a random wandering Mistmarsh encounter with a Giant Crocodile.
+11 melee, +12 damage and a 10' reach can hurt at level 6. A critical Bite or tail slap DOES hurt at level 6. :)
The party got into a somewhat heated verbal argument with Marzena on the way back to Blackwall and didnt notice the Croc until they nearly walked on it.
Still a fun module but I agree with the consensus that its the easiest of the AP.
Happy to say the spawns of Kyuss made their presence felt at the end. It was very much right out of a horror movie. Zombies leaping from around the corners, much tension, whole lotta fun.
I thought Shukak (even with his lizardman lieutenant) would put up more of a fight. I guess that's where improved trip shines for my players' fighter.
Let's see, EaBK highlights...
* the lizardman lair went very smoothly, with nothing really posing a threat and Red Eye (FR Shukak) going down like a mosquito. The big surprise came from the egg chamber. Its guardian was young black dragon (daughter of Ilthane that replaced kobolds), who in her last living spasm destroyed the egg. And as a result of lizardman eggs getting infected with worms there was a neat little swarm of kyuss spawnlings - stats based on this thread. Depleted resources combined with the surprise effect - two party members had almost bite it from the con loss (lucky rolls on con damage saved them).
I wish I had done something along these lines.
My group pretty much went through the Lizardfolk lair on the eastern side (avoiding the Otyugh :( , I love Otyughs for some strange reason).They pretty much avoided most of the encounters in the Lair with the exception of teh Harpies because of their song.
They also took down Shukak in short order, helped reclaim the Lizardfolk eggs from the Kobolds (they wouldnt let the Lizardfolk remove the eggs), and donated 1100gp for them to relocate the lair as Hishka is fearful of the Dragon's return.
The kicker was that my players didnt take the dragon egg or even get near it. They saw it, knew what it was and didnt even want it. They were afraid that the Dragon would be able to somehow track it.
So they missed the whole Spawnling scenario. <sigh>
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And as a result of lizardman eggs getting infected with worms there was a neat little swarm of kyuss spawnlings - stats based on this thread.
Hey! I started that thread! Glad someone got use out of it. My party managed not to break the egg and tried to sell it in the Free City. The gate guards inspected their goods, but dropped it on the ground =big pile of immature worms that almost started a riot. It was gross too :)
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The Giant Crocodile was a great random encounter. My players had a rough time with it as well.
I also threw an Annis hag in the swamp, too. She had decided that the Dwarf Favored Soul looked delicious. He survived, though.
Best extra, though, IMO. I included leeches (swarms, from Stormwrack). This really gave the party the true feeling of mucking through a swamp.
EaBK had one character death: the party's cleric was torn apart by the lizard barbarian after the cleric killed his mate. The party's wizard was also infected with slow worms, but she survived - barely.
One of the two parties I ran through Encounter at Blackwall Keep had a similar experience. The actual worst part of the module was the battle with the Kyuss spawn - with no cleric, that fight's brutal, especially since the party got split up with use of the fear aura and were picked off one by one.
But the second worst, and relevant, encounter was a random encounter with two ettercaps in the Mistmarsh. All three PCs missed their Spot checks and ended up suspended in webbing. The kobols warlock was reduced to 0 Strength by the ettercaps' venom, and had to be turned face-up so she didn't drown in an inch of swamp water. First time ettercaps have terrified my players since 2nd Edition's poison rules.
It seems that a good deal of the most difficult encounters were random encounters from the posts I've read. No different here. The harpy encounter could have turned ugly, but they were no good in a stand up fight to someone (like my party's paladin) resistant to their song. Shukak put up a fairly good fight, but only because I ditched the Bracers of Armor he was wearing, gave him a plain old chain shirt to compensate, and added the shocking special ability to his trident, and had him wield it two handed. Oh, and I rearranged it so that the party fought his lieutenant Kotabas at the same time, and they still had it pretty easy. I won't even mention the kobold rogues.
No, the most difficult encounter the party had was with a trio of ogres (two standard, one "advanced) who laid out a "roadblock" (they staked out one of the known trails) after the party ranger got the group lost on the way back to Blackwall Keep. I took them straight from the MM, replacing the 4th level ogre barbarian's greatclub with a greataxe. They could have avoided the whole battle with some good RP'ing or diplomacy checks (the ogres wanted money, not a fight) but the ranger got impatient and let fly with some arrows. The two lieutenants did not last past the second round, but once the leader got in range of the impatient ranger, it was chop chop and down he went. Of course the next target in line was the paladin on his hippogriff mount, who got himself and his mount hacked at. The party ended up winning, of course, with help from a timely augmented Mind Thrust from the party psion which fried the ogre's synapses. I won't go into more detail, but suffice to say that even with the addition of Marzena (as a 5th level battlemage) to help the party out it was the toughest encounter of the whole adventure.