Alright, so here's the deal. My PCs started chapter 5 2 sessions ago and we ended with the PCs facing down the half-fey green hags having just learned that they were, in fact, not trumpet archons. They arrive in that room (area 13 I think? The one with stairs going up to a throne) just in time to see Gaflon go running out of the room, down the hall to the Starry Mirror. So they tear through the hags in relatively short order, haul it down that hallway, and find Gaflon in his Alek Tercival disguise. A bunch of dead nerra later, all of them have jumped through the Starry Mirror to save the real Alek. They quickly discover that they're in the desert, and not long after Nabthatoron shows up. They ran straight through the complex so they didn't fight half the stuff in there, leaving them all at level 8, and they don't have Alakast because they ran straight past that room. They also have none of the loot from any of the other rooms- not even the stuff the nerra dropped. So Nabthatoron rips Alek apart for starters, and toys with the PCs for a few rounds, during which they manage to do a grand total of 30 damage to him. Finally he gets bored, laughs contemptuously at the PCs, and teleports off.
So, current situation is: PCs trapped in desert, no way to contact Cauldron to end the siege of Redgorge, not enough supplies, 2 levels under the recommnded level for Test of the Smoking Eye, and slightly under-equipped. What do I do with them now? I'm going to have Jenya contact them with a sending like the module suggests, but should Kaurophon show up as scheduled, or should I throw a few random encounters at them while they're still in the desert? Or should I have Kaurophon show up like normal and plane shift them further away from the Cathedral of Feathers and do some random encounters there? Or should I just do everything as written and have demons show up to laugh at their corpses when they die? Any suggestions?
To start off, I think you handled the situation perfectly. As a DM, I don't make comments like "wouldn't you like to search around before you do that?" They don't have alakast, they are missing treasure and xp. That's acceptable.
I used alakast as plot device throughout the remainder of the campaign, but it definately isn't required.
As for the lower XP and levels, you do have some choices:
1. Run a mini-adventure in the desert. When the PCs emerge from the complex, they can find Kaurophon left for dead, having been robbed by some desert bandits aided by a blue dragon or a genie. They have to recover his amulet of the planes before they can continue. (And maybe the genie/dragon is being force to aid them against his/her will.)
2. Scale the next adventure down (per the scaling the adventure side bar), and add extra encounters to give them a level boost. The random encounter charts in Occipitus are fun!
As for stopping the invasion, you can use some other plot device, such as Nidrama appearing to the Chisel to let them know what has happened, and let the Chisel deal with it.
That's how I handled it in my last campaign. Essentially the Chisel made a sizeable "donation" to Vhalantru to stave off the invasion. It's believable and adds just that much more corruption to the city.
-----Edit-----
I just realized that I didn't actually offer you any suggestions that you didn't already include in your post!
Which option to take? I would do some desert encounters first because it's an environment that the PCs won't be in for the rest of the campaign. I like desert settings (I'm from Yuma, AZ... that's where they filmed Stargate) so I would lean towards running a desert mini-adventure, using as much as I can, like searching for water and whatnot.
But if they are way under level, as they are, you may need to add desert encounters, occipitus encounters, and adjust the encounter levels as well.
Let us know how it turns out!
2. Scale the next adventure down (per the scaling the adventure side bar), and add extra encounters to give them a level boost. The random encounter charts in Occipitus are fun!
And if you only have the hardcover, and not the Dungeon magazines, I'm sure one of us would be happy to post the scaling information for you here if you ask.
2. Scale the next adventure down (per the scaling the adventure side bar), and add extra encounters to give them a level boost. The random encounter charts in Occipitus are fun!
And if you only have the hardcover, and not the Dungeon magazines, I'm sure one of us would be happy to post the scaling information for you here if you ask.
That would be vastly appreciated, in fact.
Move the rooms the PCs skipped from the Demonskar to the Desert Complex. Some map rearranging fixes a lot of that.
I would, but they've wandered off into the desert already. Although perhaps I could just move the rooms/creatures they missed into a new place in the desert that they happened to stumble across, and make it seem like a Cagewright stronghold or something...yeah, that sounds like a good plan.
That would be vastly appreciated, in fact.And if you only have the hardcover, and not the Dungeon magazines, I'm sure one of us would be happy to post the scaling information for you here if you ask.
Actually, you're in luck. They actually forgot to put the Scaling the Adventure information in that issue, so they published on paizo's Dungeon errata page: http://paizo.com/dungeon/resources/errata.
I had a similar problem with my group, but not for lack of care on their part. Three of the PCs started the campaign a little later on, and I did a few solo sessions to give them a few levels and tie in different sub-plots from an earlier stage (ie: I had the Fighter from the demon-hunting family line lose the family sword 'Bane' to some minions of the Blue Duke, and he's been trying to find that fellow ever since).
So, when we ended Demonskaar Legacy, I had three PCs at the right level (Human Fighter 4/Cleric 4/Radiant Servant of Pelor 2; Human Druid 10; and Human Diviner 5/Rogue 3/Arcane Trickster 2).
But the other three were below: a Human Fighter 7, a Human Cleric 8, and a Human Rogue 7/Diviner 1.
So, I rearranged things. First, Jenya did the 'sending' (since the PCs had no way to get back, though thanks to their destroying of Nabthatoron in the same round he killed Alek, the Druid managed a 'Last Breath' spell to restore Alek to life). Upon hearing their situation, Jenya managed to call off the invasion of Redgorge, and through another 'sending,' told the PCs not to fight off the scrying that was coming in about an hour's time, and to stick near their surroundings and - if possible - make them remarkable. The party did so (the Druid used his 'Tree Shape' scroll to make this a very strange location in a desert, indeed) and in an hour, they were scryed... and then Vortimax Weer teleported in, very grumpy, hired by Jenya, and over the next three days, teleported everyone back to Cauldron.
So, I decided they had some time, since the Wizard is really feeling the time crunches in the adventures, and as a result, the three 10th level characters are busy with item creation and scribing scrolls and the like. The other three are going to be called by the church of Kord (the Human Cleric 8 worships Kord), and will be asked to help recover a simple circular stone that once sat in the floor of the church.
Long(er) story short(er), that stone is a kind of dimensional blockade that allows communication but bars travel, the church of Kord is worried something is going to try and teleport into their church (it's actually that the Cagewrights don't want anything interfering with their plans to open the gate) and the other three PCs will be the ones trying to get it back - and it will be broken by the three Olidammara-worshipping folk tied to the Last Laugh (and hired through Vhalantru to destroy the stone).
When broken, the dimensional communication aspect of the stone will hook one of the three PCs directly in to some higher powers with some prophecy action, and the sense of immediacy that this strange 'smoking eye' needs to be dealt with... and the dimensional instability caused by the destruction of the stone is just what a certain half-fiend sorcerer needed to get himself a way 'in' to discuss things with the PCs - those awful demons attacking them simply must have come through due to a weakness in the dimensional barriers caused by that stone breaking.
Not sure if this post is OBE (Overcome By Events), but I would definitely insert a desert mini-adventure. I love desert settings, and this would allow you to showcase some things the party won't see otherwise.
Also, I'm not sure that your party is that far off. To combat boredom over the last few days, I've been looking more closely at the SCAP as I just began running the campaign. When I calculated the XP for all encounters in Demonskar Legacy, it came up short of the amount needed to raise 6 PCs from 8th to 10th level. My numbers could be off, but I'll probably end up facing a similar situation to yours.
As a bonus to the desert quest, if it involves some ancient ruins (perhaps a Suloise temple from before the Rain of Colorless fire), you could introduce a demon-slaying weapon or some other beneficial item there.
I have the same problem, I'm using the 8% per hour random encounter frequency on Occipitus very literally, combined with the random treasure tables, to boost the PC's XP and equipment/treasure so they can come back to Cauldron at an appropriate level.
If your party is down levels, you will find that The Test of the Smoking Eye will compound that problem. My group was in a similiar spot because of PC death. I added a number of wandering monsters in T.T.S.E., but the extra combat took too much game time. After a number of sessions that were: "You are traveling under the burning sky of Occipitus when you suddenly...", it wasn't very fun. I suggest adding some good encounters. Have them encounter a lost but powerful celestial or other good creature, befriend or help it and give them full exp. I would not advise giving a share of exp to Kaurophon, even though he should be giving the party a lot of help until the final encounter. Giving him a share of treasure would keep the party feeling he is part of their group, but adjust the treasure accordingly, he may escape the final test. Hope this helps.