I'm finally gearing up to run my PCs through KotR, and man am I excited. I've been looking forward to this one since I first read it. The introduction to Kongen-Thulnir has an almost Final Fantasy feel to it, in the scope of the vista as the PCs take in the siege.
After reading the debate about what to do about the crawler loads, I'm thinking of giving the loads a "penetrating" quality, like searing for fire magic -- that it ignores paralysis immunity, essentially.
I'm also trying to figure out how best to replace Alastor Land's ghost. I started buying the AP at EaBK, and my players didn't want to start first level anyway, so they weren't from Diamond Lake, and didn't have much to do with it, so they never knew Alastor Land, Balabar Smenk, or any of those guys. So far the campaign really hasn't suffered from excluding any of that, save that some of that middle stuff felt a little railroady (luckily my players prefer to just run what I have prepared) but Mr. Land does impart a fair bit of information it seems. I'll probably just replace him with the ghost of one of the party's (many) fallen comrades.
Either way, I'm looking forward to what more or less amounts to an adventure full of "End Bosses."
I am still looking forward to running this adventure and have been thinking about it quite a bit. For one thing I have been collecting giant and dragon figures so that the epic massive combat will not be missed.
As far as Alastor Land's ghost I have been having a few mixed ideas.
- Keep him as he is, as I have run every adventure and well it does make a nice transition back to the beginning as it were.
- Replace him with the spirit of one of the ancient druids who they met on the Island. Not a bad thing to do, and frankly the whole flip back to Alastor Land part kinda threw me and all.
- Replace him with part of Belekarde's spirit, before it is captured, some sort of vision or something.
- Perhaps it is the spirit of a fallen comrade or enemy who has reformed, or maybe the spirit of the castle itself, the spirit of the anti-dragon defense which are now leaving.
- Perhaps make it a divine spirit, like some sort of messenger of the gods, Celeste perhaps, or just a vision.
Just putting forward some ideas I have had.
How about varying the crawler loads? Think fantasy versions of modern artillery loads….
White Phosphorous deals flame damage and obscures vision (extremely helpful given the criss-crossing chains that hamstring dragons in flight) – Fire Fog
Chemical Rounds
CS (tear) gas – Stinking Cloud on steroids
Nerve/Blood agent gas – These are obviously frowned on for routine usage; they are virtually undetectable and extremely deadly to unprepared forces – Con damage akin to potent poison
Or other types of crawler loads –
Insect swarm loads
Web-spell loads (for that matter, “Spell” loads e.g. Fireball, Ice Storm, etc.)
I had to replace Alastar Land’s ghost as well. I recall using the Wind Duke Icosiol (I think), but your idea works as well, especially if the dead PC was a brainy Wizard type. Good luck, and good gaming. As for End Bosses, consider adding Gigantus from a later Dungeon magazine if the PCs prove to be tough. And as for Brazzemal, yeah, he is tough, but Xyzanth will punish the PCs!
For one thing I have been collecting giant and dragon figures so that the epic massive combat will not be missed.
As far as Alastor Land's ghost I have been having a few mixed ideas.
- Keep him as he is, as I have run every adventure and well it does make a nice transition back to the beginning as it were.
A couple of my players have substantial figure collections, including giants and dragons. I've been looking forward to trying to use as many as we can at once (I'm hoping for "all" at some point).
My players didn't run the first two adventures of the AP, so I won't be keeping Alastor Land as is, but I like the idea of using a spirit from the Library of Last Resort.
And thanks for the further variant loads, IGR! Apparently Greg V originally included a wing-shredder load that got cut for space, and I was thinking about putting those back in, but those are some great ideas for variant loads. I think a wide spread would be good, especially since the giants were in the midst of using all these weapons on each other when the dragon siege began.
All great suggestions for what I think is one of the most cinematic adventures I've read.
I actually didn't like the idea of a horde of dragons attacking...feels too "dragonlance" to me. I also felt that it made dragons seem like mooks, albeit powerful mooks.
Also, it didn't really make much sense that Dragotha would be able to control and manage thrity-odd dragons who have little to gain by dying at the hands of giants. Instead, I replaced them with advanced favored spawn of kyuss wyverns. I reasoned that Dragotha had destroyed the blackwind (or whatever they are called) Derro tribe and turned the wyverns into kyuss spawn. Worked out pretty well, that is until they started turning undead :)
I actually didn't like the idea of a horde of dragons attacking...feels too "dragonlance" to me. I also felt that it made dragons seem like mooks, albeit powerful mooks.
Just by it's very nature, I can see how it's not necessarily everyone's bag, but this one seems to be right up my (and my player's) alley. Lots of opportunity for cinematic action.
Kings is awesome:)
Ah, Mr. Pett! As you've come by to chime in, I would also like to say how much I enjoyed The Prince of Redhand, and thought it a well constructed adventure, even though my players (mostly due to my own additions) were primarily inclined to walk into Zeech's party and just start kicking ass.
I thought there was quite a bit of intrigue and investigation to take place in Alhaster, and my players enjoyed it very much.
My only critique of Prince of Redhand was that the text of the adventure focused so much on the party, I found myself wishing for a slightly truncated version of the party, and instead some notes on things for parties who were not inclined to dine in the heart of evil to do instead. Something investigative perhaps, or some other roleplaying encounters, to keep with the adventures theme of "not all battles in the Age of Worms are fought with swords."
A minor critique at best. I loved having a primarily roleplaying and investigative adventure.
Ah, Mr. Pett! As you've come by to chime in, I would also like to say how much I enjoyed The Prince of Redhand, and thought it a well constructed adventure, even though my players (mostly due to my own additions) were primarily inclined to walk into Zeech's party and just start kicking ass.
I thought there was quite a bit of intrigue and investigation to take place in Alhaster, and my players enjoyed it very much.
My only critique of Prince of Redhand was that the text of the adventure focused so much on the party, I found myself wishing for a slightly truncated version of the party, and instead some notes on things for parties who were not inclined to dine in the heart of evil to do instead. Something investigative perhaps, or some other roleplaying encounters, to keep with the adventures theme of "not all battles in the Age of Worms are fought with swords."
A minor critique at best. I loved having a primarily roleplaying and investigative adventure.
Splendid! Although I wouldn't want to steal my dear friend Vaughn's thunder here as Kings is one of my favourite 3 adventures in dungeon in recent times. A good point as well about moving the action around but alas space is always at a premium in Dungeon and whilst it would have been great to detail other events one has to concentrate on the necessities of the plot - it would of course have been wonderful to have more words - especially if it was at the expense of a Logue adventure:)
Rich
One of my players clued me into a trick with fang dragons that might benefit Xyzanth in KotR...after he had beaten the mighty dragon, yes, but still...
Consider giving Xyzanth the spell antimagic field. Without having to depend on a breath weapon as heavily as his other dragon kin, this can give him yet another tactical advantage, especially if your party is composed of many spellcasters, as mine has been. While it supresses his own buffs, it's a cool use of the infamous spell.