I just ran the Froghemoth encounter in Champions belt and it resulted in a near TPK. The monk, cleric and fighter all ended up swallowed and dying in the gullet. I allowed the wizard to flee to the edges of the arena, and had the guards let him out so he didn't die with the rest.
The PCs had gotten as far as the room with the mohrgs and spawn, but hadn't yet seen the urgulstasta or cleric of kyuss. My thought at this point is that I may allow the Wizard to advance to 11th level, and have the new characters drawn up the same level and simply move to A Gathering of Winds. The new party follows up on the research of the old, finds the sage dead, and heads back to Diamond Lake. In the meantime, Raknian's plan goes perfectly, wights overrun Greyhawk, and the players get a sense of how bad things can be if they fail, giving them more motivation. What do you guys think?
I just ran the Froghemoth encounter in Champions belt and it resulted in a near TPK. The monk, cleric and fighter all ended up swallowed and dying in the gullet. I allowed the wizard to flee to the edges of the arena, and had the guards let him out so he didn't die with the rest.
The PCs had gotten as far as the room with the mohrgs and spawn, but hadn't yet seen the urgulstasta or cleric of kyuss. My thought at this point is that I may allow the Wizard to advance to 11th level, and have the new characters drawn up the same level and simply move to A Gathering of Winds. The new party follows up on the research of the old, finds the sage dead, and heads back to Diamond Lake. In the meantime, Raknian's plan goes perfectly, wights overrun Greyhawk, and the players get a sense of how bad things can be if they fail, giving them more motivation. What do you guys think?
That froghemoth killed two of our guys, too. Now everyone has spent all their money on rings of freedom of action.
* SPOILERS *
I'd be a bit leary of overrunning the Free City with wights just yet, if only because it will make the overrunning of Alhaster by Kyuss monsters in DoaNA seem clicheed ("been there... done that!"). On the other hand, if they're not actually on the scene for the wights, it might make a cool kind of foreshadowing.
In the meantime, Raknian's plan goes perfectly, wights overrun Greyhawk, and the players get a sense of how bad things can be if they fail, giving them more motivation. What do you guys think?
I did something similar. My players found the Ulgerstasta and killed Bozal Zohal, but they didn't do anything more than that. Also, several of them died, which left them with no team to compete in the arena, which sort of messed up Raknian's plans.
I had Raknian put the survivors under arrest, and then frame them for the murders of Auric and Khellik (who weren't actually dead, they'd just been moved into solitary confinement and later sacrifice).
Then, I had the survivors escape, and hook up with the new characters en route to Diamond Lake.
Meanwhile, Raknian tried to start his sacrifice later that night, offering Auric and Khellik up to the released Ulgurstasta in the middle of an empty stadium. The Ulgurstasta, as representative of Kyuss, was displeased with Raknian's failure, and consumed him (while Celeste, who had been hanging around to see what would happen), freed A&K.
The Ulgurstasta vomited Raknian back up as a Favored Spawn of Kyuss (instead of a Death Knight).
The necromantic effect still triggered, but it affected a far smaller number of people, and created a much smaller number of wights -- still plenty to cause lots of terror and damage in the Free City.
The players heard about all of this second hand, after completing A Gathering of Winds.
In fact, as they came out of the Whispering Cairn, several days after they first arrived, they were greeted by ragged lines of refugees leaving the Free City.
All nice and ominous stuff. They got the full story about it from Celeste first hand when they arrived at Magepoint, so the Free City got trashed, they only learned about it second hand, and it let them know that a) this game was for keeps, b) not everything is necessarily about them and there are events happening they aren't a part of and (oddly) c) also let them know that their actions had consequences, perhaps far larger than they thgouth, and certainly larger than they were comfortable with.
I was worried it would derail the campaign, but it turned out to be one of the most effective plot twists of the campaign.
The players heard about all of this second hand, after completing A Gathering of Winds.
In fact, as they came out of the Whispering Cairn, several days after they first arrived, they were greeted by ragged lines of refugees leaving the Free City.
All nice and ominous stuff. They got the full story about it from Celeste first hand when they arrived at Magepoint, so the Free City got trashed, they only learned about it second hand, and it let them know that a) this game was for keeps, b) not everything is necessarily about them and there are events happening they aren't a part of and (oddly) c) also let them...
Kind of what I was thinking, although I hadn't thought of the refugees (nice touch, and consider it stolen if you don't mind). I left the players with the impression I would have an NPC help them back into the arena, but they will likely take the new direction well. I have been having them helped by an agent of the Horned Society looking into the Hextorite heresy of the Ebon Triad, and I think that the new characters are going to be a part of that.
The party death was probably partly my fault. I started the Froghemoth within 30 feet of the party, but since it got initiative it moved within 15 to make a full attack. The cleric got swallowed when he tried to cast freedom of movement from within tongue range, and got grappled for his trouble. After that, it was all over. Had I started it 50 feet away per the adventure, at least one or two of the party probably would have gotten a freedom of movement spell, and it would have been different.
[I'd be a bit leary of overrunning the Free City with wights just yet, if only because it will make the overrunning of Alhaster by Kyuss monsters in DoaNA seem clicheed ("been there... done that!"). On the other hand, if they're not actually on the scene for the wights, it might make a cool kind of foreshadowing.
Good point! I do think I will have it happen off-camera, but this bears some considering before I make a final decision.
That froghemoth killed two of our guys, too. Now everyone has spent all their money on rings of freedom of action.
Those rings are worth every copper.
You know, that frog thing is really tough! I totally underestimated the difficulty of this encounter, thinking that the PCs would simply use ranged weapons/spells and take it out before it did much harm... wrong!
With a +35 grapple check, pretty much anyone who gets hit, is automatically grappled - which means swallowed the next round.
In hind sight, I wish I had adjusted the thing's grapple check, so that my players had maybe, 25% chance of success.
Ironically - the battle with ChainBlade, which I expected to be hard, was a total cake walk for them. I should have used 3 or 4 dwarves instead of just 2... oh well...
I was afraid this thing was going to mop up my party without breaking a sweat. Turned out the exact opposite. In fact, Champion's Belt was pretty easy for them (a couple of deaths due to player stupidity, but it happens sometimes).
Ilthane, on the other hand...yikes.
I was afraid this thing was going to mop up my party without breaking a sweat. Turned out the exact opposite. In fact, Champion's Belt was pretty easy for them (a couple of deaths due to player stupidity, but it happens sometimes). Ilthane, on the other hand...yikes.
Heh, totally the opposite when I ran my group. Ilthane got its scaly posterior handed to it on a plate... twice (I made her run away the first time). But the whole "Champion's Belt" adventure is right up there with "Spire of the Long Shadows" (dead men all over the place).
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Ran the battle against the froghemoth last night. It ended abruptly in the first round when the rogue archer scored an 'instant kill', using the variant critical hit rules from the DMG.
After the stunned silence that ensued around the table, the rogue decided that he had better donate his share of the winnings to the local temple of the Goddess of Luck.
I just ran the Froghemoth encounter in Champions belt and it resulted in a near TPK. The monk, cleric and fighter all ended up swallowed and dying in the gullet. I allowed the wizard to flee to the edges of the arena, and had the guards let him out so he didn't die with the rest.
The PCs had gotten as far as the room with the mohrgs and spawn, but hadn't yet seen the urgulstasta or cleric of kyuss. My thought at this point is that I may allow the Wizard to advance to 11th level, and have the new characters drawn up the same level and simply move to A Gathering of Winds. The new party follows up on the research of the old, finds the sage dead, and heads back to Diamond Lake. In the meantime, Raknian's plan goes perfectly, wights overrun Greyhawk, and the players get a sense of how bad things can be if they fail, giving them more motivation. What do you guys think?
You've probably progressed further by now, but you don't have to write off this adventure. Perhaps have the surviving wizard join another group still in the competition who's in search of additional manpower; of course, this new team the wizard joins would be made up of your players' new characters. The wizard could then convince them to join in the investigation of Kyuss, etc...which shouldn't be hard, if they witness the havok one ulgurstasta causes. General outline there, but it could be fleshed out.
J-
In the meantime, Raknian's plan goes perfectly, wights overrun Greyhawk, and the players get a sense of how bad things can be if they fail, giving them more motivation.
If I were a player, I would find that totally awesome. And yeah, the refugees are a great idea.