...I just figured out an ingenius plan as to how to do THAT thing in. ...
Heathansson, actually the credit goes to James Jacobs (I think). In my original submitted ending, the creature was free. My guess is that James thought that was too challenging for weary PCs returning from a fairly fast paced adventure. And I like this better than my way. We'll have to compare notes later, because I think I do know what ingenious plan you have in mind.
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Also, the adventure also got me to think about a couple of memorable NPCs who might just leave the town with the adventures ... a couple dependant on which way the PCs went when it came to hard decisions.
Thanks Saurstalk! And take a look at my next post which may give you another possible conclusion to the adventure.
Just got my issue today. (Yes, many of you have read it before the authors.) I am super pleased with the end result. Thanks again James!
I thought I'd take this opportunity to mention some trimmed items and changes that you all might make use of if you are so inclined.
1) The "Inheritance" Adventure Hook:
A magic ring enchanted to warn Captain Haven of its theft is taken from the treasure bunker to Haven-Fara by an unsuspecting aranea named Aspinae. The ring instead contacts the closest living descendent of Haven’s line – one of the PCs. This PC has recurring, disturbing dreams and wakes with an overwhelming feeling that something precious to him is being stolen. The magic first leads the PC to the web-covered Haven-Fara, and then to the spiders’ lair where the ring is found on the finger of a dead gray spider. The PC later discovers a family tree (in The Good Fortune) leading from Captain Haven down to an ancestor the PC recognizes. If cards are played right, The Good Fortune pub could rightfully be in the PCs hands by the adventure’s end. This “Inheritance” hook can also be used to introduce a new PC should an original adventurer perish.
I like this hook as a campaign starter where you imagine the PCs ending up with Haven-Fara as a new home or hideaway.
2) The Crazed Scholar (Area C): I had intended Dr. Gryll to be a bit less kooky, and imagined the players choosing to bring along Jess Furrier (brawn) or Dr. Gryll (brains), but not both. I can't imagine that at least one of them wouldn't stay with the frightened Patience. If you feel the way I do, forego Gryll giving misguided advice, play up his high Knowledge (nature), and give the PCs a +2 to their Heal checks if Gryll assists in the surgery in Area 5.
3) West Room (Area 3c): Paizo added that a DC 13 Knowledge (arcana) check identifies the dead spiders as aranea. I don't like this idea for two reasons. First, the idea that the adventure's twist can be revealed with a simple skill check seems a bit cheap and anticlimactic. I'd much rather see the player's faces as they puzzle it out and it dawns on them than have the DM explain to them what an aranea is and does. Second, the DC seems unreasonably low. I don't think an average 1st lvl wizard should have a 50% chance of identifying a rare magical species whose racial success is largely based on their shape changing ability. If you like the check, I'd make it something like DC 17 or higher. If you don't like the check, consider providing other clues instead. Maybe the dead spider's brains are leaking out its back (subtle) OR one of the dead aranea in Area 3d is in hybrid form (not so subtle).
Creative Director
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3) West Room (Area 3c): Paizo added that a DC 13 Knowledge (arcana) check identifies the dead spiders as aranea. I don't like this idea for two reasons. First, the idea that the adventure's twist can be revealed with a simple skill check seems a bit cheap and anticlimactic. I'd much rather see the player's faces as they puzzle it out and it dawns on them than have the DM explain to them what an aranea is and does. Second, the DC seems unreasonably low. I don't think an average 1st lvl wizard should have a 50% chance of identifying a rare magical species whose racial success is largely based on their shape changing ability. If you like the check, I'd make it something like DC 17 or higher. If you don't like the check, consider providing other clues instead. Maybe the dead spider's brains are leaking out its back (subtle) OR one of the dead aranea in Area 3d is in hybrid form (not so subtle).
Unfortunately... the way D&D's knowledge skills are set up, it's fairly easy to identify a dead aranea for what it is; a DC 10 + HD of the creature check is basically what it takes for a Knowledge check to figure a creature out. Of coruse, this system's far from perfect; it tends to make super legendary High Hit Die monsters (like the tarrasque) nearly impossible to identify, despite the fact that everyone should know what it is. And it creates situations like the one in this adventure.
Now that said, I don't think that making a DC 13 Knowledge check to identify a dead aranea cheapens the adventure. By the time the PCs reach the first dead aranea, they're already in the thick of the adventure, and it's cool, I think, to award a PC who put ranks into Knowledge (arcana) with the knowledge this way; makes that player feel like he spent his points on something worthwhile. And araneas have been a part of the game for a LONG time... since Isle of Dread came out several decades ago. Araneas are among D&D's oldest monsters; like dopplegangers and mimics, it's hard to keep them secret from seasoned players.
In any event, if you'd rather have the PCs figure out the aranea angle on their own, I'd recomend omitting the Knowledge check alltogether (although this sets up a bad precident of Knowledge skills not being as useful as they Core Rules implies...). And remember, even if the PCs identify the aranea body... they won't immediately know for sure if the aranea are the adventure's good guys or bad guys, so that facet is preserved no matter what.
possible spoilers
I read the adventure just this morning (its about 3 p.m. here now), and can only repeat what others already wrote: The various possibilities to play the adventure depending upon the PCs alignments and actions (are they just burning down the web and doom most villagers, or are they more thoughtful ?) How do they react to the monsters ? Hack´n´slashers will surely miss out much on this, it is written for thinking players. And the use of the spiders´ webs is outright creepy. The descriptions only add to the creepy atmosphere. Hell, I could even imagine a horror movie based on this story line - like the idea to use it with Call of Cthulhu. Imagine the opening scene in which the main character comes to the village to collect his inheritance, and finds the village enshrouded in spiders webs with dog-sized spiders running about the webs...
I like it very much !
And if the PCs hack their way through the adventure, they might gain powerful enemies in any surviving araneas, which might lead to interesting campaign ideas later on.
Stefan
Just a quick update, we didn't make it to the hook point this week. So in two weeks I will be running it and will update.
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Kudos to you, we ran this as on Sunday and we all had a great time. Only one death and that because he was doing something dumb (wizard running into a hack and slash fight with 1 HP). You should have herd them complain about crawling down that tunnel. It was the stuff of night terrors for a player who is deathly afraid of spiders and she could not get enough. Keep up the great work and I hope to see more of you in the pages in the future.
Kudos to you, we ran this as on Sunday and we all had a great time. Only one death and that because he was doing something dumb (wizard running into a hack and slash fight with 1 HP). You should have herd them complain about crawling down that tunnel. It was the stuff of night terrors for a player who is deathly afraid of spiders and she could not get enough. Keep up the great work and I hope to see more of you in the pages in the future.
Glad you guys had fun BigBubba! Man, I wanna play with you guys; there's no way my plodding group could finish in a day.
Man, I wanna play with you guys; there's no way my plodding group could finish in a day.
Not even if you were zonked on Mountain Dew : Code Red and had all the chocolate donuts and beef jerky and purple Bubblicious bubble gum you could eat?
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You should have herd them complain about crawling down that tunnel. It was the stuff of night terrors for a player who is deathly afraid of spiders and she could not get enough.
I knew that tunnel would be freaky to characters. All catching spider webs in their hair, equipment, in their boots. Awesome.
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3) West Room (Area 3c): Paizo added that a DC 13 Knowledge (arcana) check identifies the dead spiders as aranea. I don't like this idea for two reasons. First, the idea that the adventure's twist can be revealed with a simple skill check seems a bit cheap and anticlimactic. I'd much rather see the player's faces as they puzzle it out and it dawns on them than have the DM explain to them what an aranea is and does. Second, the DC seems unreasonably low. I don't think an average 1st lvl wizard should have a 50% chance of identifying a rare magical species whose racial success is largely based on their shape changing ability.
Unfortunately, by the RAW, the Knowledge DC is hard to get out of. (Even if, as James points out, it leads to goofy situations like not being able to tell what this Colossal red dragon in front of you is, because it requires a DC 36 Knowledge check! "Hmm... a gigantic winged reptilian creature that breathes fire... nope, it's not coming to me.") However, depending on what you think an aranea's natural form looks like, maybe a Spot vs. Disguise check would be appropriate first.
I haven't read the adventure, so forgive me if this is addressed there, but if you go with this description of an aranea's natural form:
...resembles a big spider, with a humpbacked body a little bigger than a human torso. It has fanged mandibles like a normal spider. Two small arms, each about 2 feet long, lie below the mandibles. Each arm has a hand with four many-jointed fingers and a double-jointed thumb.
That should be pretty obvious with just the successful Knowledge check. However, the SRD also says that:
An aranea’s natural form is that of a Medium monstrous spider.
If its natural form is very close to that of a "normal" monstrous spider, then maybe a PC should make a Spot check to notice something unusual before the Knowledge check comes into play. It would be opposed by the aranea's Disguise, with an open question being whether a dead creature can even make a Disguise check. If you assume it can, and that it takes 10 since it's not active, the Spot check is vs. DC 22 (10 (take 10) + 10 (change shape) +2 (Cha)). Maybe not quite RAW, but it makes the revelation a bit harder to come by just with skill checks.
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Man, I wanna play with you guys; there's no way my plodding group could finish in a day.Not even if you were zonked on Mountain Dew : Code Red and had all the chocolate donuts and beef jerky and purple Bubblicious bubble gum you could eat?
Wel it was a long day we started at 800am and we ended about 130ish this morning long day of fun. But I am hurting today at work sitting at my desk :(
I read through this adventure in bed the other day and thought it was really well put together. I like the moral ambiguity of the adventure and it's characters, if used as an introductary adventure for first timers a DM could really hit home the roleplaying aspects of the game thanks to the situations conjured within, making the PC's think about their choices and the effects they will have, great stuff. I look forward to seeing more of your writing in Dungeon. :)
...and I intent to use this adventure soon. :)
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Wel it was a long day we started at 800am and we ended about 130ish this morning long day of fun. But I am hurting today at work sitting at my desk :(Man, I wanna play with you guys; there's no way my plodding group could finish in a day.Not even if you were zonked on Mountain Dew : Code Red and had all the chocolate donuts and beef jerky and purple Bubblicious bubble gum you could eat?
You guys are downright dedicated.
Just curious:What was the party composition like?
What was the encounter that dusted the wizard?
How did they fare against the full-health spider eater in town?
I read through this adventure in bed the other day and thought it was really well put together. I like the moral ambiguity of the adventure and it's characters, if used as an introductary adventure for first timers a DM could really hit home the roleplaying aspects of the game thanks to the situations conjured within, making the PC's think about their choices and the effects they will have, great stuff. I look forward to seeing more of your writing in Dungeon. :)
Thanks R-type! I'm sure that you and all the other posters have played and read more adventures than I have, so it's very gratifying to get kudos from you.
Let me know how your party fares and if they enjoy it. There's no substitute for that kind of feedback.
With a little luck and a dash of encouragement from James Jacobs, "Siege of the Spider Eaters" has become my first adventure published in Dungeon.
As I eagerly await my subscription copy, I can only hope that others will enjoy playing it as much as I enjoyed writing it. There's a lot of talent that consistently shines in this magazine, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for near par.
To DMs and players alike, please share your thoughts on "Siege of the Spider Eaters". I'm hungry for feedback good or bad. But no spoilers please.
*A few spoilers*
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It's not bad, the only suggestion I have off the top of my head is that if your going to put a smoking hot spider-babe in it, use her and her looks to her advantage!!! Ariana (can't remember if that's her name) isn't stupid and instead of being a wall flower she should have used what she had in order to protect the children and Spider Queen. Imagine the fun having the players fall over this hottie only to find out she isn't quite human after she gives them a kiss or maybe more for saving her people hehe.
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It's not bad, the only suggestion I have off the top of my head is that if your going to put a smoking hot spider-babe in it, use her and her looks to her advantage!!!
Hey Lord Vile.
Though I did mention Arianne is comely in the story, I never really cared what she looked like (and am certainly not talented enough to come up with the cover art). Whether or not she is a spider-babe hottie, I thought more about her personality and situation. I imagined a young adult whose world has totally and irrevocably fallen apart. A woman alone and shouldering great new responsibilities in a time of crisis... an innocent who's suddenly thrown headlong into the most important matriarchal role of her kind.
You're probably thinking my description of her personality doesn't fit with the picture on the cover. I'd agree with that. The picture on the cover is amazing, but it makes her seem mature, sexy, and haughty. I think the picture of her in the "Next Month in Dungeon" column of the previous issue (#136) more closely matches the personality I envisioned.
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It's not bad, the only suggestion I have off the top of my head is that if your going to put a smoking hot spider-babe in it, use her and her looks to her advantage!!!Hey Lord Vile.
Though I did mention Arianne is comely in the story, I never really cared what she looked like (and am certainly not talented enough to come up with the cover art). Whether or not she is a spider-babe hottie, I thought more about her personality and situation. I imagined a young adult whose world has totally and irrevocably fallen apart. A woman alone and shouldering great new responsibilities in a time of crisis... an innocent who's suddenly thrown headlong into the most important matriarchal role of her kind.
You're probably thinking my description of her personality doesn't fit with the picture on the cover. I'd agree with that. The picture on the cover is amazing, but it makes her seem mature, sexy, and haughty. I think the picture of her in the "Next Month in Dungeon" column of the previous issue (#136) more closely matches the personality I envisioned.
I understand, but since I'm not a spell weaver with an 1,000 mile radius telepathy I'm not sure how exactly you wanted this character portrayed. All were given is the edited version in the magazine and a Maxim type cover.
It's a good effort and I like the spider-people twist. Perhaps in future installments you could have Ariana have fallen for one of her people's savior's leading to further troubles for the town, I'm sure the local nobility wont like the idea of spider-people in his backyard. Don't know about you but if a bombshell like that was pursuing me I'd be might tempted, half-spider or not.
I understand, but since I'm not a spell weaver with an 1,000 mile radius telepathy I'm not sure how exactly you wanted this character portrayed. All were given is the edited version in the magazine and a Maxim type cover.
lol. I know you're not a telepath. As an amateur writer, I find that it's easy to forget that sometimes. Especially when you've got pictures-worth-a-1000-words and word count to consider. I'm sure that if you run the adventure, you'll choose to play the NPCs however you think will be most fun to your players. And to me, that's really what it's all about.
Where are spider eaters mentioned? In what book.
I have no idea what they look like. I dont remember seeing a picture in the issue.
The spider eaters are in the Monster Manual I for 3.5e.
really?
weirdI have overlooked them apperently. guess i'll go grab mine and look!
lol
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Creative Director
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Where are spider eaters mentioned? In what book.
I have no idea what they look like. I dont remember seeing a picture in the issue.
Yup; they're in the Monster Manual. And one is indeed illustrated in the issue, even; it's the big wasp/bat thing attacking the iconic ranger in the store near the adventure's end.
I love this adventure!
I. Love. This. Adventure.
Unfortunately, two of my players are deathly afraid of spiders. *sigh* Running this with them would be torture, and as one of those players is my girlfriend, I'm thinking it won't be the best idea.
Good job!
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I love this adventure!
I. Love. This. Adventure.
Unfortunately, two of my players are deathly afraid of spiders. *sigh* Running this with them would be torture, and as one of those players is my girlfriend, I'm thinking it won't be the best idea.
Good job!
And???
Actually that bugs the heck out of me. So many players that act all jaded and blase about monsters--"wow. Cthulhu. Whatever, I'm shakin in my boots." And then there's somebody who might actually be scared of the dang things, and YOU CAN'T USE IT!Okay, now I'm officially bummed.
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Creative Director
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I love this adventure!
I. Love. This. Adventure.
Unfortunately, two of my players are deathly afraid of spiders. *sigh* Running this with them would be torture, and as one of those players is my girlfriend, I'm thinking it won't be the best idea.
Good job!
Well, once you run them through this one, you can run "The Weavers" in issue #138 so they'll have a chance to come down from the arachnophobia...
Well, once you run them through this one, you can run "The Weavers" in issue #138 so they'll have a chance to come down from the arachnophobia...
*L* I could, but I think I would be single shortly thereafter. The Kopru Ruins? Yeah...I could barely run those four rooms because "they" were in there.
I believe the phrase, "Honey, it's not a /spider/, it's an aberration..." was used several times.
I love this adventure!
I. Love. This. Adventure.
Unfortunately, two of my players are deathly afraid of spiders. *sigh* Running this with them would be torture, and as one of those players is my girlfriend, I'm thinking it won't be the best idea.
Good job!
Glad you like it Gwydion! And it is a shame you may not play it. Getting the players frightened of a creature is often one of the most difficult things to pull off as a DM, and given that spiders are real and you've got players with a natural aversion, well...now you've got something that's hard to pass up!
If you do decide to play it, consider some stronger adventure hooks. Truly frightened 1st level PCs aren't going to be hard pressed to walk away when faced with the gaping funnel-web mouth of the spider nest. You might have to make it personal. Or use the alternate hook I wrote earlier in this thread. If you have any influence on the PCs history and interests, perhaps this whole adventure could be a "treasure hunt" - a fulfillment of their life long dream to claim Haven's treasure, the only way to escape murderous creditors, their one chance to elevate their own station, or all of the above.
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Wel it was a long day we started at 800am and we ended about 130ish this morning long day of fun. But I am hurting today at work sitting at my desk :(Man, I wanna play with you guys; there's no way my plodding group could finish in a day.Not even if you were zonked on Mountain Dew : Code Red and had all the chocolate donuts and beef jerky and purple Bubblicious bubble gum you could eat?You guys are downright dedicated.
Just curious:
What was the party composition like?
What was the encounter that dusted the wizard?
How did they fare against the full-health spider eater in town?
Sorry took a bit
5 players1 Human fighter 1
1 Half Orc Barbarian 2
1 Gnome rouge 2
1 Human Wizard 1
1 Human Cleric of Pelor 1
I put an ambush by the Tavern Keepers (sorry forgot the name) Goons on the way back to the city because they were a little cocky and the wizard was the one targeted by dice rolls and got hit with 2 crossbows. She would have lived if she stayed out of the fight but the Fighter who was hurt was in danger of being killed by Goon 2 and she ran up to hit him with quarterstaff and got stuck by a critical that dropped her in her tracks.
I ended up running the battle with a spider eater as the proverbial running gun battle through the city. The players really liked that and it was a blast to run and in the end everyone was hurt really bad and the cleric was the only one on his feet. After pulling the rest of the party into a random house they holed up for the night and healed up the next day. We had a very memorable end to the adventure and this week we got started late because they were still talking about it. Great job again TC to keep these bums talking about a battle for a week was hard. As one of them put it at least it was not one of those D$%& Acid beetle swarms
I ended up running the battle with a spider eater as the proverbial running gun battle through the city. The players really liked that and it was a blast to run and in the end everyone was hurt really bad and the cleric was the only one on his feet. After pulling the rest of the party into a random house they holed up for the night and healed up the next day. We had a very memorable end to the adventure and this week we got started late because they were still talking about it. Great job again TC to keep these bums talking about a battle for a week was hard. As one of them put it at least it was not one of those D$%& Acid beetle swarms
My apologies to your wizard player BigBubba :)
None of the PCs in my test party died, but one did get paralyzed for weeks by a spider eater stinger. Those things are just nasty!
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I ended up running the battle with a spider eater as the proverbial running gun battle through the city. The players really liked that and it was a blast to run and in the end everyone was hurt really bad and the cleric was the only one on his feet. After pulling the rest of the party into a random house they holed up for the night and healed up the next day. We had a very memorable end to the adventure and this week we got started late because they were still talking about it. Great job again TC to keep these bums talking about a battle for a week was hard. As one of them put it at least it was not one of those D$%& Acid beetle swarms
My apologies to your wizard player BigBubba :)
None of the PCs in my test party died, but one did get paralyzed for weeks by a spider eater stinger. Those things are just nasty!
Thats OK TC we ran this one as a one shot with some characthers i dug out of the Bag of Holding that I keep handy because 1 of our AOW players was not able to be there (His wife had the baby and we all decided that was a good reason to miss the game that week. I had just recieved the Mag on Thursday and liked it but thought I would not get a chance to run it for a few months but oppertunity knocked and we opened the door and ran. Thanks again for the great adventure and I will be lookng for you in the future to grace the pages again. Hint Hint ooh great publishing Gods in the far away land of the west coast from us midwest soybean feild flats of Illinois.
I mentioned this already on the other thread but let's put it here in topic...
I found parts of Spider Eater adventure to be a bit confusing...like amount of monsters in the rooms, which were now hidden within the text (trying to avoid "oh, yes, there were three skeletons in the room too, and they attack you").
Or actually moving from place to place...if the characters don't find the map (and/or if they have issues about stealing stuff), how are they supposed to find that nest in the first place? It's deadly to motivation (especially if we are talking about 1st level characters here) to just go "some villagers have disappeared, possibly to that large thick forest...we have no clues, really".
...The text refers to the cavern areas (4) of the spider lair as 40' x 30' but the maps indicate rooms as roughly 20' x 20' in size. Am I misreading something or is there an error with the map? If there is a discrepancy, are there any other discrepancies between the text and the map?
Yes dyauger, you are right. I looked back at the original map I submitted for this adventure and its scale was 1 square = 10 feet. The published map says 1 square = 5 feet. But it appears that certain areas were stretched, others were not, and some just seem off. In general, you should go by the text, not the map. To correct the published map, this is ugly, but here's my suggestions for each area:
Top-down view:
The map's scale should be 1 square = 10'. This should match the text for all areas with the exception of Area 9 whose scale should infact be 1 square = 5'.
Side view:
Given the 1 square = 5' scale, Areas 2, 3, 4a-d, 7 - 12 are correct. For areas 1, 4e, 5, and 6, you should go by the text rather than the map.
I have my original map which I'd be happy to share via email (if that's ok with James). It matches the published text.
I found parts of Spider Eater adventure to be a bit confusing...like amount of monsters in the rooms, which were now hidden within the text (trying to avoid "oh, yes, there were three skeletons in the room too, and they attack you").
Sorry if you were confused. While the skeletons in Areas 8 (North Door) and 9 are hidden, and rightfully should not appear in the read-aloud text, I'm not sure why the skeletons in plain view in Area 10 were cut from my read-aloud description.
Or actually moving from place to place...if the characters don't find the map (and/or if they have issues about stealing stuff), how are they supposed to find that nest in the first place?
The last paragraph of Area A describes how the PCs can find the nest.
It's deadly to motivation (especially if we are talking about 1st level characters here) to just go "some villagers have disappeared, possibly to that large thick forest...we have no clues, really".
Take a look earlier on this thread to see if you like any of the other adventure hooks I mentioned. They may be more compelling to players who are running less adventurous adventurers.
Congrats my man!
Now get that proposal up on Critique my Query!
Yup; they're in the Monster Manual. And one is indeed illustrated in the issue, even; it's the big wasp/bat thing attacking the iconic ranger in the store near the adventure's end.Where are spider eaters mentioned? In what book.
I have no idea what they look like. I dont remember seeing a picture in the issue.
yeah i found that out after i saw what it looked like in the MM. The picture it is in was very dark and I didnt know what I was looking for.
This adventure workes well with the campaign I am planning. It is set in the forgotten realms and I have been scratching my head the best way of getting the party to 5th level so I can run Red Hand of Doom.
Enter spider eaters..I am setting it Southwest of Baldurs Gate at the northern edge of The cloakwood,which if we go by Biowares Baldurs Gate--(sorry Eric Boyd but I count it as canon), the forest contained a plethora of spiders.
So the party will start out in Waterdeep (so the players can get those cosmopolitan and merchantile background feats)and sail down the coast, do the spider eatters and 2 other adventures..and then get gated down to Misty Vale.
The last paragraph of Area A describes how the PCs can find the nest.
Ah, thanks, I must have missed that part when I was first reading through the adventure.
To me it looks like it will split nicely into two 4-6 hour sessions, roleplay dependant of course. I was having too much fun roleplaying Doc, Cap and Keel so we just made it to the "hole" at the end of our 5 hour session.
The dungeon portion looks to take an equal amount of time.
We are 2/3rds done with this adventure. It's going fairly well, some good roleplay opportunities. I have a few gripes about map problems (no secret door marked on the map... worse yet, it's unmarked and looks like an open corridor, scale wrong on the vertical) but everything else seems pretty clear to me.
There were some exciting moments, like when they decided to burn out some webbing in one room, not realizing that it might be attached to other places. They still haven't quite finished with the caverns but next session we should be totally wrapping up. They have figured out a lot of what is going on, and seem to be having a good time with it. Final report in two weeks when we finish up.
As an amateur writer, I find that it's easy to forget that sometimes.
You are, by definition, no longer an amateur writer. Tut-tut, we'll have no more of that.
I want to be a 1/2 Orkin barbarian.
Very nice, as always.
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To me it looks like it will split nicely into two 4-6 hour sessions, roleplay dependant of course. I was having too much fun roleplaying Doc, Cap and Keel so we just made it to the "hole" at the end of our 5 hour session.
The dungeon portion looks to take an equal amount of time.
I should've clipped it down a bit or added another session in, I had to uber-rush the last 2hrs of the 2nd session to fit it in. The roleplaying of the npcs was just great. Jess and Patience, kooky spider-lover scientist, the town counsil, the Machys (the group captured one and forced info from them that would've made the Cap wanna kill him, so he decided to gather up his kin and leave town, discovering the recently flamed mother in the process. I think I almost actually made myself tear-up in the acting out of the Machy boys reaction to this discovery.) Good adventure. I ran it for a group of 4-2nd level characters and it was great. I did change up the unopened treasure areas to add a bit more challenge (changed four of the ship figureheads into animated objects of different sizes) and added a room or 3.
Good roleplay experience, thanks Mr. ConnersFH