Following on from the various things I didn't like about Library of Last Resort (posted earlier), I decided to change the set-up for Kings of the Rift. To me, the adventures as-written smacked of the DM screwing the players over - they spend all this time on the island doing their quests, then at the end the knowledge they uncover becomes public domain? Nah, there's no way I could do that to my players, they would all say "why did we bother?!"
So anyway, I made it so that only they got the knowledge of where Dragotha's Phylactery was, and let them go to Kongen-Thulnir whenever they were ready. Depending on what they did, it was possible for others to find out what they knew and planned, but as it turned out Lashonna was avoided, and no-one else who could have told Dragotha was encountered, and so the PC's got to the Rift and found the city of Kongen-Thulnir as it would normally be, i.e. not assaulted by Dragotha's minions. I did throw a "random encounter" at them just before the city, that being Morginstaler, Red Dragon of the Rift (Oerth Journal 20), with the Fabler riding on him having just been taken for a tour of the rift. What happened from there was ad-libbed as I went alone, but it turned out that combat was avoided and one of the PC's actually went off with Morginstaler for a ride too, and eventually told him they were looking for something of Dragotha's. Now, because she was a great diplomat, and Morginstaler thought he'd use this info rather than just kill her, she was returned to the party and Morginstaler flew off to report what he assumed was some interesting information to Dragotha. Which it was, and of course Dragotha killed Morginstaler as "thanks", then sent Brazzemal off to investigate.
That was one of many ways in which Dragotha could have learned that the PC's were after his Phylactery, and where it was. Another could have been via the Fabler, plus I had some other options up my sleeve. What this meant is that when the PC's entered Kongen-Thulnir, it was a more peaceful place, with no dragon assault. That wasn't as much of a hassle to change as I first thought, especially if you can give the PC's a bit of leeway in using diplomacy etc to get into and about the place rather than be fighting the giants from the beginning.
For example, my guys made up various stories to the guards at the various gates as to why they were there, using the Fabler to help them out a couple of times, and managed to scout about the whole city, looking for likely places where the Phylactery might be hidden. Their guesses were pretty good, they basically suspected it was in the citadel, but also thought that looked a bit too risky of a first place to pick a potential fight (same as the palace), so after getting some more info from the local servants etc, they eventually decided the under-city would also be a good first place to check out, and went off to investigate this pit they had heard of. Which of course turned out to be a good first step, they easily slaughtered the giant leader there and captured Wilmot, learning the giant had dropped something valuable by the "mother worm", and so off they went, clearing out all the carrion crawlers with spells while flying then eventually triumphed over the mother worm through using a huge number of spells including a lot of walls of force etc to pen her in (one player said it was a bit like a game of tetris).
They are now deciding whether, having cleared out the whole area, they will rest overnight or push on to the citadel with the key (which, of course, they have no idea what it does, although they correctly suspect it will help them get to the phylactery). According to my time-line, Brazzemal has been to Kongen-Thulnir, surmised that the Phylactery must be there, and reported this to Dragotha, who has then dispatched a flight of about 40 dragons including Brazzemal to get it. So the dragons are about to hit Kongen-Thulnir any minute now - either as the PC's are moving about the city (if they leave the pit now), or while they are holed up for the rest of the day.
To handle this, I wrote a very brief "plan", using the material in the adventure as well as a few rules from Heroes of Battle, to guide what happens over the next few days. Basically, if the PC's press on quickly, they can get to the Citadel only facing a minor strafing run of black dragons lead by a green (as per the adventure), then they can actually see Brazzemal fighting the giant Cleric of Erythnul outside the Citadel; the cleric has a few guards and some Animated Tables helping him. If the PC's just watch, they will actually see Braz kill the cleric and his minions, tossing the clerics body into the rift, then fly off to attack the tower (as per the back-story in the adventure). If they are really keen, I guess they might dimension door over to join the fight, in which case it could be interesting, I've only made an outline of the cleric, and if Braz faces stern resistance he'll simply fly off to the tower and call in the blue Vermirox etc to deal with the Citadel. So either way, the PC's will encounter Vermirox etc at the citadel entrance. Unless they quickly run into the citadel, in which case I guess that's fine, good on them. If they rest overnight at the pit, Xyzanth is waiting to ambush them, and if they spend too much time in the city during the battles, they face increasingly more difficult strafing runs from the dragons, who are steadily winning the war against the giants. So I wrote up a quick outline of all this using victory points to help decide who wins the war, and at what points more dragons assault the PC's, although of course if the PC's get the Phylactery the war is going to be decided pretty quickly from there.
I think this will provide a much more organic, realistic set of encounters for my players. So far it's gone well, they do not suspect for one second that the city is about to be ambushed by a mini-army of dragons, so I'm really keen to see what happens at this week's game when they start to realise that Dragotha has learned what they are up to, and how they handle this new turn of events - will they choose a side to assist, will they wait it out and see what happens, or will they use the diversion to get to the Citadel (or maybe even the palace) as quickly as possible and try to get the phylactery before the dragons do...?
This course of Kings of the Rift is really great, although, alas, I will probably never play it, I will keep it in mind (my players are in TCB at the moment and I will have to find a new job at the end of the year, moving probably away). But what would you have done if your players had never told anyone about the phylactery's hiding place...without the dragon's attack you would have lost a lot of fun.
Sounds like a smart, fun twist on my favorite adventure in the Path.
what would you have done if your players had never told anyone about the phylactery's hiding place...without the dragon's attack you would have lost a lot of fun.
True, so what I had was a rough list of ideas on how Dragotha could find out what the PC's were up to in regards to looking for his Phylactery. As it happened, they hit one of the earlier options, but I still had a few up my sleeve for later if required. If they were super-secretive, I guess I would have simply had Brazzemal etc turn up once they got their hands on the Phylactery - sure, I wouldn't have had a great explanation for exactly how that happened, but the players don't need to know that.
Ultimately, what I was always after was a more flexible set of options in terms of giving the players more options, and letting their actions drive a bit more of the plot, but still actually have the ultimate plot (i.e. the dragons) unfold eventually. Hopefully in the process, I've managed to allow a much more sensible plot unfold as well (not hard, in my opinion, as the current plot is too heavy handed for my liking).
Hastur - out of curiosity, what were your "ideas" for how dragotha would find out?