The Crucible

[Morgenes]

So my players are nearing the end of the first chapter and last weekend they faced the crucible. The text describes the cavern of the crucible as being 20 feet high, but there's no mention of how tall the well is above it. I decided that the well itself was 30 feet deep before the cavern below it.

Of course, I didn't think to look up the jumping into water rules until after the session. You'd think the fact that Lotus Dragon thieves jumped into the well would tip me off that I should have. But, according to the d20 SRD, the first 20 feet of fall into at least 10 feet of water does no damage. After that the next 20 feet do 1d3/10 feet non-lethal damage.

So my guess is the well was supposed to be 10-20 feet before the cavern opened up for another 20 foot fall. This would give a 30-40 foot fall which should result in 1-6 points of non-lethal damage for the falling thief.

With a successful DC 15 tumble or swim check, they could have avoided all damage if it was a total of 30 feet from the well to the water.

My players (six level 2 pcs and one level 1 pc) ended up using the well's rope (and another rope they brought along) to climb down by twos, and after swinging, (DC13 strength) jump to land. They ended up pincushions from the four Lotus Dragons hiding behind the arrow slits and illusory wall and two of them were put under as they were trying to climb down, plunging them into the murky water below.

Anyone else run into this? How did your players handle the descent into the well?

Now that the Dragons are on alert, the text describes that there are seven of them in the barracks, sleeping unless they are on alert. It never says where those seven go if they're not sleeping. My thought was to use them as random encounters, or reinforce other positions (possibly the exit from the crucible as my players are currently hiding in the crocodile (in my case carrion crawler)'s den. Anyone else have any ideas on where they'd go?

[erian_7]

My players wouldn't even start to fall for jumping into the well after a running thief, so I made it a trap by having the rope partially severed. Nemien (whom they had captured) led them to the well ostensibly in hopes of securing his escape, but in truth trying to get them to fall for the trap. They almost took the bait, but the first PC deciding to climb down had randomly purchased some rope right before heading to the area. He tied a second line to himself in case he slipped off the first rope, and so my trap only dropped him about 5-10' before his own line stopped the fall. At this point, I had a pack of Lotus Dragon thugs ambush the party, with one PC dangling from a rope and the others in the open near the well. Ambush was 6 Rog1 thugs, two "bosses" (one being Soller Vark, who had escaped them in the fight on the Blue Nixie), and Nemien (who had weaseled himself away from the party using his invisibility spell. Thanks to the fellow in the well having summon monster handy, a bevy of celestial badgers held off the general rogues from one side. The domain caster (my version of a cleric, only knows domain spells, casts spontaneously using the recharge casting variant) took the other group on with produce flame, flaming hands, and fog cloud. Finally the harpoon-wielding native warrior PC (I've only got three PCs, so I've got them all at 3rd level by now) took on Vark in melee while soaking up lots of damage. Nemeien pegged him with ray of enfeeblement but then got wasted with a critical shot from the warrior's bow. Ended up with one dead thug, one dead Soller Vark, and everyone else captured to be turned over to the city watch. They forced Nemien to sign over his shop before turning him in...so now they own that shop and are laying claim to the tunnels under Parrot Isle.

If they do go down the well versus the entry in Nemien's shop, they'll be facing a large water elemental rather than the croc (since it's the standard variety and there are no Small characters in the game, it couldn't even use Improved Grab). It'd really be a wasted monster on the party, and besides, I've got a cool fig for the water elemental and nothing for crocs. Probably use water elementals in place of the devilfish as well, as I'm thinking on saving those for the Isle of Dread.

[Cpt_kirstov]

lol - my characters are pryos.... they burned the taxidermist's to the ground, and then threw alchemist's fire and oil down the well after the theif.... then 2 hrs later go down the well themselves....

[Anthony Law]

One player is a winged kobold so he glided in. The others just jumped in. We used the diving rules from Stormwrack and they worked very well.

[TheWhiteknife]

One thing that bugged me after running this tonight:

Its a well in a plaza in a somewhat well to do district. That has a film of filth and ick on the surface? And that periodically floods with seawater when the pipe is opened? What the hell is the well water used for?

Also, Holy thread necromancy!

[Luna eladrin]

My group threw the taxidermist's stuffed animals down the well...

[Thread Necromancer]

RISE!!!!