|
My PCs are coming up on the area in the lizardfolk's lair (Black Wall Keep module), where the kobolds have the chest with four cure lights in it.
Now, the notes say there's a DC 10 or 20 spot check to notice the worms (before or after being drunk? It looks like it's after) inside a container. Would the potions be considered the 10 or 20?
Also, once drunk, how is this handled? Is it just Fort saves every day until one fails? How will the PC know what is happening, or how to cure it? I presume a Remove Disease will fix it, so I suppose that once the cleric does one of those and finds it works, that could do the trick. Did you roll the Fortitude saves in secret for effect?
And lastly, did the slow worms in your campaign succeed in killing anyone?
If you have PCs rolling spot checks as their drinking the potions, they'll obviously know something is wrong. I suggest rolling the spot checks yourself, in secret. I would then have the PCs roll fortitude saves themselves, as they would probably feel a bit sick or woozy having a slow worm burrowing into the brain.
I've never had a PC die from a slow worm, but the monk/ninja was killed by Kyuss worms. He rose as a spawn and was promptly killed again. ;)
As for the Twisted Branch, my PCs are about to return there (after having won the Champion's Belt games) in hopes of learning more about Allustan's disappearance. They're searching for Ilthane's lair, apparently located somewhere on the western edge of the Lizardmarsh, as the wizard frantically contacted them through is last sending, saying he is the black dragon's prisoner.
Once the PCs teleport into the familiar tunnels of the friendly lizardfolk, they'll realize to their horror that those few lizardfolk who remain in the mangaroo lair have succumbed to slow worms, the lair infested with lizardfolk spawn of Kyuss (the evil work of Ilthane and her brood). Should be fun. :-)
|
As DM, I actually didn't hsve sny funny issues with the slow worm potions.
The party had no suspicions about the clearly marked potions. As they were leaving the lizard lair and returning to Blackwall, the party wizard was dropped to one hit point by a (not-so) random encounter with a recurring villain (a specially-enhanced and altered Balabar Smenk).
She stated, quite clearly, that she was popping the cork on the potion bottle and slamming it down in one gulp.
I figured that this action, in the middle of combat precluded the Spot check option. After all, would you be sure to look for the worm in a bottle of tequila if you had decided to take a big swig of it in the middle of a fire-fight?
The slow worm didn't end up killing her, but it did a whole lot of damage, and I made a point of describing the intense pain as if she had swallowed shards of glass and the writhing sensations in her intestines.
The party wasn't certain what was wrong with her, but when they got back to the keep and the Kyuss-spawn in the basement kept calling out to their "sister" to join them, she got really freaked out.
The party managed to get her healed in the nick of time, but the wizard had given the party's psionic wilder instructions to coup-de-grace her and burn her body if it looked like there was no chance of saving her.
The party wasn't certain what was wrong with her, but when they got back to the keep and the Kyuss-spawn in the basement kept calling out to their "sister" to join them, she got really freaked out.
That sounds so cool. As a DM, I love it when the players get freaked out.
Hmmm. I made the mistake of describing the potions as being contained in darkened glass bottles and my player immediately became suspicious. He had the DMPC wizard run an alchemy check on them, and the wizard rolled a nat 20 on his alchemy check. Bingo, writhing slow worm in the strainer. The contaminated potions became exhibit B when they brought all their stuff to Eligos, but didn't have the desired effect of infecting anyone. Sounds like the previous poster handled this much more effectively. If I run the AP again, I'll describe all potion bottles in the first few adventures, so that opaque containers won't seem out of the ordinary.
My group is in the same place (about to head into the egg chamber area).
My problem is that even if they get infected, no one knows how to cure it. I was planning on Eligos being able to tell them how to cure the worm problem in a victim before they die. I figured thats why they go to Eligos (in CB) as hes supposed to be the sage on strange monsters that Allustan and Marzena obviously are not.
Im assuming the PCs will try some spells by trial and error if one of them gets infected.
I decided to describe the lizardfolk potions as being contained within leather flasks to continue the primitive feel of lizardfolk gear. My players never questioned it.
As far as when to tell them how to heal the worm problem, I allowed my cleric to make a heal check to see if she could figure out a way. She got a good roll (with maxed skill ranks) and so I told her that the might be able to dig out the worm with knife and a heal check. I have also decided to change the way the worms can be extracted.
Round 1: DC 20 heal check to remove, no damage.
Round 2: DC 25 heal check to remove, patient suffers 1d4 points of damage regardless of success.
Round 3: DC 30 heal check to remove, patient suffers 2d4 points of damage
Subsequent rounds stay at a DC 30 as the worm is buried somewhere in the patient's neck drilling into it's skull.
I don't think that I have ever told them, nor have they discovered that a remove disease or remove curse would work as well.