My players are juuuust about finished up with City of Broken Idols (silly-heads made a bee-line to Khala, I tell you, a bee-line), They managed to defeat him after a prolonged battle and are resting the night in the long tunnel just off of 44 on the 3rd Temple level, before going back to try and clean out whatever's left in the areas they missed.
Here's where I'm forseeing difficulties. My wise-acre players decided to windwalk to Taboo Island from Farshore, and, after having cleaned out the temple, are planning to windwalk back to the town. Which will, in effect, mean that they will have been away from Farshore for about two days. This kind of strains credibility for the abduction of Lavinia and the preparations of the Jade Ravens and Harliss' dream message... and I dunno.
I've been toying with the idea of maybe declaring there's been some sort of time dilation occuring in the temple, given its proximity to a being of power such as Khala, or the thinness of the veil between planes here, but that feels kind of cheap to me.
I am gratefully accepting suggestions at the moment, which will be received with cries of girlish glee, and the promise of cookies that will, saddly, most likely never be delivered.
I am gratefully accepting suggestions at the moment, which will be received with cries of girlish glee, and the promise of cookies that will, saddly, most likely never be delivered.
So it's railroading of the highest order, sure, but if there's anyone still around the area (or even among the list of random encounters) that has a Greater Dispel handy, you can delay your players for at least another day or two by popping one of them out of Windwalk (provided, of course, that your party doesn't think to take it twice). Just flat out fudge the spot check necessary -- you gotta think that you'll get at least one of the PCs with an area dispel.
Failing that, there's all sorts of plot hooks you could throw them to make them stay away from Farshore for an extended period of time -- perhaps the easiest to set up would be an encounter with one of the infamous seven. The dragon comes to investigate the sounds of battle from the island; they catch a glimpse of the ankylosaurus while soaring above, etc.
If even that doesn't work for you, who's to say that the abduction of Lavinia happens while they're at Taboo Island? Give the players some well-deserved downtime, then send them to any number of sidequests that takes them out of Farshore again -- a negotiation with one of the Olman tribes, a pearl-hunt in masher water, or even just a voyage around the perimeter of the Isle to map the coast for the Emerald Crest.
"Wind Walk"... *groan* (such a stupid, athmosphere-killing, semi-broken spell....)
One idea - since the players go into a "gaseous form" state and then effectively get blown to their destination, have the Isle getting hit by one massive Typhoon, thunderstrikes (close to the chacters, if possible) , heavy rain falling in gushing sheets and tremendous winds buffeting the mountains.
Going into "aerial transport" mode in that should be...... discouraged (and is a rare enough condition as not to affect game-balance if someone is worried ).
If they still do (people have suicidical tendencies at times ) .... have them be blown off-course as far as you like (I would recommend a strong southerly wind for that - makes "wind walking" into it even more absurd. Give some Survival checks or Reflex saves or be blown off the Isle (possibly all the way to Renkure or the coast near Tamoachan ).... Let them land "safely" some place utterly out of the way and give them your best, most "benevolent GM" smile, giving them the impression they got off lightly
This also provides a nice, dramatic background for "V"s ressurection - always far better with dramatic flashes of lightning, torrents of rain and shrieking winds.....
Another idea - have some spirits of the ancient Olman Gods or Ancestors meet and challenge the characters, inviting them to travel to the Hidden Citadel to meet the Olman ancestors residing there, which allows you to impart some background knowledge as "stellar wisdom" to the group. Have them tell the story of the aboleth citym how Tlaloc's Tear was created and hint at how the ancient Olman city was destroyed. include some information and gances at future events in the campaign to make it worth the players time to listen to the rich background being explained to them....
For example telling the group how many times the Kopru send up the finished pearls to be taken away by the Crimson Fleet, and dropping some names and hints as to the Crimson Fleet's hierachy etc. should prove interesting and helpful, without taking out to much of the surprise later on. Drop a hint about Dagon, Demogorgon's madness and numerous enemies to foreshadow EoE...
Than, after two or three days (possibly with the group being caught by a sudden tropical storm while up in the Citadel, making leaving nigh impossible ... see above ), let the Ancestors gift the group with some (limited availability) powers (like those provided by planar touchstones - compare Compl. Arcane etc. ) and send them off to their doomed future. In the meantime, Farshore had its "Day of the Dead"
Option Three - if the group has not left the underground catacombs yet, let those crumble as a (massive) earthquake follows the death of Khala, rumbling through the volcano and toplling the works of men. Have the characters getting trapped below, with teleports etc. apperantly flumoxed / impossible due to severe magical /magnetical /quantum flux caused by the shattering of Khala's web of arcane energy flows. The group will be trapped underground for a couple of days, needing to dig out (not that hard with 'disintegrate' etc. ) or find an underwater escape route to extricate themselves from the buried ruins..... Have the waters rise steadily to provide some thrill and added hazard.
Option four - with the death of Khala, a massive magical vortex is triggered sucking all magic into the depths of the volcano, (temporarily) draining the players of all spells and suppressing their magical equipment as "the magic goes away" for a few moments, then reasserts itself. The players looka round in rapt terror, as mist starts to roll up from the Crater Lake, enclosing them, bereft of their magical aids and weaponry for once..... will they venture out into the mist and challenge the hidden terrors (if any... =) ) out there or sit it out, waiting until the magic has grown strong enough....
Hope some of that is helpful, my personal favourite is option one though, for its sheer savageness. being caught in typhoon atop a cloudscraping mountain, surrounded by blastas of lightning and unfettered elements.... priceless. Even heroes should be humbled in the face of Mother Nature....
Good Luck
If I remember that part of the module correctly, once Khala is killed, the real Demogorgon's eyes appear in the sky to glower at the PCs. If they haven't left the temple yet, there's nothing that says that Demogorgon's rage doesn't also create a evil-induced tropical storm in the area.
My PCs also used windwalk to arrive at the plateau and also made a beeline for Khala so I had the exact same concern.
They were slaying the skinwalkers without much challenge so I gave it a twist. Once they conquered Khala I had them use their Knowledge (Religion) to figure out the that his area was a formerly an altar to the Olman gods and could be used for special purpose. (Rissashtak or Jakara could also give some clues about this.)
Once the altar was re-consecrated they could use it bring back the Olman who had been turned into Skinwalkers. They would need to use the Olman sunsword to cut the demon skin from the man on the altar then cast Heal to fix the flesh and the mind. (It being the sword of an Olman hero and whole idea of the blood sacrifices that the Olman gods demanded made it perfect.) If their priest succeeded at Caster Level check of 20 (Not hard with the Karma bead from the many Strings of Prayer Beads in this path) they now had a rescued and very grateful Olman villager. Failure meant a dead villager but still one less skinwalker.
This had the effect that the party wanted to explore all the ruins to find all the remaining Skinwalkers and the added difficulty of catching them alive. Then they had to spread out and catch all the other tribes roaming the thorps on the plateau. (Once they had a good method down I just told them it take s X number of days to round up all the rest rather than run repetitive encounters.)
It worked great. After a week of this they sent someone to check in on Lavinia and report their success triggering the start of the next adventure with nice timing. No railroading, major additions to the adventure or rewriting the plot needed... :)
Let them return and rest. Lavinia and the Jade Ravens take out the Blue Nixie to do some scouting of nearby islands. That's when V returns.
Hmm...PCs might just windwalk though to catch up to the Jade Ravens.
Have a cave in block all previous exits, while creating a passage into the Underdark of the Isle of Dread, forcing them to take a separate route out to the surface, one that takes a few days of travel. You could even transplant some of the rooms from the Taboo Temple into this "Underdark Dungeon", so you can give them something to fight.
Alternately, Khala's death immediately gets Demogorgon's attention, who makes Vanthus into a death knight right away. Vanthus' abduction of Lavinia seems to be the kind of thing which would only take (including the preparation in Scuttlecove) an hour or two. I don't think your players' expediency will hinder the plot.
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My players are juuuust about finished up with City of Broken Idols (silly-heads made a bee-line to Khala, I tell you, a bee-line), They managed to defeat him after a prolonged battle and are resting the night in the long tunnel just off of 44 on the 3rd Temple level, before going back to try and clean out whatever's left in the areas they missed.
Here's where I'm forseeing difficulties. My wise-acre players decided to windwalk to Taboo Island from Farshore, and, after having cleaned out the temple, are planning to windwalk back to the town. Which will, in effect, mean that they will have been away from Farshore for about two days. This kind of strains credibility for the abduction of Lavinia and the preparations of the Jade Ravens and Harliss' dream message... and I dunno.
I've been toying with the idea of maybe declaring there's been some sort of time dilation occuring in the temple, given its proximity to a being of power such as Khala, or the thinness of the veil between planes here, but that feels kind of cheap to me.
I am gratefully accepting suggestions at the moment, which will be received with cries of girlish glee, and the promise of cookies that will, saddly, most likely never be delivered.
Two days is enough time for Vanthus to abduct Lavinia. Have him go ahead and do it. For the Jade Ravens, have them be at see on an errand for Lavinia so that both are gone when the PC's return. Then the PC's sweat it out in farshore for a few days until they get Harliss Javelle's dream message. You could have it such that the Jade Ravens return to farshore after the PC's leave, in which case they aren't in Scuttlecove. Alternatively, have them attacked by a Crimson Fleet pirate vessel while at see and consequently captured and brought to Scuttlecove independent of Lavinia. In that scenario, they are still in Scuttlecove when the PC's arrive, but for different reasons than the adventure states.
Hope that is useful.
If even that doesn't work for you, who's to say that the abduction of Lavinia happens while they're at Taboo Island? Give the players some well-deserved downtime, then send them to any number of sidequests that takes them out of Farshore again -- a negotiation with one of the Olman tribes, a pearl-hunt in masher water, or even just a voyage around the perimeter of the Isle to map the coast for the Emerald Crest.
This would be my suggestion. Just change the timeline. No railroading, no tweaking encounters and rules, no unhappy players. They don't know when things are supposed to happen, so you have the advantage. Just let them do what they are going to do. Give them downtime. Make it easy for them to travel to somewhere else or give them a juicy side quest and when they return, V has snatched Lavinnia.
If I remember that part of the module correctly, once Khala is killed, the real Demogorgon's eyes appear in the sky to glower at the PCs. If they haven't left the temple yet, there's nothing that says that Demogorgon's rage doesn't also create a evil-induced tropical storm in the area.
I like the storm idea, it would make the one which crashed them in SWW less of a plot device. I would also separate them into different parts of the isle or even other isles. They have to make their individual ways back or to each other, but that is catered to my players (splitting up is how I instill panic in them :) I am sure they will want side treks, so no change is a good too. This set of eyes though is intriguing so I would add the special effect of the eyes flying off to farshore (ymmv star treks jump to warp). Or somehow let them think V's coming back is directly related to their actions. HMMMmmmm I think One way or the other I think I want the PCs to feel responsible for coming V's return. Maybe returning skinwalkers to Olman as above...
Aarrgg you have me thinking way too far ahead (just finished bullywugs gambit). Dang Savage Tide has been and will be fun!
The problem with simply going to underground passages etc. would be that a "normal" group would likely have teleport in their magical arsenal, and be able to return to Farshore by means of that.
just some more salt for the soup
How did it turn out? Who won the cookies? :)