There, it's done. 36-something sessions after beginning, we've come through Thirteen Cages. And for the moment, that's all we're going to play. I always felt the last two chapters felt tagged on to the end of the campaign, that really happened with stopping the cagewrights.
It's been a long time, with two non-remedied PC deaths, a huge amount of memorable moments, and a long slog through fights at higher levels. Now, ending the campaign before level 20 meant some players objected, and for their sake I will consider playing through Asylum too. And to mark its difference, I will insert a five-year time jump before that.
Anyone have opinions about Asylum, as an adventure? Tips for making combat smoother?
Whew. I am still somewhat shell-shocked with ending it. It's been a long project...
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I never really liked the way "Asylum" was set up, personally. The PCs heading to Adimarchus' prison, then breaking him out just to kill him, always seemed a bit anticlimactic and kind of unfair to me (I also didn't like that Embril, a constant presence in the campaign, is summarily driven insane by Dark Myrakul and disappears from the AP at the end - it robs the players from getting to take her down). When I get to the end of the AP (having just played my first session, that should take some time), I'm planning on having Embril try to capture the PC with the Smoking Eye template, then allowing the PCs to race her to Adimarchus' present location.
Ideally, they'll arrive outside Skullrot just in time to see the top of the tower explode, as Adimarchus rises into the sky and then disappears. After this point, the PCs would need to gather all of their allies and lead an assault on Adimarchus on his home turf - Occipitus.
Another alternative would be to take a look at delvesdeep's mods - he extensively changed the final two adventures. Check out therpgenius.com for that information, if you haven't already.
Gtatz.
and good luck finding help with the end game. There is lots of help here for the 1st half of the AP, but not to much help for the 2nd half.
With the advent of 4th, My players are looking to end this AP by June so they can try out 4th. I've just finished TotSE and looking to how I can crush a year worth of AP in to 2 months. I think I can do it (maybe) but it will mean cutting out Asylum(no problem), shatterhorn(no problem), and maybe (and sadly) soulpillers. The players goal seem to be... lets find the persons in town that are up to no good and scold them to death. That means that soulpillers may have to go and that makes me sad. I like the soulpillers.
Cutting out Shatterhorn and Asylum and/or adding a 5 year gap seems like a good idea to me. I never liked the idea that "A" went missing only 50 years ago, make it 500 yeas ago.
I posted my changes to the end of SCAP in different posts, but recapitulated them in Shackled City Alternative Ending.
Maybe you'll find some inspiration there.
I was never thrilled with the ending scenarios for Shackled City and have instead inserted the ending scenarios for Savage Tide. I changed a few clues to make it fit (e.g. deleted the pearls in Savage Tide to the Shackleborn in the SC Campaign, etc.) and am VERY excited about having my players go up against the Demon Lords for a few truly epic sessions.
Hurm.