My players have reached the Sargasso. They spent a few hours trying to figure out what was going on. The Druid in the group took a flight form and flew around to get a better idea of the Landscape. The other players tried a few different things to get the boat free. They explored the Rage, found the journal and ran as fast as they could from the 3 Assassin vines inside the boat.
Eventually they all came together, and shared what they had discovered and tried to come up with a plan. Their plan? get to the heart of blackness as quickly as possible. They set out. It started to get dark. I prepared to run the Vine Horror encounters - and then the wizard cast Rope Trick.
With a single spell, they slept safely avoiding the encounters. Yes, he had to cast it a second time (and he had a second one prepared). I used the down time before he recast it to attack them with one wave of Vine Horrors but that was it.
So now what? What would you DM's do? I am going to have the Sea Wyvern attacked - and some passengers will go missing. But what can I do about my players? I don't want to force encounters on them, but at the same time they've just avoided quite a bit of experience.
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It's been a while since I flicked through the adventure - I'm just wondering if the Mother can see through the 'eyes' of the Assassin Vines or Vine Horrors. If the prey disappears up a rope and come back in the same place later, it would make sense for them to keep patrolling that area. You could have them see at least one in the region at regular intervals, and occasionally more.
Then they can pick the right moment to slip back down, fight their way through a few plant beasts with their recharged spells etc. and meet a final wave of them half way to the lair. They'll never know how many they missed but you can certainly hint that they saved themselves a lot of bother :) It won't be the Aliens style grind but everyone will have some fun.
It's too early in the morning for a more creative solution, sorry!
They have to advance sooner or later. The pic in the adventure shows some horrors rising from the sargasso in daylight, though dark cloud cover is rolling overhead. Perhaps that is not what the adventure intended to occur (I think I remember something about the horrors retreating once the sun rises), but if your PCs are being exceptionally dodgy, a bit of gloomy overcast should give the horrors decent overtime hours. They can wreak havoc on the Sea Wyvern while they're away, too.
But in all honesty, if they're going to be a bit behind on XP it should balance itself out in the future as they see greater rewards for the victories they actually stick around for. And if they are to weak to take what's coming after a certain point, they should know they only have their own yellow hides to blame! : )
When they hole up for the night, whip out some pregen character sheets for the important NPCs back at the Sea Wyvern. They play those NPCs defending the Sea Wyvern for the night, and their main characters get xp matching whatever the NPCs earn... if they survive. If they burn through a limited supply of expendable NPCs, game over. It doesn't matter if they beat the Mother of All if they don't have enough manpower to move the boat anymore.
My players were pretty fast on this one too. Their cleric was a master seaman and rolled well on his knowledge check regarding the Sargasso. He pretty much figured out right away that they needed to boot it to the heart and find the mother of all or they were done. The party force marched and made it there on the first day, but I hit them with a couple of extra vine horrors in the Thunderer. Overall they are a little behind in xp right now, as we're on the isle of Dread, and they've missed out on some in Here There be Monsters as well, but things aren't too bad. We have 3 PCs at 7th and 1 still at 6th. I am going to try and make sure they are all 8th before the shrine to demogorgon or else they may get slaughtered.
Bear in mind that xp is awarded for challenges overcome, not for monsters killed. If they hustle to the Mother of All and kill her, evading her spawn along the way, they deserve some xp credit for avoiding pointless and unending battle. Similarly, if they move exceptionally slowly and end up fighting more vine horrors than expected, there's no reason to keep giving them full xp credit for fighting more of the same old thing.
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Bear in mind that xp is awarded for challenges overcome, not for monsters killed. If they hustle to the Mother of All and kill her, evading her spawn along the way, they deserve some xp credit for avoiding pointless and unending battle. Similarly, if they move exceptionally slowly and end up fighting more vine horrors than expected, there's no reason to keep giving them full xp credit for fighting more of the same old thing.
Good point and it is pretty easy to make up the lost XP with a sidetrek or some cool "random" encounters.
FH
My suggestion is to not penalize them for smart tactics. Allow them to run some NPCs back on the Sea Wyvern during the night while they sleep safely in their extradimensional campsite as a "Meanwhile... back at the Sea Wyvern..." type of thing so they get an idea of just how important it is that they GTFO of the sargasso.
You may even opt to award some ad hoc XP to them if they play their roles as whatever NPCs you assign them particularly well.
This part of the adventure can be pretty darn brutal, be grateful that your players are thinking smart so you can avoid a TPK. The fight with the Mother of All is still going to be damned tough and one or two of them may still die.
The mother of all is pretty tough, but I'm finding Here there be Monsters even more of meat grinder. I think that the Shrine of Demogorgon is going to be brutal.
:)
:)
Oh, look at that. You made Rich happy.
Next thing you know he'll be screeching "Mnaaaaaaaaar!"
Thank you for the advice everyone.
I think I may run a "back at the Sea Wyvern" scenario with them playing NPCs, then award them experience based on how well they played out the scene. Thanks for the interesting idea, I wouldn't have ever considered that.
At least this way I can keep things as they are in that chapter, without adding a bunch of extra encounters or side adventures.
I was sure to make the implication that if the party just left all of the NPC's back at the ship overnight by themselves that they could come back to an empty ship.
Who would get them to Farshore if they just leave the boat alone all night. The PC's are really the only ones strong enough to defend the boat against 4 waves of those suckers.
The group can make it to the center of the Sargasso before dark if they scout around and then come back that first day and then tackle it by heading straight to the center the 2nd day.
Just my 2 cents.
Who would get them to Farshore if they just leave the boat alone all night. The PC's are really the only ones strong enough to defend the boat against 4 waves of those suckers.
I had Urol mix up an herbal concoction that repels the sargasso creatures that you can put in a line around the ship to keep it safe. He only had enough material to make two ship size rings. One for the Wyvern and one the use when they corner whatever is at the heart. This was to:
1) Give the PCs a little slack in case they did not find the heart right away.2) Give Urol a little more indispenseability to setup for the next section
3) Neatly avoid that logical loop hole at the heart of the sargasso. ("Why doesn't the Mother of All just transport away once she is low on HP and go join her army of children that are already advancing then kill the PCs...?")