My players have just hit a dead end.
The book give 2 methods that the player could find out about the Ruins, Artus or Toungeater. They have killed Toungeater and the party mage refused to meet with anyone at midnight, alone, in a dark place.
I have come up with a few ideas as to how they could find out by investigation. Food need to be bought so some merchent may have a clue. THats how I had Artus find out. also Weapons are needed for the allybashers so some badguy blacksmith may have a clue. The allybashers must know something. The players havent thought of any of these lines of questioning nor do any of them have a good gather info skill.
The players asked Shensen for help so she went off to get the Striders to look into the matter but I'd hate to just hand the info over for free.
Did anyone have any trouble getting the players to the Kopru Ruin?
My players have just hit a dead end.
The book give 2 methods that the player could find out about the Ruins, Artus or Toungeater. They have killed Toungeater and the party mage refused to meet with anyone at midnight, alone, in a dark place.
I have come up with a few ideas as to how they could find out by investigation. Food need to be bought so some merchent may have a clue. THats how I had Artus find out. also Weapons are needed for the allybashers so some badguy blacksmith may have a clue. The allybashers must know something. The players havent thought of any of these lines of questioning nor do any of them have a good gather info skill.
The players asked Shensen for help so she went off to get the Striders to look into the matter but I'd hate to just hand the info over for free.
Did anyone have any trouble getting the players to the Kopru Ruin?
We're not there yet, but the party is doing their investigations now. I'm going to get away from the whole 'yet another dungeon under the city' idea and have more of a scavenger hunt where the party searches around the city for the wands, following clues and miscellaneous trails until they track down Triel and her allies. I'll have to do something interesting with the undead gnoll to keep him in; the city would be a tough place for a slime-drooling gnoll to hide in.
If the party refuses to meet Shemswick the first time, you could have him contact the party again. After one or two tries, they should get the hint and meet with him.
I changed the kopru ruins a bit in my campaign. Instead of a massive underground complex, I turned it into a dwarven stronghold perched on an underground lake. The stronghold defends this particular entrance into the underdark. The stronghold was taken over by the last laugh and used to stockpile the jester coins and to enchant some of the cages.
It was a good session because the players got to use some stealth and tactics rather than just storm the place. I left out the allybashers (obviously) and removed Takilar (the gnoll). Instead I made the mooks a bit tougher and added an encounter with Jill and a few other assasins at the end. I set up a rivalry within the different factions of the last laugh to explain why Jill didn't just help the Last Laugh in the underground fort.
(this was before the HC came out, though, so another dwarven complex might get a bit stale in your game).
Or they might ask Jenya to use the Star of Justice as suggested in the HC. The riddle leads them to the cook of the Tipped Tankard.
Or they might ask Jenya to use the Star of Justice as suggested in the HC. The riddle leads them to the cook of the Tipped Tankard.
They don't seem to remember the Star of Justice, but we took a few months break between Lifes Bazaar and the Flood Festival in real life.
Also, Artus contacted them 3 times by note. the entire party went twice but on the 3rd try the refused to go again.
I think Ill let them sweat a few days then give them a final note.
The Star of Justice is a great way to go. I would suggest doing a recap of events for the first 15 minutes or so of the session and make sure that you emphasize the part it played int he first adventure.
Another alternative would be that Jenya thinks to use it on her own and then contacts the PCs with the results begging them to actually do something about the situation.
Sean Mahoney
I prepared a riddle given by the Star of Justice:
Descend to the lower ring
Where the drinking cup tilts
Between pots and pans
Gold will give it away
Of course my players accepted the first invitation by Arthus and while the rest of the party was close by send the rogue with 500 gp for the info.
My party started looking for an information purveyor very early. So, they got Shemwick early. Turns out, he is a useful minor NPC to have around and has helped individual party members in various ways throughout the campaign.
That said, I think Shemwick is an interesting NPC who, by my interpretation, is just now getting into the business of information. If his first attempts with the PCs don't work, then he needs to come up with some other way to make his information worth something. (Because without a buyer, it isn't worth anything.)
I think you should try discrete, direct contact by Shemwick with the most roguish of your PCs. He has sources of information so maybe he knows that the PCs are stumped. Once the first contact is made, the timid mage has no say in the matter.
Dedekind