I'm in a bit of a conundrum in my play-by-post Savage Tide game. The party has just washed ashore on the Isle of Dread at the beginning of "Here There Be Monsters," as per the script, and are preparing to head out for Farshore. One of the characters is a druid, and her player struck upon the idea of transforming into a winged creature and just flying all the way to Farshore within a day or two and having them send a boat back for the stranded party. I can't come up with a good reason to disallow this, but I don't want to skip over the entire adventure.
Advice? I know I could have them encounter Olangru and Fogmire during parts of the next adventure, but they'd miss out on the journey through the interior and the NPC interactions, not to mention the loot and XP.
I'm in a bit of a conundrum in my play-by-post Savage Tide game. The party has just washed ashore on the Isle of Dread at the beginning of "Here There Be Monsters," as per the script, and are preparing to head out for Farshore. One of the characters is a druid, and her player struck upon the idea of transforming into a winged creature and just flying all the way to Farshore within a day or two and having them send a boat back for the stranded party. I can't come up with a good reason to disallow this, but I don't want to skip over the entire adventure.
Advice? I know I could have them encounter Olangru and Fogmire during parts of the next adventure, but they'd miss out on the journey through the interior and the NPC interactions, not to mention the loot and XP.
the Isle of Dread is pretty dangerous for the party, it would be even harder alone. Sure the druid is flying, but there are plenty of flying monsters she would have to deal with.
I wouldnt disallow it, but I would suggest a wisdom check DC10 to know that its a bad idea. and if they do it anyway, show them why its a bad idea quickly so they still have time to turn around and join the rest of the party.as far as loot and XP, if your players don't earn it thats their problem as I see it.
Advice? I know I could have them encounter Olangru and Fogmire during parts of the next adventure, but they'd miss out on the journey through the interior and the NPC interactions, not to mention the loot and XP.
Two answers:
(1) Pterodactyls, gargoyles, wyverns, green dragons, etc. (Less work, more railroading.)
(2) Let them do it, and (as has been suggested in other "the PCs might skip 'HTBM'" threads) interweave various components of the scenario into "Tides of Dread", along with pseudo-random encounters to boost XP; adjust encounter difficulty for the two scenarios as necessary, and perhaps let the lost loot be the price they pay for cleverness. (More work, less railroading.)
Frankly, I'd lean towards option (1), since for me, the whole point of running <cite>Savage Tide</cite> is to make less work than creating scenarios from whole cloth. I'd also talk to my players and make sure they were okay with this from an out-of-character perspective, but my group and I have that kind of relationship. (We discussed before starting the campaign that it might get a little railroady at points, and they agreed to not try to derail things too badly.)
Thanks for the input. I think the other players are going to talk the druid out of it anyway for IC reasons.
I had the same exact problem. I put some cliffs with a plethora of sea caves near the crash site. That night, flocks of Wyvrens (hundreds of them) swarmed out to feed on flocks giant fruit bats. This made the PC's too scared to even attempt flight. Also, whenever they were in the jungle with a thick, sky blocking, canopy of trees above them I would make sure to have some giant flying creature fly over I'd tell them they couldnt see it clearly through the canopy just hear it, and feel the massive thumping of "its" wings.... Worked like a charm. Without too much overt railroading it kept them on the ground for most of the adventure.
Not really much help available in Farshore anyway - though your players have no means to know this. They might know a few tidbits from discussions on-board.
Farshore has no ships except possibly the Blue Nixie.
Farshore is a pretty civilian place - the help they can get pretty much amounts to the Jade Ravens - again assuming the Blue Nixie made it.
Well if for whatever reason: If your druid does fly ahead. The rest of the party are still open against ground predators and sea predators. The T-rex could come back for some easy picking at night if he wasn’t been slain, or other predators attracted by the carcass; and constantly terror bird attacks? Not to mention a certain Plesiosaur.
Even if they mange to fend off attack after attack ever day/night, corpses could start piling up, attracting more predators and causing uninhabitable living conditions, forcing the party to press on.
Also what to say that Flight isnt impaired by the dimentional rift caused by the Shrine to DemiGorgan. If your Druid insists on Flying in the direction to where he "Thinks" Farshore is let him. And just when he above the area of the shrine have him back track without the druid noticing. It should unnearve the P.Cs that physics on the Isle of Dread are not normal. Give the whole experiance a kinda of "LOST" feel tell the Druid hes ben flying all day but tell the rest of the party he was only gone for 30 Minutes, the P.C should relaize something weird is going on.
Although the worst of the storm has passed, the weather is still unpredictable. The Druid may not even be able to find Farshore.
Also once he gets there, who says there is even a boat to come and get the party, isn't that why they are coming here in the first place.
The blue Nixie could be undergoing repairs and it could take a couple of weeks before it is ready to be seaworthy.
All sorts of reason to keep them going accross the land.