It says, that the summoning of the Ulgurtasta using the Apostolic Scrolls finally needs "the blood of a champion".
So what does that mean for the climax of that module when the beast tunnels to the arena floor with respect to the outcome of the last arena battle?
Option 1: The fight between Auric and the PCs is still going on. So Auric is the champion still?
Option 2: The PCs defeated Auric (by disabling him) but are not yet declared winner by the master of games. Who is champion now?
Option 3: Is there a way to avoid having a champion at all and would that spoil the evil guys plans?
e.g. the PC concince brave Auric to voluntarily lay down the belt - there will be no this-year champion anymore
e.g. the PC kill Auric prior to the fight so the actual champion is killed with no successor
... I am just wondering if there is a way to avoid the railroaded climax of the module as otherwise, killing Bozhal, destroying the scrolls etc will not really have an impact on the flow of the adventure.
Been a while since I read the Champion's Belt, and my group is not that far yet . . .
But, iirc, at one point during the tournament, the MC announces that ALL the competitor's are champions, therefore . . all the blood spilled during the tourney goes toward fufilling the prophecy in the scrolls.
I thought the prophecy was fulfilled if the undead worm could swallow a character (PC or NPC) with "at least a level of fighter".
I thought the prophecy was fulfilled if the undead worm could swallow a character (PC or NPC) with "at least a level of fighter".
Correct. Who the Ulgurstasta easts really isn't important- it requires the "blood of a champion", but not necessarily a "champion of the champion's games". All it needs is a person with a level of Fighter, but Raknian, hating Auric for who he is, commands the Ulgurstasta to eat Auric, killing two birds with one stone (or, rather, killing a million commoners with one prophecy). There's really no way to stop the Ulgurstasta from having champions to eat, since there's probably hundreds of 1st-level fighters in the audience.
What's wrong with the climactic ending? If you don't want the Ulgurstasta to eat Auric, don't have him eat Auric. Just have him whomp the PCs without any regards for "prophecy". It's your game- there's no need to railroad them if you don't want to.
Who doesn't want to unleash a medieval version of "Dawn of The Dead" on their campaign world?
What if Raknian sacrifices himself to the Apostle to fulfill the prophecy? He has fighter levels and he was once a Champion at the games.
Oooooh, that's good. >.>
*Writes it down*
Who doesn't want to unleash a medieval version of "Dawn of The Dead" on their campaign world?
What if Raknian sacrifices himself to the Apostle to fulfill the prophecy? He has fighter levels and he was once a Champion at the games.
Oooooh, that's good. >.>
*Writes it down*
THAT is quit an idea! That gives Raknian a much more dramatical role (ending) than just letting him slip away... Very cool idea!
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And remember, at the end of the Free Dinner to kick off the Champions Games, Loris proclaims all the gladiators "Champions of the city for the duration of the games" (or something to that effect). My players immediately jumped to the conclussion that it meant ANY of the gladiators being sacrificed would fulfill the requirement. I thought it was a great idea and went with it.
Needless to say, when the giant worm ripped up into the arena, the other gladiators all ran down to help the PCs and Auric's Warband. It was a hoot seeing the PCs trying to defeat the Apostle and keep all the other gladiators AWAY from it at the same time.
Much fun.
There's really no way to stop the Ulgurstasta from having champions to eat, since there's probably hundreds of 1st-level fighters in the audience.
Unless you are running a high-powered campaign full of adventurers, there shouldn't be hundreds of 1st-level fighters in the audience. There will be THOUSDANDS of 1st-level commoners and DOZENS of 1st-level warriors maybe, but fighters will be few and far between. Hence, eating Auric or one of the PCs is probably the best bet.
Who doesn't want to unleash a medieval version of "Dawn of The Dead" on their campaign world?
What if Raknian sacrifices himself to the Apostle to fulfill the prophecy? He has fighter levels and he was once a Champion at the games.
Oooooh, that's good. >.>
*Writes it down*
While not a bad idea drama-wise, it doesn't fit Raknian's character. The whole reason he is doing this thing is so he can become immortal.
While not a bad idea drama-wise, it doesn't fit Raknian's character. The whole reason he is doing this thing is so he can become immortal.Who doesn't want to unleash a medieval version of "Dawn of The Dead" on their campaign world?
What if Raknian sacrifices himself to the Apostle to fulfill the prophecy? He has fighter levels and he was once a Champion at the games.
Oooooh, that's good. >.>
*Writes it down*
I thought of that as well.
What if, by sacrificing himself to the Apostle, he is raised as a Favored Spawn of Kyuss (Or Death Knight as is written).I can't imagine anything more frightening to my players than having the Apostle regurgitate Raknian in a gout of acid, his skin scoured and burned away, covered in writhing worms and his eyes burning with green, unholy flames with an army of wights at his beck and call.
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IIRC, the AoW Overload mentions the Apostle might just eat Raknian anyway--he's got no real power over it. If you wanted, you could do the whole "Knight of Kyuss" thing, but I think that might take away some of the impact of seeing the damn things later in the campaign.
But it would make a kick-ass encounter.
I thought the prophecy was fulfilled if the undead worm could swallow a character (PC or NPC) with "at least a level of fighter".
This situation is very messed up. So if the Ulgurstarsta(no idea how to spell it) swallos a 10th lvl cleric the prophecy won't be fullfilled because the cleric doesn't have a lvl of fighter?!? That's like saying that only fighters are heroes.
I modified this "eat the guy with 'at least a level of fighter" in my game table. I think the "best" way to the prophecy be fullfilled is to the giant worm eat one of the pc's or Auric himself.
... I am just wondering if there is a way to avoid the railroaded climax of the module as otherwise, killing Bozhal, destroying the scrolls etc will not really have an impact on the flow of the adventure.
My players maganed to find and kill the ulgurstasta on the 2nd day of the games, a real let down in terms of climax.
Building a satisfying end of the adventure and getting the players the xp needed for lvl 11 had me on the ropes for a few weeks, were on vacation at the moment, so i was really happy to see the new Challenge of Champions in dungeon...
Good for you, my players are still having trouble with Myriannas, the cleric of Lolth, from the adventure before "the champion's belt"
SPOILERS AHEAD...
We had a gread climax of the module yesterday with teh Ulgur being terminated prior to the last fight.
Until yesterday my party was struggling heavy with losses and disqualified team members. In fact only 5 of 7 PCs were left in the Cenoby and unfortunalty two of them players were off yesterday which leaves 3 PCs for the fight. Two more PCs were acting outside the arena.
The night before the final battle the party successfully manages to convince Auric to help them confronting the Ulgur. That was only possible with a trick (the Changling mimics Tirra :-))
However Khellek and the groups cleric together destroyed the sphere and freed the Ulgur. Luckily the cleric was well prepared to fight undead, so he casts Hallow at the Ulgurs champer followed by a Consecrate. This gaves him a +7 on CHA checks while turning. As she is a SUN domain cleric she also could perform a Greater Turning. Together with a lucky die roll this sends the Ulgur faster to oblivion than he could belch out a few Kyuss zombies.
Auric was so impressed that he agrees to the following plan: To not foil the games (which might cause a riot) and to have a chance to accuse Raknian with all his foils, he agrees to fight a fake in the arena which should result in the PCs victory. During the then following ceremony the PCs would have a good chance to grab Raknian and accuse him officially.
It worked that way and Raknian plus followers were sentenced to death by teh citys council. Well done, adventurers!
Who doesn't want to unleash a medieval version of "Dawn of The Dead" on their campaign world?
What if Raknian sacrifices himself to the Apostle to fulfill the prophecy? He has fighter levels and he was once a Champion at the games.
Oooooh, that's good. >.>
*Writes it down*
There was a rather long thread a while disuceing an idea like this. I think the title had champions games in it. Maybe I'll find it later.
Luckily the cleric was well prepared to fight undead, so he casts Hallow at the Ulgurs champer followed by a Consecrate.
Doesn't Hallow take, like, 24 hours to cast, as well as have pretty hefty material component costs?
Luckily the cleric was well prepared to fight undead, so he casts Hallow at the Ulgurs champer followed by a Consecrate.Doesn't Hallow take, like, 24 hours to cast, as well as have pretty hefty material component costs?
ooops you re right. But anyway, it was a cool combination of spells and nice tactic, so I would have ruled to let them go with it. Beside, they defeated Bozhal 2 nihgts before, so they could have had plenty of time for preparation if they had the idea earlier.
Regarding matierials, we do not use this rule. I know that this would slightly overbalance spells but the rule counts for both, players and NPCs so that´s fair enough.
I hate "shopping sessions" and reducing material-management by simply maintaining lists and cash reserves is not really valuable for the game play.
My group has just finished the Champions' Games, and let me tell you, they pulled out some tactics that even I wasn't ready for.
They started with the expected array of buffing spells -- haste on the party, enlarge person on everyone, righteous might on the cleric, that sort of thing. Just as the 1-minute 'get ready' time is about to expire, the cleric (of Moradin, Earth domain and all) starts casting summon monster IV to bring in Small earth elementals.
He does this three times.
On the last prep round, he's gotten himself a dozen elementals, and casts lesser planar ally and calls in a Medium one. One quick bargain, two pricey gems later, and this elemental has organized the whole group into a mob.
Yes, a mob, straight from the DMG II. A 30-HD, Gargantuan beast composed entirely of earth elementals.
Said mob quickly started giving the Leatherworks trouble, since it had upwards of 200 hit points. The cleric and wizard each threw dispel magic at their opponents, and managed to strip EVERY spell effect off them.
And when Auric tried to get close to the party's fighter, said (enlarged) fighter used his attack of opportunity to trip him. As he tried to get up, Auric found himself disarmed with another AoO.
Before Khellek could do anything else against the group, the cleric threw in something I hadn't considered, by casting summon swarm. Now the wizard had to deal with three locust swarms, with all of his protections gone.
Not including the prep time, the fight took all of three rounds before Auric browbeat Khellek into ordering the golems (one of which was down) to stand off. Khellek spent his time sulking while Auric showed some grace in losing the belt.
Just a pointer for you summoners out there -- get 30 Hit Dice worth of identical critters and a DM with the DMG II, and convince him to turn them into a mob. Nasty.