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Next session should finally see my group getting into the doppelganger lair. I went ahead and coerced a player into playing the part of the Ixiaxian, and he's done an awesome job being "creepier" the past sessions as the group pursued some player-initiated tangents in the Free City.
My general question is that I'm looking at Sodden Hold and trying to rationalize Ixiaxian waiting until the mirror room to reveal that he is in fact a doppelganger, obviously by dropping the bomb when the player announces he is attacking another player (or similar).
A few parts where I'm concerned:
- There's the part where the party will get into the hallway with all the rooms that have pairs of doppelgangers potentially inside. Would Ixiaxian actually fight these doppelgangers to the death just to turn on the part in the mirror room? Or perhaps he suggests non-lethal damage as an approach?
- Would he do anything special with regard to the invisible stalkers or the octopus?
Any insight as to what others have seen done here would be great...
I had some of the same concerns when I entered Sodden Hold with my Ixaxian PC.
The trick is to make sure he/she is prepared.
For the Invisible Stalkers, I did what another poster suggested and gave the PC a password ("Deception"). So he worked that into a sentence to say when he entered the room, and he did well by holding back until the others were in the room and had engaged the stalkers.
For the Octopus, he held back once again, and then once the PCs had engaged the Octopus, he jumped out of the water and went for the lever to lower the water. This saved the Octopus and made him look like he was helping the PCs.
For the Dopplegangers, I couldn't think of a way to avoid this problem, so I just removed most of them completely. If you want, you can add some of the to the Hall of mirrors, but I think the module still works without them at all.
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Do not underestimate the lethality of Sodden Hold. It's a bit of a meat grinder and a wolf in sheep's clothing.
The number of TPK's in this location are substantial; near TPKs are even greater.
The invisible stalkers, in particular, ought not to be underestimated.
A stern metagame warning to players before they enter of the lethality may be enough. Whatever the case, don't shrug this off. Your AoW campaign is much better if your players' characters are alive to play it :)