Ok, my party finished up A Gathering of Winds on saturday night (finally!), and, much to my dismay, I find myself in a mildly annoying position:
They're a level behind the curve (the whole party is level 12, currently). As the Spire of Long Shadows is a fairly intensive adventure (read: hellacious meatgrinder), I'm looking for ideas to pad out the journey there and get the PCs a bit more experience.
Right now, my plan is to have Tenser "loan" the party his airship for the journey. The Airship will take the party as far as Sasserine, but from there the party is on their own. Because I don't know if the party will choose to take Tenser's offer on the fragment of the rod of seven parts, I can't rely on any of the wolf-spider encounters, though I am keeping that possibility open. Another couple of useful bits: Loris Raknian, Orokal (The PCs prevented the sacrifice, but Raknian and Orokal escaped justice), and the Faceless One (campaign twist. he's staged hit-and-run attacks on the PCs when he can get away with it) are all still at large in the world, just waiting to be used again.
So, here's my list of possible encounters:
During the Journey:
Illithane's mate, a Mature Adult black Dragon, catches the party's airship.
The Faceless one, mounted on his pet Dire-Bat, stages a nighttime raid on the airship. He lands, and opens a portable hole in the middle of the ship's deck. the Hole itself contains a kyuss wormswarm, which boils out onto the deck.
5 Vrocks attack, attempting to recover the fragment of the rod of seven parts.
In Sasserine:
Orokal and Raknian (properly advanced to be a challenge) ambush the party in a nasty street brawl. Hopefully the party would kill one or both.. and provide me with future kyuss-knight fodder.
Between Sasserine & the SoLS:
Beholder & Troll Minions, as described in the adventure.
Attacks by various demons attempting to steal back the Ro7P.
Various jungle/swamp encounters. I was thinking an eleven-headed pyrohydra or a pair of purple worms.
Any suggestions as to other encounters I could consider would be most appreciated - i like to have some variety in my list o' nasty things to do to my players.
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Your post reads to me that you have a lot of possible ideas to run with to make up that level easily enough. As the piece of the Rod of Seven Parts is fresh in their minds as a reward, I would suggest running the baatezu/devil encounter on their way to Magepoint as per the published adventure and build upon that theme. If they end up getting lured to the 40K gp/person offer for the piece, you can still run one more devilish encounter before the infernals realize that the piece is elsewhere. At that point, work your way through the queue of encounters you hope to run while they're on the airship.
For snits-n-giggles, I'd have a spelljammer ship give the airship a flyby to see how they react to such a craft. Make it simple like a hammership or a damsel fly and offer up some aerial combat of a ship-to-ship nature if you're feeling really tenacious. It can always be a ship of scro heading for the Orcish Empire of Pomarj with some weapon shipments for their terrestial-based cousins. Though not related to the AoW, it reminds the PCs that feces are hitting other fans in the world other than their own.
My situation is just as bad as my players are in the exact same spot. I have 6 players with no npc's and they are 11th level after A Gathering of Winds. I plan to drop about 10 encounters on them from Diamond Lake to Longsaddle (Magepoint). I am going to use the Devils as one of the encounters and I'm going to throw in a non combat encounter with a group of Harpers (Forgotten Realms) where I'll bring Celene out to save them from getting arrested due to their failure in Waterdeep (Free City). But yes I see a major problem with the meat grinder they are about to walk into at their current level. I'm definetly going to use the Beholder and his trolls, plus I'm going to add a group higher level Yuan Ti. By the time I am done with them they will be so sick of combat I can get them role playing more ;)
oooh man, I just came up with some good tie-ins that i'm gonna use....
I need to do a little bit of research, just to be on the safe side, but:
Since Tenser is sending them to Sasserine, instead of directly to the Spire, He must, of course, provide suitable contacts for the party. Those contacts will be.... Verik and Larissa Vanderboren (yes, The parents of Vanthus and Lavinia of the STAP).
The pair of adventurers has just recently returned from the long labor of creating the colony of Far Shore on the Isle of Dread. They can provide supplies, as well as a rough map of the Amideo Jungle for the PCs.
The side-adventure with Loris & Orokal will work perfectly... as Ekaym rushes to the Vanderboren estate with dire news: his sister Lahaka is missing... again.
They'll have to find and rescue Lahaka from Loris and Orokal, who have conveniently managed to Ally themselves with... umm... ok, i'll figure out who later.
Wow, I wish I had the opportunity to use so many good ideas as you have at this interval. My PCs were consistently ahead of the curve after Midnight's Muddle, so sidequests were becoming less frequent as a result. Still, don't be afraid to make them work for that extra experience, especially if there are more than four members of the party.
Personally, I'd forego adding any Kyuss worm heavy foes just prior to this adventure, as your PCs are sure to get their fill by the end of it.
Wow, I wish I had the opportunity to use so many good ideas as you have at this interval. My PCs were consistently ahead of the curve after Midnight's Muddle, so sidequests were becoming less frequent as a result. Still, don't be afraid to make them work for that extra experience, especially if there are more than four members of the party.
Personally, I'd forego adding any Kyuss worm heavy foes just prior to this adventure, as your PCs are sure to get their fill by the end of it.
Unfortnatly, my players have been, up until now, completely uninterested in sidequests. They're more intent on riding the rails than I, as a dm, am interested in putting them. they find a fragment of hte rod of seven parts, and their immidiate reaction is "man, we shoulda left this in the tomb, now we're gonna have to fight off attacks from people wanting to find it."
They were completely uninterested in any of the hooks I threw them for the midnight muddle, and just sat around waitng for things to happen. I swear, they drive me nuts sometimes because I have to constantly poke them to do ANYTHING at ALL.
Oh, and the reason I want to use a wormswarm with the faceless one is I'm trying to establish him as a nasty nasty baddie connected to kyuss, so that when DoNA rolls around, they know that mask, and those black and green rags, and are ready for a seriously nasty faceoff with the faceless one as a Kyuss-Lich (essentially, a lich with the favored spawn template thrown in on top).
though, in full consideration... I might actually try to keep him alive, make him the full True Necromancer progression, for the climax at the new spire...
Just imagine:
The party fights their way all the way to the top of the spire, defeating Lashonna, broodfiends, and dozens of kyuss-knights, only to arrive just in time to witness the faceless one reach out to the monolith.. and green worms pour out, consuming him, transforming him into a worm that walks and the avatar of kyuss...
hmm...
Skybleeder . . .
I'm having my party go by ship to Kuluth-Mar, via Gradsul--and I'm placing it much more remotely than the recent map of the environs of Sasserine puts it. It will take research to find out where Bucknard actually went--He visited the archives of the Matreyus expedition to find its location himself, and the PCs have to visit them as well to find a clue where he went and why. There will be someone unsavory who has beaten them to the manor, a necromancer who seeks to follow in Kyuss' footsteps.
And then there will be the journey upriver from the east coast of the Amedio to Lake Matreyus, and overland to the ruins. Piranha swarms, nasty parasites, fierce Dakons, unfriendly cannibals, etc. Think "Heart of Darkness."
We don't need no stinkin' teleport paintings. . .
Skybleeder . . .
I'm having my party go by ship to Kuluth-Mar, via Gradsul--and I'm placing it much more remotely than the recent map of the environs of Sasserine puts it. It will take research to find out where Bucknard actually went--He visited the archives of the Matreyus expedition to find its location himself, and the PCs have to visit them as well to find a clue where he went and why. There will be someone unsavory who has beaten them to the manor, a necromancer who seeks to follow in Kyuss' footsteps.
And then there will be the journey upriver from the east coast of the Amedio to Lake Matreyus, and overland to the ruins. Piranha swarms, nasty parasites, fierce Dakons, unfriendly cannibals, etc. Think "Heart of Darkness."
Sounds like you're gonna have fun making the party's life a living hell. I heartily aprove!
We don't need no stinkin' teleport paintings. . .
quite right. The paintings mechanic always grated on me, which is one of the reasons I'm going the airship route. The only issue I forsee this causing is in Dawn of a New Age - when (and if) the party chooses to retrieve the sphere from the Tomb of Horrors.
Unfortnatly, my players have been, up until now, completely uninterested in sidequests. They're more intent on riding the rails than I, as a dm, am interested in putting them.
I know how that can be. Different players--not necessarily PCs--require different motivation. Consider what things push their buttons to action. I'd only pursue the sidequests you think that the players themselves would want to go for.
Let's say that a player is a treasure hoarder, and loves money/gear. If you want him--or the rest of the party, for that matter--to get out and explore more, try having the respective players things "stolen in the night." (This is a bit cliche, I know, and isn't always the best approach, as anyone with an alarm spell will tell you, but for the example...) Maybe the only clue are some scales and a claw at the windowsill. Maybe asking around town if they've seen anything suspicious--to recover their gear--leads them to one of the townsfolk who an avaricious, demon-possessed weredragon (or something...), that leads to combat. The extra experience will help them get over the hump, so that if they express less interest in something later, they don't have to feel the burn for not pursuing something they don't want, anyway.
On the whole, look for those buttons, and push'em when they're not looking.
You may want to change those demons coming for the Ro7P to devils. After all, it's an artifact of Utter Law (tm), and I can't see chaotic outsiders wanting anything to do with it (assuming they can even touch it).
yeah, I know heirophantasm... unfortunatly I only know one of those buttons, and that's for one player.
He's a compulsive (at least in games) capitalist.... and his side treks would not be a welcome addition to the rest of the party: for instance, in the whispering cairn, I changed the iron balls trap to a stone balls trap, because otherwise he would have spent hours figuring out how to cart out all that iron and make a huge profit on it!
though I do have a new player (i've known the guy for a long time, never gamed with him) who is much more involved in the gaming than the others... I'm still getting a feel for his character, but he's a much more imaginative kind of player. for instance - he figured out how to make a rope bridge across the pillars room in Icosial's tomb. I have high hopes for his presence being helpful in giving everyone else a good kick in the (donkey).
ok, so, gearing up for this particular bit of fun...
The Faceless One, now advanced to level 14 as a wizard (necromancer. prohibited illusion and transmutation), will come flying up to the airship on his dire-bat mount. he'll be coming in at night, (this could get really nasty), so in all likelyhood, the PCs will be asleep or caught off guard. Important magical items that he'll be using: two rings of counterspells - one is loaded with dispel magic, the other is loaded with greater dispel magic.
Prior to the fight: Greater Mage Armor, Contingency (teleport) set to go off when he hits 20 or fewer hit points, Darkvision
Round 1: Casts summon undead V (libris mortis). I'm gonna substitue in A spawn of Kyuss for the high level monster, throw two ghasts and four large zombies right onto the deck of the airship. He'll also use his Metamagic (extend) rod to get the most out of the chaos.
If round one takes the pcs as completely by surprise as I hope, He'll lay down an Arcane eye somewhere unobtrusive on the deck, and direct his mount to fly above the airship (it'll be a blimp-type, so he'll get out of sight). If one of the PCs is on deck keeping watch, he'll forcecage or finger of death that PC at this point (forcecage for a heavy fighter, finger of death for a wizard looking type).
While he's waiting on the other PCs, he'll cast Fly (metamagic rod extended). Once all the PCs are on deck, he'll be back with a vengance. If it looks like it's taking the PCs a while to get on deck, he'll drop a delayed blast fireball, hoping to catch at least a few in the explosion - he knows he'll catch his undead, but he's expecting them to be cleared out rather quickly no matter what.
Round 1: if it hasn't already gone off, finger of death or forcecage given the previous stipulations. He'll hold his Quickend Fireball so that it hits the largest cluster of PCs.
Round 2: if there's a nice cluster of PCs.. here comes the maximized fireball and If there's a caster causing him problems, quickened Magic Missiles (none of my PCs use shield or amulet of shielding, mwahahah!) or if someone is near enough to the edge of the airship, he'll throw out Bigby's forceful hand and try to toss them over the edge.
Round 3: I honestly expect contingency to go off by this point and teleport him out of here. If it hasn't, out comes the chain lightning, along with a second quickened set of magic missiles.
Round 4: in the inconcivable event that he's still around at this point, throw down an empowered fireball on the largest concentration of enemies he can see.
ok, knowing my group, the conversations with tenser and this fight will take my entire next session. If there's time left over, Illithane's mate (a mature adult black dragon) will take that up. I'm also gonna say... i'm betting on two (out of five) PC kills this battle. They'll be up again in no time (thanks to james jacobs' cure mortal wounds spell), but this is gonna be fun.
Arise thread, from your vile slumber! Come forth, and live once again!
*casts thread necromancy*
Ok, session one of the interlude starts tomorow.
Here's my plan:
The PCs are currently located in the free city, and will be heading to magepoint. They will most likely windwalk the trip, taking a good 2 hours of their life to get there. I've got the devil encounter prepared, but I figure at the speed and height of the windwalkers, there's really not much of a way the devils can attack them there.
My plan to make the overall journy easier on me as a DM is to have tenser request that they escort his fosterling (a young male himan, in reality a young (large) gold dragon to his parents in sasserine, and while they're there to check out the SoLS for further information. since there's five party members, this means they can't wind/walk teleport easily.
yeah, It's a cheesy nerf of character abliities, but it provides me with some fun possible encounters. as shown earlier in the thread, they'll have their nasty tear it up fight with the faceless one and have some issues. The other encounter that should be fun is that, as they near sasserine, they'll actually need to pass near a part of the Amideo Jungle. A local black dragon (I decided to do away with the illithane's mate bit) does not appreciate the presence of a flying human craft in it's territory, and rises up to attack. (mature adult, I've got it statted out as a breath weapon specialist + melee). It should be a nice fun fight for the PCs, and I've got some cinematic twists in mind (the airship starts going down, the young gold dragon jumping in near the end of the fight to help out, etc). Mostly, I figure the party is gonna need one fun encounter where they can stomp some faces, after the nastiness of my higher level version of the facelss one.
If the ship goes down, they'll take some damage and have to see about getting the crew to sasserine, but it isn't nearly as far away, and should be doable by some windwalking and teleport inventivnes by the party.
So, there's my Interlude, part one.
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post script notes: I've been planning on a slightly different ending to DoNA than is given - while I love the cinematics of the sky boiling green and I enjoy the thought that tenser is very busy just keeping the dimensional lock going... I want more - and the young gold above ties into this.
Kyuss has a full flight of evil dragons at his command because of dragotha. The good dragons of the world can't and won't ignore this issue - it's too dangerous, and even without dragotha binding the flights of evil dragons together, Lashonna could probably do a really good job of keeping the remainder in line... until kyuss is ready for them.
So, the flights of dragons will be wheeling and destroying over Alhaster while the PCs are cleaning up all the bad things before they confront kyuss. when Kyuss emerges, (no, it's not gonna be a several round thing, it's gonna be a watch in terror kind of moment, hopefully) the sky will turn green, and green cloudlike worms will infest and transform every evil dragon in the city into something nasty.
Things look hopeless... until the cavalry (tenser, the gold dragon family mentioned earlier, and more good aligned dragons than you can shake a stick at) arrives. tenser and co will (cienmatically, no way i'm doing anything other than describing those fights) keep the wormdragons off the PCs back while the PCs take care of Kyuss.
So, this whole bit lets me forshadow that too, and get a really climactic ending going.
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My situation is just as bad as my players are in the exact same spot. I have 6 players with no npc's and they are 11th level after A Gathering of Winds. I plan to drop about 10 encounters on them from Diamond Lake to Longsaddle (Magepoint). I am going to use the Devils as one of the encounters and I'm going to throw in a non combat encounter with a group of Harpers (Forgotten Realms) where I'll bring Celene out to save them from getting arrested due to their failure in Waterdeep (Free City). But yes I see a major problem with the meat grinder they are about to walk into at their current level. I'm definetly going to use the Beholder and his trolls, plus I'm going to add a group higher level Yuan Ti. By the time I am done with them they will be so sick of combat I can get them role playing more ;)
I'm in the same boat. Same party size - same XP issue - though I built in some hooks early on to give myself some latitude when this problem cropped up.
For one - the PCs found a piece of the Rod of Seven Parts in the Whispering Cairn initially. It took them a long while to open the box it was in - they didn't manage that until Eligos managed to open it half way through the HoHr. But - point was - they have two Rod fragments now - which they assembled (I knew they could not resist) and they cannot now be unassembled and put back into their scry proof containers...
So the Devil encounter has its rationale...to a point. I'm pretty sure the party will be falling over themselves to sell Tenser the Rod to buy magic items with downtime though. They've been complaining about no downtime for magic item constructions for - oh - about a year or more now. I promised them they would have it before SoLS.
And they'll take it and want the money from selling the Rod to buy/craft stuff. In fact - that's a certainty. So I need a fallback plan after a spirited devil encounter.
I gave the party a vial containing an "Elder Worm" as part of the loot from the Faceless One during 3FoE. It took a long time for the right PC to do the right thing with the vial (PC had to be infected with a Kyuss worm for thr Elder Worm to awaken by taking over part of host's brain to drive out the worms) - but it eventually happened half way through the Champion's Belt.
Essentially, the back story is that this worm is one of the original "brain bugs" of the worms before Kyuss took the worms over and made them his. The Elder Worm is an ally of sorts - but his powers come at a cost. He is a psionic parasite and over time he uses part of the bearer's brain as his own. This brings gifts - and madness - of the worm to the bearer. It also protects the bearer from Kyuss Worms as if he were "Wormeaten" as the Wormhunter PrC.
The main reason I put the Elder Worm into the party was to justify the visions the party has in Kuluth-Mar. The visions are triggered by the Elder Worm and will be shared with the rest of the party via Rary's Telepathic Bond. (The spell is std op procedure for my players - they are predictable)
And of course, the Elder Worm sees the Harbinger as the traitor who facilitated the enslaving of his species by Kyuss. That should be fun...
I'm looking to prevent entry into the Obsidian Ring in Kuluth-Mar until the PCs *do something* in the city ruins first - probably linking it to the Elder Worm. This forces the party to combat some or all of the the Beholder, Demodand and the Yuan-Ti to gain the XP before heading in to the SoLS.
On that front, I was considering swapping out the Yuan-Ti or somehow grafting the Yuan-Ti in some way with the Spellweavers in order to play up that element of the backstory in the rise of Kyuss. It also plays up and foreshadows the Harbinger - who is too cool a villain to just be a throwaway. He has to *mean something*.
My situation is just as bad as my players are in the exact same spot. I have 6 players with no npc's and they are 11th level after A Gathering of Winds. I plan to drop about 10 encounters on them from Diamond Lake to Longsaddle (Magepoint). I am going to use the Devils as one of the encounters and I'm going to throw in a non combat encounter with a group of Harpers (Forgotten Realms) where I'll bring Celene out to save them from getting arrested due to their failure in Waterdeep (Free City). But yes I see a major problem with the meat grinder they are about to walk into at their current level. I'm definetly going to use the Beholder and his trolls, plus I'm going to add a group higher level Yuan Ti. By the time I am done with them they will be so sick of combat I can get them role playing more ;)I'm in the same boat. Same party size - same XP issue - though I built in some hooks early on to give myself some latitude when this problem cropped up.
For one - the PCs found a piece of the Rod of Seven Parts in the Whispering Cairn initially. It took them a long while to open the box it was in - they didn't manage that until Eligos managed to open it half way through the HoHr. But - point was - they have two Rod fragments now - which they assembled (I knew they could not resist) and they cannot now be unassembled and put back into their scry proof containers...
So the Devil encounter has its rationale...to a point. I'm pretty sure the party will be falling over themselves to sell Tenser the Rod to buy magic items with downtime though. They've been complaining about no downtime for magic item constructions for - oh - about a year or more now. I promised them they would have it before SoLS.
And they'll take it and want the money from selling the Rod to buy/craft stuff. In fact - that's a certainty. So I need a fallback plan after a spirited devil encounter.
I gave the party a vial containing an "Elder Worm" as part of the loot from the Faceless One during 3FoE. It took a long...
I like your idea about locking them out of the spire until they deal with denizens of the city. Maybe some sort of magical lock will keep them from crossing the obsidian ring until they find the key. So no flying over it or teleporting in.
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I've decided to splice in a substantial adventure to tie in the Spellweavers into the Spire of Long Shadows. By the end of the Spellwaever adventure (drawing upon an exploration of a Spellweaver ruin modified from SCAP's Secret of the Soul Pillars), the party should be mid 13th level. Any excess XP I will deal with by reducing XP for experiencing the visions within the SoLS.
The justification is that the Spellweavers (as explained in Dragon #338) can extend their lifespans of 600 odd years 6 times. At the end of this, their last life - they go into a rebirth cycle where they split into six creatures that bears some of their memories and the cycle of life begins again. Reproduction is entirely asexual and comes at the end of a Spellweaver's entended life.
Seen in this light, the Lichdom taken by the Harbinger is a grave offence to the much diminished Spellweaver species. Not only did the Harbinger give the Secret of Communication to Kyuss (who used it to enslave the necrotic worms) but the Harbinger then attempted to escape rebirth and death by choosing lichdom.
This was absolutely unacceptable to the Spellweavers. The Harbinger is seen is a traitor to their entire race and was imprisoned in the Obsidian Ring by the Spellweavers.
In order to pass through the Ring, the party must recover a Chromatic Disk and attune to it. Normally, this would destroy the disk. But the
Elder Worm can do it in order to open gate and gain entrance to the Obsidian Ring.
I'm still working on the details, but if you send me an e-mail at steelwind@dladventures.com, I should be able to send you the full adventure in a week or so if you want it.
Ok... so....
They arrived in magepoint, and had a week to do various bits. I was right, they wind walked it, and avoided any on the road encounters due to sheer speed and altitude.
I got some unexpectedly fun roleplaying in during the week's cooling their heels in magepoint. Given that magepoint is set up INC as an "adventurer's town to retire in," there were several small shrines, and since the group's rogue decided to take a level in favored soul of olidamarra and wanted to roleplay it a bit, He got pranks and sillyness and fun for that week. The monk of heronious decided to help with any charitable work she could, I said "sure," and handwaved that. The wizard locked himself in his inn room and made himself goggles of darkvision. The sorcerer set up shop fortune telling in the inn. The favored soul of kord had fun at the gym/shrine and sparring with other locals.
An off comment got the party slightly paranoid - they hadn't told anyone they had a fragment of the rod, but someone knew about it. The wizard started casting detect scrying every day.. and kept getting regular hits on it. This got the party really nice and paranoid by the time Tenser was ready for their appointment.
The argued for an hour with eachother before finally deciding to take tenser up on his offer of trade for the rod.
so, as above, tenser sends them off to sasserine in his airship. I make some random rolls... the faceless one attacks them on the fourth day out of magepoint.
It's late night, about an hour before dawn. The halfling rogue is on the deck when te forcecage hits around him. he has the ability to dimension door like a shadowdancer (one of the itmes I gave out for the Ro7p), so he gets out of it quickly, but the FO gets his summon undead 5 off on the deck.
Two members of the party wake up. the rogue quaffs his potion of invisibuilty to undead (the Spawn makes its save, the allips don't, and zombies are mindless). the faceless one drops a delayed blast fireball on to a spot near the hatch from below decks, and waits... the halfling rogue runs downstairs, as the sorcer, wizard, and monk run up onto the deck. the wiz notices the DBFireball, and uses his greater dispell on it.... the Sorcer chain lightnings the undead off the deck. The Faceless one responds by throwing in a maximized fireball followed by a quickened fireball. The monk takes no damage (imroved evasion), the sorcerer rolls double 20s and passes both saves, but the wizard bites the dust.
The favored soul runs up on deck and, using the spell [i]Cure Mortal wounds[/] (thanks james!) gets the wizard back up. The halfling, below decks, quaffs a potion of invisiblity, and then squeezes out a porthole. He draws the Lightning Sword, so he's flying, and invisible.
The sorcerer casts see invisiblity on the wizard, who promptly glitterdusts the faceless one (who is not blinded). the FO drops a howling chain in the middle of the deck, and quickened magic missiles strike the favored soul. the monk complains about having no ranged attacks. The Rogue flys up behind the FO (who only has darkvision on), and pulls off a sneak attack critical for 41 points of damage. It's enough hurt that the FO's Contingency (teleport) goes off, and combat is over.
End of session.