Running Tammeraut's Fate

[DM Jeff]

From issue #106. I read it over the past two nights, and it's just the perfect thing for a halloween game this weekend. My PCs are 1 level higher than suggested, and there's 5 of them, so I'm currently using the 'scaling the adventure' bit to up foes and a few of my oen tricks.

I was curious if anyone had any cool experiences to share about this one or any tips I might want to keep in mind? Thanks!

-DM Jeff

[Greg A. Vaughan]

1. Keep everything as creepy as possible. Lots of unexplained noises, barely caught glimpses, etc. A lot of this is already included in the adventure (the ringing of the bell, the first figure spotted in the surf at nightfall, etc.) but build on this as necessary, and don't be afraid to add lib.

2. Make sure it starts as a normal-seeming adventure. Sure the harpies are a bit gruesome and lead to some questions, but all-in-all it remains a pretty typical adventure with the PCs having no idea of where it is headed. Remember, every horror movie starts out as if it is an idylllic family picnic--before everything hits the fan.

3. Don't let the adventure as written constrain you. One thing I have heard several times is that some parties have too easy of a time dealing with the zombie attack. If your PCs are like that, beef up the undead a bit (add another level to each, for instance) or add additional waves of zombies as necessary. The PCs should be fearing for their lives and praying for the dawn before all is said and done. Don't let a couple lucky dice rolls or over-powered characters spoil the fear factor. I'm not saying make it too hard, but make sure you keep it challenging.

4. Have fun with it.

[James Keegan]

Great tips, Greg (and great thread, DM Jeff). I plan on running Tammeraut's Fate for my players. They're level five now, so it may not be a Halloween adventure. But I would prefer it that way; they won't expect a zombie attack scenario in November!

My group is a special case, because I'm running a horror/mystery themed campaign and it is only two players. We have a paladin and a rogue with a bard and one other cohort that I'm still on the fence about. Keeping a cleric out of the party should be a major help in making the adventure all the more desperate for my PCs. Limited healing, no major turn undead panic buttons, stranded in one place: definite potential for serious frights.

Spoiler:

Also note that the mobs marching out of the serf have intelligence scores. Play them that way. They should follow orders, coordinate attacks of their own and keep the party off balance. The more intelligent attackers should be able to guess who a spellcaster is and direct their attacks in that direction. They should learn from their mistakes. It's much scarier if the players realize they've underestimated their foes.

Consider also the underwater section. I don't know how to swim, personally, so the very idea of going into the ocean is a little scary to me. But what makes it scary to anyone? It's a whole new environment. Their limbs are clumsier with the pressure and density of water; they can't react the way they would normally. Visibility is limited (keep this in mind at night as well; it's hard to make it work at the table but its worth it) and there are dark shapes darting about above, below, in front of and behind the PCs (and they all move more gracefully than the PCs). And be really strict about the durations on those water breathing spells and various other things. The PCs are out of their elements and magic can only protect them for so long.

[Dryder]

I remember DMing it and there was one scene where my players...

Spoiler:

...prepared for an ambush of the Drowned Ones during night. They put up a lot of traps in room7 and waited upstairs for the things to break and enter. Which they did. The moment, my players started to get convinient with peppering the undead using bows and crossbows, the more Drowned Ones started coming breaking thru the walls and windows south of the Gallery (where this little roof is below). Like in a Zombie movie where you see a face next to a wall and suddenly hands and fists break thru the walls and grapping whatever they can.
This truly scared my players and the wizard even ran away sadly into room 8 (which hasn't been search until than), where the balcony collapsed and he fell down, where still some other Drowned Ones waited...

Great, great adventure and fun to DM!

[Hagor]

I dm’ed this adventure as well a few years ago (modified it a little to better fit into my Middle Earth campaign) and both my players and I had a great time with it.

Things/tips I remember

* The first investigation of the isle should not be that difficult. There will be more than enough problems at night…

* The drowned ones have many special (and not so special – e.g. a high climb skill) abilities, with which you should be very familiar.

* The players will come up with all kind of plans to strengthen their defenses. However, the zombies are smart and there are many entrances to the place. I had them (or only the boss) climb to the roof and enter from there.

* It’s ok if the first wave of the zombies goes down rather quickly: (i) the players love it when their plans work, (ii) now you know how tough they are compared to your players, (iii) it is very easy to send additional waves (like I did), and (iv) the zombies will learn from their ‘mistakes’ (see also the previous point).

* I had some additional sailors (Harry “Handsome”, a scarred veteran sailor; Fortas, a young lad, and the first mate) entering the isle with the players. Red shirts anyone?
However, in my case, all of them survived at the end (2 of the 3 were in the negatives, though).

So, how did it go with my players?
The first wave was handled rather easily: the paladin got the back door; the druid summoned a rat swarm in the sleeping area, etc. Their main “safe place” was the room with the murder holes/trapdoors, above the entrance, where the sick survivors were also.
The druid then decided to hide on top of the wall outside the fortress and got a nasty surprise when a couple of the zombies climbed over the wall and nearly cornered him.
Later, their defenses got breached, and the main fight (including the boss of the zombies) was in their “safe place”. It was brutal! At one time, only the intervention of one of the sick survivors saved a character (paladin was still fighting at the back door)! It didn’t help that several natural 1s and 2s were rolled (and with the trap doors present, several people and zombies ended up in the entrance below). At the end, the boss also stumbled in one of the trapdoors. He brought the paladin to 0 hp before finally dying himself. After that fight, of all the people on the isle, several PCs, sailors and survivors were brought to negative hp. They then decided to barricade themselves in the tower, guarded by the assassin vines, but no more attacks followed…

Have fun with it!

Hagor

[DM Jeff]

These are super tips, thanks a lot everyone!

I caught early on some of the classic horror help I have here, what with the ferry not available till the next day, the one boat off the island already wrecked, etc.

I added levels to the undead where appropriate, and I like the hivemind effect, that will ensure the PCs know these are NO ordinary zombies.

I'll let you know how it goes!

-DM Jeff

[MrFish]

I find that with undead encounters too that you need to play up the intensity and fearlessness of undead. The drowned men should in particular seem unnatural, awful. A drowned corpse is nasty to look at. The idea of it moving is worse.

When I use undead in my game I always give little tips on how they died too. Ghouls tend to be somewhat mutilated--they sometimes walk a little strangely due to missing chunks from legs or they have half their face clawed to pieces. A Hecuva my pcs encountered recently had a broken neck and a broken jaw--he LOOKED dead, I described his head lolling brokenly and his voice muttering unintelligibly.

This adventure as said above is a sort of mystery--play up the shock of the discovery of what's really going on.

And good luck, I have not had a chance to run this one but it looks really fun.

[Ant]

*** SPOILERS AHOY! ***

This adventure is excellent and a lot of fun -- as mentioned several times make sure you really use the undead to add to the atmosphere.

My players were creeped out more than once. For example, when they found the body with its heart removed in the bell-tower and when the sun went down on the first night and they caught glimpses of corpses striding from the sea. First one, then two .. then a dozen! Was very exciting.

From memory, I'd tone down the hags a bit -- their ability to take out a player for days can be quite inconvenient (to the player, at least).

Also chuul are deadly! And don't forget that they're intelligent and can talk!

Virgil the seagull actually became a companion for a short time and then made a guest appearance (post-humously, I'm afraid) in a later adventure.

Just recently Janore has sent a missive to the party pleading for their aid once again (the party never closed the rift).

[BenS]

I'd just add that I thought having Peter Bergting do the art was a stroke of genius for this particular adventure. He's got that gothic, Mike Mignola-esque "Hellboy" style that I particularly enjoy.

[Greg A. Vaughan]

I'm sure you're all well aware, but I just thought I'd add for the sake of the longevity of this adventure, that Virgil also made an appearance in the final print issue of Dungeon (#150) on the very last page.

Virgil, the seagull that never dies....except in Ant's campaign above apparently.

[ericthecleric]

I ran this in March/April, with a group of 5th-level PCs, 4 of whom were run by newbie players. It went really well. What helped was a lot was that the most-vocal newbie also is terrified of undead- he didn't have to roleplay being scared, especially when I showed him the illustration of the diseased survivors! And for some reason, he just had the worst luck on die rolls against them, as well; he did survive the adventure, although he did get into negative hit points a couple of times, and got the zombie disease. Funny. :-)
Because there was a group of 6 or 7 players, I bumped up the zombies, giving them elite stats and a level of warrior each.
I did go easy on the PCs with the harpies' siren songs, though, because of a bunch of bad rolls by the players.

Greg, nah, didn't know about the last appearance of Virgil, as I've not received 150 yet. :-( Let me know if you run Clash- it'd be nice to know that someone's gotten some use out of it! (I submitted it to WotC, but they've not sent a reply. Nice of them.)

[DM Jeff]

* SPOILERS BEWARE!! *

Well, here it is the Morning After...

What a great time we had! The party really was convinced this was an off-topic adventure not dealing with undead slaying. I add-libbed a bit about the town they went to, and used the info to bring that little town to some interesting life. I converted it for the Forgotten Realms, just north of Baldur's gate, and you have no idea how great it was to swap out gods for Istishia of the sea and the Red Knight.

SO MUCH FUN I FELL OUT OF MY FRICKIN' CHAIR

I was full into the descriptions when the party came to the edge of the sea near the wrecked rowboat. I was trying to distract them from the true horror below (the chuul) with a cool "body looking up through the water dead" floating effect and my hands went up, my eyes rolled back, and I tilted, and...CRASH. My DM's chair took a flat-out smash into the floor. I wisely pulled my head forward to avoid brain damage, and the chair is this ultra-padded thing so I suffered no nonlethal damage.

I immediately sttod myself and chair up without missing a beat, looked at the five horrified players at my table and said "what do you do!?"

I also have to say I prepped prettry good but had forgotten the hag's truly horriffic "insta-dead" save. We had the very brief talk of 4e getting rif of save or dies, but by the GAWDS you should have seen the nervous sweat on Sven the Cleric's player when he picked up that d20. That's free adreline rush you can';t get if they take that away! The rest of the crew bravely and intelligently founds ways to boos their saves or negate the effect and they triumphed.

I must say I saw the Beguiler in a new light. That character nearly single-handly kept the Peryton from getting any true attacks for the first two rounds of combat, first with a 1-round blindness and then with a daze for the round. Very cool.

The party just finished defeating the zombies after a harrowing fight in the old house, and next session will go out to seal the rift...which i'll have to expand into a full night's trek. Thanks again for the ideas and thoughts everyone!

-DM Jeff

[GreatNPowerfulAahz]

Though I never actually got the chance to run it, I did play through it once and read it afterwards. I agree with Greg, in that the key to the players enjoyment has to be the creepy factor. Keep that nervous anticipation coming at all times. Desperation and dread go so well together... "mmmmmm....terror!"

I do recall some things our party did...
[/spoiler]

1) we spent some time fortifying our safety zone with debris(beds, tables, doors)then hunkered down in the murder holes room.

2) the party rogue (yours truly)spent a few hours setting up numerous traps with what was available:

-old dry books+ flasks of oil+ lit candles = flaming doorway trap
-all of parties daggers+ hammer+ wooden door+ rope= slamming spike door trap
-barrel of nails+ heat metal+ 1 good shove= flaming caltrops on stairs
-3 coils of rope+ sacks of sand= corpse pina`ta

3) the Wizard and Fighter took position wiith a wand of MM and a longbow at the windows

4) prayed to every god we could think of and waited nervously...

as I recall we all lived, some barely alive, but alive none-the-less.

[Greg A. Vaughan]

ericthecleric wrote:

Let me know if you run Clash- it'd be nice to know that someone's gotten some use out of it! (I submitted it to WotC, but they've not sent a reply. Nice of them.)

I haven't had the chance to run it yet. The party I'm currently running isn't quite high enough level and so far has picked up on any of the little hooks and clues I've sprinkled about for them. On the other hand, I've kept them pretty busy in trying not to die in the Slumbering Tsar series (not always successfully I might add), so it hasn't yet become a focus. I'm still keeping it tucked away for nice little interlude. Good luck with WotC, though.