... 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. ... Final report in two weeks when we finish up.
Glad you are enjoying it Festivus! My test run PC group had a little trouble with fire too. In the unpublished version, the lake below the hydra had a rat swarm in it. One of my test group PCs decided to throw some molotov cocktails down from above in order to set the vermin alight. Then as the hydra stirred, the unfortunate PCs, one by one, missed saves and tumbled into the water. They had a tough time deciding which they wanted less - to go under and drown or come up and be burned.
Please write back and let me know how it ended for your group.
Good roleplay experience, thanks Mr. Conners
FH
Thanks Fake Healer! And thanks for sharing that it worked well for 2nd level PCs.
It seems that for everyone who's read/played Siege of the Spider Eaters, the most enjoyable elements have been the roleplaying, the twist, and the gray moral line. I'm going to target these in upcoming adventure submissions to the mag.
(I've only read the first 50 posts on this thread, but I need to go on and post, I think...)
Background:
There's a very D&D-esque computer game by Spiderweb Software called Exile and later revamped and renamed Avernum. One of the lower-level adventures you play thru is a colony of intelligent monstrous spiders who have had their eggs stolen by an Aranea team. (In Avernum, the Aranea are Bad Guys...) They promise the party access to their "treasury" if they'll rescue the eggs. The Aranea have taken over what appears to be the ruins of an old temple or somesuch and the place is wrapped up in nonintelligent monstrous spiders as guard-dogs. By the time the party clears out the stronghold and recovers the eggs, they've also learned a couple of new spells - woven in Aranea webs - and freed a captive being saved for the larder. So - I had planned to adopt and adapt thsi adventure as the opening of a new campaign. Along the way, I developed the idea of making use of the temple used in the AoW AP as a major battle site. To that end, the Aranea who stole the eggs must stay ahead of the party so that they *can* fight that Half-Fiend Awakened Colossal Monstrous Spider Priest of Shelob at the top of a 150' tall cylinder full of spider webs to recover the eggs!
Well, given that at least one of the Aranea team has to evade the PCs and that they can take on a humanoid shape, why shouldn't they head for an Aranea colony way off the beaten path where they can catch a ship to points elsewhere anonymously?!?
So - the party (a group of 3 gestalts) will be chasing bad-guy Aranea and encounter a group of Aranea who *aren't* Bad Guys, but are essentailly Collateral Damage!! Gotta love it!
Plus, I'm developing an idea for a series of maritime adventures involving pirates and privateers which will be presaged by "Siege" quite nicely!
Honestly, I do seriously expect "Siege" to be fondly remembered in future days as "one of the Greats that almost KILLED us all! And at FIRST level!!"
I'm looking forward to making use of it and I won;t be afraid at all to beef it up against my crew...
Just 1 question: why did it take 2 years to your adventure to be "accepted"?
Just 1 question: why did it take 2 years to your adventure to be "accepted"?
In between each stage of proposing the idea, submitting the manuscript, revising it, and getting on the publication schedule, a few months pass. From what I understand, two years is a pretty typical time frame for start to finish.
First off, I apologize if my points are repeated but I'm posting this without having fully read the 106 previous posts.
Great adventure! I say that having been prepared to be disappointed. I'm easily annoyed by many of the monsters created in the endless stream of MM releases and the like. I'm a big fan of "classic" monsters from myth and literature. When I first heard that the story would involve "Spider Eaters" as a major plot element I was already dismissing the adventure as a silly and uninteresting story. Thanks for proving me wrong. Your story had very strong plot elements that made all the monsters plausible.
One of the other things I liked was the hooks. I find it hard to generate a story based rationale for the PC's to come together as a group. Usually it’s easier to just say the PC's knew each other or met in a tavern. Although simple, I find the device of the PC's surviving a ship wreck a better alternative. Also, very creepy when they find they've come ashore at a village besieged by giant spiders. I find first level a very difficult level to write for because it’s the intro adventure that can define a character or a whole campaign. Lots of pressure. I've really liked "Mad God's Key", "Whispering Cairn" and now "Siege of the Spider Eaters" as well written 1st level adventures.
Yet more things I liked included the ship as an architectural feature of the town. Very cool. One question though, how'd it get there?
As one of many who are waiting for the STAP to appear the whole story and setting did much to whet my appetite. I could see the possibility of tying this adventure into 123's Salvage Operation and 120's Forsaken Arch if one was interested in putting together a mini AP.
All that said, I did find the mapping difficult to follow. Items in the text were not always represented in the graphics. Perhaps Paizo will fix this up in the Web Enhancement.
Overall great work - where does it go from here?
Cheers,
C.
Great adventure! I say that having been prepared to be disappointed. I'm easily annoyed by many of the monsters created in the endless stream of MM releases and the like. I'm a big fan of "classic" monsters from myth and literature. When I first heard that the story would involve "Spider Eaters" as a major plot element I was already dismissing the adventure as a silly and uninteresting story. Thanks for proving me wrong. Your story had very strong plot elements that made all the monsters plausible.
Thanks Cernunos! For me, the ideal adventure to plug into a campaign has a plausible/realistic storyline and a dash of fantastic monsters and items. Plus I'm a big fan of twists!
One of the other things I liked was the hooks. I find it hard to generate a story based rationale for the PC's to come together as a group. Usually it’s easier to just say the PC's knew each other or met in a tavern. Although simple, I find the device of the PC's surviving a ship wreck a better alternative. Also, very creepy when they find they've come ashore at a village besieged by giant spiders.
If you haven't played this adventure yet, scroll through my earlier postings on this thread for alternate hooks that you might equally like.
I find first level a very difficult level to write for because it’s the intro adventure that can define a character or a whole campaign. Lots of pressure. I've really liked "Mad God's Key", "Whispering Cairn" and now "Siege of the Spider Eaters" as well written 1st level adventures.
I bow to you aligning my adventure with such other greats. James Jacobs warned me early on that 1st lvl adventures were difficult to write. But I really wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. I love 1st lvl adventures. I think it's because they are the closest you can get to normal people in extraordinary circumstances.
Yet more things I liked included the ship as an architectural feature of the town. Very cool. One question though, how'd it get there?
After a major squall beached it, the Good Fortune was literally dragged the remaining distance to its present location. Pirates have a much underestimated knowledge of the use of ropes, pulleys, etc. Plus they were too lazy to take the ship apart piece by piece and rebuild lodgings out of the material.
Overall great work - where does it go from here?
I have an idea for a loosely tied sequel. I'll keep where the 'Fara' part of 'Haven-Fara' comes from private for now.
Good roleplay experience, thanks Mr. Conners
FH
Thanks Fake Healer! And thanks for sharing that it worked well for 2nd level PCs.
It seems that for everyone who's read/played Siege of the Spider Eaters, the most enjoyable elements have been the roleplaying, the twist, and the gray moral line. I'm going to target these in upcoming adventure submissions to the mag.
As badly as the group wanted to take out the hydra, it just wasn't possible for them to defeat it. Between it shaking if they were at the back half and trying to fight at the front half, or being low on non-fire type spells, they couldn't seem to pull it off. They never really wanted to kill it anyhow, since they actually managed to save the queen and ended up allies with her kind.
The town of Haven Fara now has Galen and his thugs swinging from the yardarm of the ship in the center of town by their necks.
Overall, fun stuff, interseting combat situations and loved the roleplay opportunities. The players had a grand time too. I would love to see a return to Haven Fara years from now and higher level. Perhaps Cap and the boys return as spirits, still searching for their lost gold, fated to roam the town for eternity.
I'll keep where the 'Fara' part of 'Haven-Fara' comes from private for now.
I thought it was a twist on 'far haven'. Now you gomme curious.
For those who have played this thru, do characters tend to level up during the adventure or shortly after?
As badly as the group wanted to take out the hydra, it just wasn't possible for them to defeat it. ... They never really wanted to kill it anyhow...The town of Haven Fara now has Galen and his thugs swinging from the yardarm of the ship in the center of town by their necks.
Overall, fun stuff, interseting combat situations and loved the roleplay opportunities. The players had a grand time too. I would love to see a return to Haven Fara years from now and higher level. Perhaps Cap and the boys return as spirits, still searching for their lost gold, fated to roam the town for eternity.
What's a pirate adventure without some folks swinging from the yardarm?!
Glad your group had fun.
When my wife and I worked out this adventure, we really wanted to present non-traditional D&D situations which made the players pause before swinging their swords. The hydra scene is perhaps my favorite of this vein, because in addition to all the non-combat skills necessary to negotiate it, you wonder whether you should kill the poor thing at all. We figured hey, when's the last time a five-headed hydra appeared and a group might kill it out of pity as likely as anything else. Here's a creature most assume is evil, but you have to wonder how evil is the act of feeding off of it for eternity. I'm not a vegetarian, but I'd think more than once about eating burgers made from a regenerating cow. Then again, others may argue it's better to eat from one regenerating, unconscious cow that to swiftly kill many. But I digress in a freakish tangent...
Out of curiousity, even if most aranea don't look like the 'smoking hot spider babe' from the cover, how did 40% of the population completely avoid any sexual relations with the other 60% for generations in a village of less than 200?
Also, do I sense a trend in hot spider babes, here, in the recent Dragonlance trilogy AND in Red Hand of Doom?
Out of curiousity, even if most aranea don't look like the 'smoking hot spider babe' from the cover, how did 40% of the population completely avoid any sexual relations with the other 60% for generations in a village of less than 200?
In my own campaign I didn't deny human/aranea couplings in Haven-Fara; I just took the stance that they were never productive. In such a remote village I figured disease and the like would be a decent cover for barren women. I'd be interested to see an ecology of aranea. Perhaps only the queen can become pregnant. Perhaps there are indeed half-aranea somewhere. Perhaps custom dictates they be left "exposed" to the elements to keep the race pure. Maybe someone with good intentions is about to find out what happens when such a hybrid is allowed to live. The possibilites are what make this game so cool.
I'm planning on running this on Sunday with my group. I'm hoping to fit it in one 10 hour day. Does anyone, especially Mr. Conners, have any suggestions for making sure I can finish it in one day? Places that might be good to trim? Things that might be combined? etc.
As a side note, I'm running it as a one-shot, perhaps with more in the future, that I'm calling Sasserine Adventures. My group is nearly done with Into the Wormcrawl Fissure in Age of Worms and Savage Tide is the next campaign. I thought it might be fun to have a series of one-shots or small adventures set in and around Sasserine that take place the year before Savage Tide. So when we can't get the whole group together or we just need a bit of a break, the players can still experience that part of the world. They'll have a chance to get to know some of the NPCs prior to the campaign. I actually have L1 versions of the Jade Ravens as pre-gen characters for anyone who doesn't have a character to play. (They're not allowed to use their Savage Tide characters in Sasserine Adventures.) Spider Eaters fits perfectly into the Sasserine/Amedio area. It'll also be a good chance for my normally hack'n'slash group to learn that there is usually more than one way to solve a problem.
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I'm planning on running this on Sunday with my group. I'm hoping to fit it in one 10 hour day. Does anyone, especially Mr. Conners, have any suggestions for making sure I can finish it in one day? Places that might be good to trim? Things that might be combined? etc.
As a side note, I'm running it as a one-shot, perhaps with more in the future, that I'm calling Sasserine Adventures. My group is nearly done with Into the Wormcrawl Fissure in Age of Worms and Savage Tide is the next campaign. I thought it might be fun to have a series of one-shots or small adventures set in and around Sasserine that take place the year before Savage Tide. So when we can't get the whole group together or we just need a bit of a break, the players can still experience that part of the world. They'll have a chance to get to know some of the NPCs prior to the campaign. I actually have L1 versions of the Jade Ravens as pre-gen characters for anyone who doesn't have a character to play. (They're not allowed to use their Savage Tide characters in Sasserine Adventures.) Spider Eaters fits perfectly into the Sasserine/Amedio area. It'll also be a good chance for my normally hack'n'slash group to learn that there is usually more than one way to solve a problem.
I ran it in 2 sessions, each 4 hours, and would've liked to have an hour or 2 more so I didn't have to rush through it. My group did alot more roleplaying than I expected (lots of great npcs) and I cut out the Hydra scene totally. You could replace it with some sort of livestock or deer that the Aranea are keeping wrapped up. Good adventure. Try not to take too many breaks and I think you will probably be able to make it through in one 10hr session.
FH
I'm planning on running this on Sunday with my group. I'm hoping to fit it in one 10 hour day. Does anyone, especially Mr. Conners, have any suggestions for making sure I can finish it in one day? Places that might be good to trim? Things that might be combined? etc.
Hi Jon,
I think your best bet is to get the PCs out of Haven-Fara and headed to the spider nest as quickly as possible. The quicker they learn that they need to rescue the missing townfolk, the more enjoyable a quick run of the adventure will be for the players - especially those of the hack-n-slash persuasion.But, perish the thought, don't cut the hydra scene! :)