Namely, the party raided the lizardcamp, killed the leader and parlayed with the shaman. Collected the human prisoners. And left.
They never reached the egg room - which means the false dragon egg with the worms is still there!
I'm guessing is that the egg will hatch and turn the lizardman eggs into spawn, right?
I'm thinking that Blackwall Keep is going to be overrun with wormy lizardmen soon! Excellent! (My group was dumbfounded when they had heard about how long the spawn was locked up in the basement)...
"Your friend turned into a zombie AND YOU LOCKED HIM INTO THE BASEMENT???"
"We thought he'd get better, mi'lord!"
"FOR TWO YEARS!!!"
The same thing happened with my group. To wrap this up, when the party returned to Diamond Lake for "A Gathering of Winds" I had the town in the midst of an attack by the lizard men spawn. They had accompanied Ilthane there for her rampage and stayed to finish the job.
The PC's did manage to defeat the lizard men and save what was left of Diamond Lake.
My group was dumbfounded when they had heard about how long the spawn was locked up in the basement)...
"Your friend turned into a zombie AND YOU LOCKED HIM INTO THE BASEMENT???"
"We thought he'd get better, mi'lord!"
"FOR TWO YEARS!!!"
My Party managed to destroy the egg, but were just as dumbfounded about the friend turned zombie. The party Paladin (noble) did a very good job of keeping his temper in check.
"We didn't know what to do. We thought he would eventually get better."
"For Two Years!!!"
"Sire, we're not clerics you know."
"Clerics no. Brain dead, Yes. Get out of my sight!"
"Yes my lord"
I'm interested in the prospect of the egg going undiscovered. In truth, this was one of the adventures where my party acted according to plan. (My Kings of the Rift adventure, however, is the exact opposite, right now, on a side note.)
They defeated Shukak, rescued Marzena, formed an alliance with Hishka which eventually brought peace to the kecuala (lizardfolk) and humanoids of the Mistmarsh, took the false dragon egg outside, and used fire to melt it, thus getting burntworm components in the process. They even fought a surprisingly challenging fight with the spawns of kyuss beneath the garrison afterward.
On the other hand, as a result of their carefulness in the Twisted Branch lair, I never got to even use the Kyuss Spawnlings...sigh.
I took it for granted, but there's no guarantee that Hishka will help the PCs, or that any of the lizardfolk will help them, for that matter.
Now that I think of it, I'll bet if all doesn't go well, and that the lizardfolk eggs are turned into kyuss spawnlings, that Ilthane could use them as an army of sorts when raiding Diamond Lake later. That would be quite a sight, and could have devastating reprocussions for Diamond Lake...such as total infestation by the spawn of kyuss. Cool...
|
They never reached the egg room - which means the false dragon egg with the worms is still there!
I'm guessing is that the egg will hatch and turn the lizardman eggs into spawn, right?
Having the spawn accompanying Ilthane is a perfect suggestion. It will hammer home the "what if" of the Champion's Games assuming the PCs averted that disaster well enough to return to Diamond Lake.
My group was dumbfounded when they had heard about how long the spawn was locked up in the basement)...
"Your friend turned into a zombie AND YOU LOCKED HIM INTO THE BASEMENT???"
"We thought he'd get better, mi'lord!"
"FOR TWO YEARS!!!"
As absurd as this sounds on quick consideration, think about these very likely points:
1) The infected wizard went to the Twisted Branch Clan, lured there by a false premise of peace/cooperation.
2) The ranking commander of the Blackwall Keep likely allowed this on his own authority/orders.
3) A "failed" mission with an insane wizard returning would be fairly damaging to the commander's credibility.
4) A commander would likely order the truth of this to never be told.
5) The commander would assure that transfers occurred so that the present soldiers were scattered about the Domain.
6) New troops arrive, no knowledge of previous wizard's true fate, see locked tunnel as a safety hazard with explicit orders from the commander to leave it alone.
7) Commander is killed in initial lizardfolk attack; no one present at keep has any idea what lies in wait for them.
8) A rescued Marzena can add that she knew her predecessor went on a "special mission" to the Mistmarsh and returned only to go insane and vanish into the swamp. Examining the dead Son of Kyuss will suggest otherwise and allow the PCs a chance to track down soldiers present at the Keep two years prior if they so wish. In fact, a well-prepped DM could have had a soldier at the Diamond Lake garrison get drunk in the Feral Dog/Spinning Giant one evening and relate a greatly exaggerated tale of insane wizards from the swamp during the Whispering Cairn adventure. The PCs can later go "*ding*this sounds familiar!" during the wrap up of EaBK.
Rexx great suggestions on the Spawn of Kyuss!
Well, I ran the alternate EaBK adventure described here on the boards (I linked it in the Best of Threads thread) in which the PCs play guards at the keep for a session. They immediately picked up on the "meanwhile, back at the ranch..." cinematic feel to it all, and Peter (the author) included nice character hooks to get everyone into the roleplaying. I think that everyone had a lot of fun. It worked out perfectly too with a total of three spawn and one guy trapped on the roof. When the PCs got there they enjoyed the opportunity to rescue the fellow from the roof and appreciated (or didn't complain about) the fact that I had held back some of the spawn's effects like the fear aura during the cinematic break. Thus they felt the appropriate horror at confronting people that they knew intimately who were now zombies. I had also said that most of the surviving keep members were out on patrol during the alternate first encounter with spawn. The fellow trapped on the roof warned them away from the spawn, and the patrol was waiting for the reinforcements from Diamond Lake, camped within site of the keep when the PCs returned from the marsh.
To start it all off, I edited out the trapped wizard. Instead I had one of the captured soldiers escape before the lizardfolk dragged them to the Twisted Branch. The PCs noticed that there were only three humans in the lair and that they had been told 4 had been captured. The escaped soldier made it back to the keep after a harrowing time in the swamp. He was scratched and bleeding and exhausted and didn't want to talk to any of his soldier friends, or even been healed. He just needed to sleep for a while in his bunk in the basement...