his strike force.
I will have to decrease the XP for the party, but what I will probably do is award bonuses for each garrison member who survives the excursion. My basic idea here is to try to rush through 3FoE so I can get on with AoW...
First Problem: How to get the entire army into the cultists area - My only guess would be to have Allustan cast Mass Invisibility to help them get into the mines.
Second Problem: I'm going to assume that this is a week after the previous raid - this will permit Theldrick to re-organize his defenses.
The casualties Theldrick has suffered:
All of the skeletons
All but 1 of the cultists
3 of the Tiefling fighters
Beast
What I figure is that the loot from the original party will have been ID'ed by the Faceless One and his acolytes and distributed where appropriate - this will raise the deadliness of a number of the encounters as now there is a +1 chain mail, a +1 axe and a +1 short sword around there, not to mention a whole lot of potions (cause the old party never used them).
In addition, Theldrick will animate Beast as a zombie or skeleton if he's able to, as well as the cultists, fighters and the dead PCs. That should piss off the players suitably for them to kick some a$$.
Finally the NPC sister of one of the PCs (she's a bit of an amoral survivor) has slowly been getting her sanity eaten away by the Faceless One's allip.
So, any ideas or other improvements?
The wand of CLW is the key. Put a gun to the rogue/wiz's head and make him take some ranks in UMD. Then get another wand, or take Theldrick's. My PC's crafted their own just prior to going down there, and used it all up. But they only had two deaths in the whole 3FoE, one of which was a near-miracle.
Your problem is going to be that the whole complex will be on high alert now. Theldrick might move his forces in with the FO for the duration.
I wouldn't worry about Mass Invis to get in the mines - just have the garrison march in and quarantine it. Play up Dourstone's protests, but he'll be busy trying to figure a way to beat the rap. Have the garrison leader set a 3-day timeframe before they 'nuke it from orbit' - that'll ratchet up the pressure a bit.
The wand of CLW is the key. Put a gun to the rogue/wiz's head and make him take some ranks in UMD. Then get another wand, or take Theldrick's. My PC's crafted their own just prior to going down there, and used it all up. But they only had two deaths in the whole 3FoE, one of which was a near-miracle.
Your problem is going to be that the whole complex will be on high alert now. Theldrick might move his forces in with the FO for the duration.
I wouldn't worry about Mass Invis to get in the mines - just have the garrison march in and quarantine it. Play up Dourstone's protests, but he'll be busy trying to figure a way to beat the rap. Have the garrison leader set a 3-day timeframe before they 'nuke it from orbit' - that'll ratchet up the pressure a bit.
Fortunately, the spirit shaman is also buying a wand of lesser vigour - which is a slow regen effect - so healing shouldn't be a problem unless they are stupid.
You mentioned that the complex is going to be on high alert - any ideas what that would look like?
Since Grimlocks are xenophobic, I can't see Gralak or his crew changing their patterns much.
My take on Theldrick is 1) He's a proud S.O.B., and 2) He doesn't like the F.O. - So I can't see him running to the F.O.'s maze cause he lost some pawns.
So, here is what I think is going to happen:
1) The dead PCs will be animated as zombies and placed in the entry room. When a character appears not bearing a holy symbol of Hextor, Vecna, or Erythnul(sp?), the zombies animate and attack. The surviving fighter will also be stationed there, and will go to the FOs section to return with one of the bands of Kenku's.
2) Beast will be re-animated, as well as the dead cultists and fighters and placed in the skeleton room - They will rise and attack intruders - One zombie/skeleton will move toward the temple - this will warn the priests of intruders.
This way the party will be trying to fight off the priests, and then get a squad of kenku's from behind.
Hopefully, the party, with Melinde and the garrison squad as re-enforcement - will be able to manage - I should probably calc the EL for this...
My group of players wiped out the Hextor Temple in one strike (a five hour long battle in real life!), but just got taken down by the Faceless One.
These Temple fights are tough! Even I thought that taking on an Allip, four wizards, a sixth level wizard with a penchant for summoning and the survivng Kenku was asking too much of the party. They had Melinde with them, but still the cleric was instantly killed by a lightning bolt, the wizard got knocked out by a fiendish ape, Melinde was reduced to 0 wisdom by the allip (who she couldn't land a hit on), and the rogue and the ranger were both stunned by a color spray and knocked out before they could get back into the fight.
Thankfully, I had the Faceless One take the four survivors prisoner (for live sacrifice purposes), so they can make a daring escape, but my players are also disgruntled about the difficulty of the battles. I'm looking forward to Blackwall Keep, since it seems like its a good chance to hack up some weaker opponents.
I agree, these fights are killers (especially with a party that tends to expect that their combatants don't have any tricks up their sleeves).
Maybe I'll have to see about the kenku's after all... I think it will have to depend on how the party is doing against the priests.