My group has massacred the goblins in the first half of the complex but had to retreat due to heavily depleted resources (got to love those sneak crossbow attacks). They know nothing as yet about Drakthar but they have caused town guards to block the bath house exit whilst they recuperate for a couple of days.
I am not sure what Drakthar will do now. His one Cauldron exit is blocked and so he has lost his main strategic advantage and his chance of becoming a "player" in Cauldron.
At the moment I am thinking that he will dominate the town guards on duty so that he can supposedly be trapped but actually carry on as before. He then needs to eliminate the party when they return (which will necessitate cutting off their upper exit). So he needs to recruit more goblins and maybe channel the returning party deeper into the lower caves.
Of course I also want to avoid a guaranteed TPK!
The other option is to have Drakthar and co relocate elsewhere so the party have closed the smuggling route without uncovering the deeper plot points. However, this would be less fun and remove XP and treasure opportunities for them.
I would be grateful for any thoughts on these or other options.
Maybe he's all victorious and cocky.
"Ha me and my minions were too much for those pathetic adventurers! They had to run away, bet they won't be back. Someone might be back though so I'd better at least get some more goblins."
Perhaps he would also stop the city harrassment acticities as well and lay low for a bit.
maybe in an attempt to buff his forces, he'll turn some of the remaining goblins into vampire spawn. He might also direct the PC's attention towards the blue duke's mercenaries (Chloryn... something, or he might enlist their aid in driving off the PC's. If Drakthar's prepared and has an oppertunity to organise his defences, he has a fairly good chance of defeating the PC's. remember that he's pretty smart, even though he is *just* a bugbear.
The long-term problem, though, is that now the town guard knows the location of his lair, and may send more adventurers after him. I think Drakthar knows this, and probably took it into account before he sent his minions 'topside'. After all, they were meant to attract attention, weren't they?
Either he has a someone on the town guard dominated, or he has an ally that can take care of it for him. Or maybe he's counting on Vhalantru's eagerness to maintain the immage that everything is under control. After all, adventurers (or guardsmen) snooping arround Drakthar's way are bound to find evidence that it was (or still is) used to smuggle something into Cauldron.
Either way, he hasn't lost his stategic advantage yet. But he must act quickly and decisively if he's going to eliminate his one mayor threat: the PC's.
If you choose to have the townguard dominated, you can make them insist on helping the party when they want to go back down. At their first encounter, the guard will turn against the party, which will lead to some confusion and questions about the town guards. (remember the last laugh guards from Life's Bazaar)
Hi!
I had the same retreating situation with my party when we were there. They also blocked the entry with the guards and returned to their homes for a rest. I didnt let them rest. Drakthar came out to the city at night in his gaseous form (but it could have been a bat form as well) and attacked the PCs Drakula style, making noises, summoning swarms and then at the end dragging the paladin out the window. It was big big fun i tell ya :) And ofcourse they (actually two PCs living together, the other two werent there) had no chance to rest. The encounter took until the paladin (who's also a cleric) finally had a chance to turn Drakthar, who returned to his lair immediately.
4)A bunch of guards shouldn't stop the might Drakthar..does he still have the wererats at his disposel? If not, send in a bunch of goblins to take them out, if they can. Drakthar has plenty of goblins available to him as suggested in the book with wandering encounters.
The wererats aren't in the employ of Drakthar - they were hired by Thifirane Rhiavadi to keep an eye on Drakthar.
There are several options available to you at this point, and previous posters have given out great advice. I would have the Cagewrights realize that the jig is up and withdraw their support from Drakthar. Perhaps a cryptic letter from the Blue Duke (obviously not pointing directly to her, but a clue nonetheless) berating Drakthar for disrupting the plan? The adventure concludes with the half-orcs coming in regardless of what the PCs do, so if the half-orcs are slipped /out/ of Drakthar's Way before the PCs encounter them, it might lend a bit of realism to the encounter.
My PCs kept coming across the supplies and stores in the tunnels and realized they were onto something big. Yours may do the same.
Some great ideas, everyone. The game continues tomorrow night so I will have to make up my mind before then. I like the idea of dominated guards coming with the party and then attempting to capture them for Drakthar at a critical moment. (Even warrior 2's might be a bit of a challenge if the party act like good guys and try not to do lethal damage to them).
However, I also like the idea of the big iron door closing and locking behind them with a horrid finality as they descend once more into the dungeon- no way out but onwards and what is waiting for them ahead?!?
To avoid rehashing the same old battleground, I will probably have Drakthar plan for his reinforcements to circle behind the party and shadow them onwards to the ambush deeper in the caves. I think a few reinforcements there and support from Kallev and Chorlyndor should be enough to challenge them a bit even when fresh and newly levelled up to 4th level as they are now. Then the Big D can make an appearance and hopefully scare them a bit. Knowing they have to push on might add a bit of spice to the situation, too. If they realise Drakthar's nature, they could also have the urgency of discovering his coffin before he comes after them again (assuming they have "killed" him).
As for the newly arrived mercenaries, I will play this by ear. If the party are doing well I will run them as written and if not I can reduce their numbers or have them already moved out into Cauldron, as has been suggested, with only clues they have left behind remaining.
Finally, the idea of Drakthar coming after the party in their inn is one I don't want to use yet as it might tip D's hand too soon. However, I will use this if they exit the dungeon again without finding his coffin.
If a TPK results due to D's preparation, then I can have D dominate them instead of destroying them as suggested in the book. (Otherwise I am just not sure how much more deadly the preparation will make this for my players, but this option alleviates some worry on that score).
When my party retreated I sent Drakthar after them that night. Since they were living in Ghelev's Locks he could enter without invitation (after his visit they made sure to emphasis that it was no longer a business but a home).
He caught them totally by surprise since they were unarmoured and had not rested yet. He wailed on them until the town guard turned up and chased him off.
He also hired a drider from an Underdark mercenary company known as Wounded Pride who intercepted them before they entered the caverns again. A rooftop battle ensued above the bath-house with the drider leaping/climbing from roof to roof peppering them with arrows.
Finally when they got back down there all the remaining goblins along with a goblin blue and a goblin tinker using a bazooka, ambushed them. They still won in the end, which was great, but it was no walk over.
The extra preparation combined with Drakthar's harassing attacks meant they really, really, really hated the guy and when they finally got to his coffin they staked him, burned him and then shed his ashes over a nearby river.
Don’t forget Drakthar has effectively unlimited goblins. If the party continues to retreat punish them with the never-ending goblins. Also he still has access to the city via the back entrance of the cave. Or just assume the rocks are pretty porous (makes sense in an extinct volcano) and he can access the city via gaseous form.
I've been running SCAP since the magazine days, so my party didnt participate in this chapter. I think it's great that as a DM you are considering the personality and motives of the NPC's in relation to there tactical actions. I just finished the first part of soul pillars and had the same dilema. How will the NPC respond to the parties actions, or other NPC actions. Because we as the DM have this unlimited vision of the world the PC's live in, it is often easy to assume NPC's will always make the right move, when in fact they should react to the PC's actions based on the motivations and characteristics we/the author set forth.
I saw Ike as a coward, more willing to send his minions to do his dirty work or at least soften the PC's before he reveals himself to deliver ther coup de grace, so I played him as such.
While I'm not familiar with Drakthar's personality, motivations and characteristics, it is nice to see a DM taking these into consideration before deciding on the villins actions.
We played the 2nd session in Drakthars Way yesterday and it was a blast. In the first session the players killed a whole bunch of goblins in the first area and retreated, when Drakthar send bat swarms after them. Some of them retreated into the sleeping rooms of the Goblins and the Paladin in the group went into the Bathhouse, where a bunch of town guards were waiting to prevent any goblins from fleeing that way.
So Drakthar went gaseous and harrassed the Paladin and the guards. Since the Paladin had a magical silver weapon and the town guards opened the doors to let the sun in, Drakthar retreated and decided to check our the other part of the group. He took some damage from them and decided to get reinforcements and set-up an ambush in area 19.
So the group rested and went down again the next day. Quickly they arrived in area 19, but succeeded in hearing some of the goblins up on the ledge. They wanted to climb up there and all hell broke loose. We played the fight for three hours, before we had to quit. And I pulled no punches. Drakthar got all mercenaries for the fight, plus additional goblins as reinforcements. I used all kinds of nifty maneuvering to unsettle the group. Drakthar turned gaseous, dropped behind them. When he got damaged he retreated running up along the wall and ceiling, just to heal and come back. The mercs used missile fire and the goblin adepts fired scorching rays. When we stopped a handful of goblin sneaks and an adept had fled. The half-orcs are down, Xoden is dead and the sorcerer badly wounded. Kallev is still up together with two goblins a wolf and of course Drakthar. I am considering using darkness from Kallev and summoning bat swarms again to cover another retreat. The group also wants to get out, because one of them is down and they are running out of heal spells and potions.
So I am wondering, what Drakthar should do then. His hideout is no longer safe. He should be able to figure out, that the PCs will most likely keep coming back. Would it make sense to relocate to another place in Cauldron? Any suggestions from you guys?
Thanks for the good discussion here friends. My group should hit "The Way" tonight for the first time. Some good contingency ideas.
The graffiti has proven to be very good as a hook. I have two prison guards (real life), a teacher, and an ex-marine in my group. Their characters love the "frontier-town" atmosphere of Cauldron and I've built that up somewhat above what's presented in the module.
Their real life persons, however, just can't resist the need to clean it up and make it a proper law and order town. Which is very funny to me since that is pretty much impossible with all the evil plans that are being directed at this location.
An example....they got out of the slaver's meeting without fighting, even though they were itching to do exactly that. This left the result that they rescued the children, but didn't stop the slaving ring.
So they will reappear at some point again since people are still being kidnapped. The Kidnappers have simply decided not to kidnap children again...not because of the party, but because of Orbius. ;) This gives me a future side adventure when I need one.
When the PCs retreated from Drakthar in my campaign, they informed the guard that there were goblins in a cave system below the bathhouse, and a small contingent of guards were sent down to watch. Drakthar, with his energy drain that destroys lvl 1 npcs pretty easily, defeated them , killing wuite a few and sent the rest of them running to the surface by morning. I used it because i didnt want the pcs to think that they could rely on the guard to solve "heroic" problems and to show them that Drakthar was a scary mofo.
We are came near the end of this adventure just this night. When the PCs retreated to the dwarf shrine to heal, D showed up and dominated the paladin of the silver flame with out the other PCs knowledge. After questioning the paladin (read zealot) D commanded the paladin to kill his friends. After dropping one of the other PCs the paladin broke the Domination and they immediatly went looking for D to extract revenge.
In area 19 the goblins ambushed the Pcs and D showed up again. The healer nearly destroyed D with a cure moderate wounds spell bring an end to the encounter. Now the pcs absolutly must rest, all thier resources are gone and D will no doubt let them rest easy.
The PCs may go foward if I allow Cure wounds potions to be used as thrown weapons (a la alchemists fire). Im sure thats strecthing the rules but its a fine idea (One player keeps informing me that the rules are simply guidelnes. But he is a power gamer so his opinions dont count) :)