|
So we've already seen a few examples of this (in the "Interesting Resolution at All The World's Meat" thread), It seems this AP encourages some real innovative thinking beyond "Kick down the door", possibly due to the urban setting. So I thought a thread for people to compile interesting resolutions to the situations in the AP that come up in their games could be quite cool.
My party (Campaign Diary here) completely circumvented the Shingles Chase by sending Majenko (whom they'd "bought" from Devargo by bluffing madly to persuade him that the Raktavarna silver dagger was fabulously valuable) ahead to communicate with Trinia telepathically through the window in order to persuade her that they just wanted to talk and they'd smuggle her out to Trails End disguised as a Varisian woman to escape the mob. Who wouldn't trust a group of people who hang out with a very friendly, happy and well-fed pseudodragon? :D
Anyone else?
Majenko is worth his weight in gold. We didn't do the Shingles Chase either, for surprisingly similar reasons. (I don't believe the PCs would have done it anyway. It's not the way they operate.)
My favorite moment so far was the Major Image of a Shoanti barbarian warrior that staggered into Lord Spider's main hall shouting for vengeance, then cried out in horror as his fingers started to dissolve--he ran for the stairs, still dissolving, and melted down them in a trail of slime--the occupants of the room, of course, rushed out to investigate. They're still trying to figure out who the ghost was and why it came. In the meantime, the PCs slipped in....
They have tangled with Lord Spider twice, actually fighting him the second time; he woke up in his own bed the next morning with a headache. They're amused by speculating on who he thinks they are--they were careful not to be themselves.
The other moment I liked, though it didn't work out that way in the end, was the PC proposal to hunt down and destroy that infamous mercenary band, the Ermines--which they could have done surprisingly bloodlessly, since they *are* the Ermines. Getting paid to eliminate a no longer useful cover identity would have been fun.
Time for a new cover identity anyway; that one is way too hot. The PCs bought hats of disguise for everybody early on, and have used them ruthlessly.
Mary
Yes, the bard in my campaign hasn't figured out exactly how good alter self can be.
Yes, the bard in my campaign hasn't figured out exactly how good alter self can be.
Sadly, disguise self has too short a duration to be really useful. (I haven't looked at alter self, since the PC wizard is a Thassilonian illusionist and thus can't cast it.) But the hat of disguise is a devastating item, especially if you have one for each PC. The PCs in this party have pretty nearly complete control over whether they are famous or not, and for what they are famous--it's strangely empowering. (They have chosen to be known for a couple of their cleanest escapades, and *not* for their dabblings into blackmail, necromancy, and trade war.)
Our one limitation is that if you observe the restriction that the spell can't change your body type, there are not too many things you can disguise a pseudodragon as. Imp is the obvious choice, but our pdrags flatly refuse to look like imps. That leaves winged faeries and not much else. (Birds don't have enough legs.)
Mary
What about a quasit? Perhaps you could convince the pseudodragon it's not like an imp at all.
My party decided that they wanted to take out the Spider King and rescue Majenko at the end of the adventure (He stood fast on his 5000gp price for his plaything). Knowing his fearsome reputation and not wanting a long, draw-out combat, they pooled resources and came up with a plan. I added a couple levels to the SK and a couple more pets below deck, just to make things challenging. Then they told me their plan...
They bought a scroll of cloudkill and rented a boat. The sorcerer and cleric were in the boat, while the rogue, the ranger, and the bard mingled with the crowd on Eel's end until the wee hours of the morning, when the revelers either departed or were tossed out by the thugs. They hid themselves and waited.
The cleric and sorcerer rowed up to the aft end of the ship, the sorcerer levitated up and cast the cloudkill through one of the portholes and let it drift its way down through the ship's holds. The three other hidden PCs waited, then rushed the two guards at the doors after the shift change, hoping to take them out quickly and get in to finish their quarry off.
The battle did last longer than they'd hoped, but it went well. The cloudkill killed off all the big spiders, many of the smaller ones, and most importantly, Chittersnap. The Spider King awoke to some Con loss and arrived up on deck angry, confused, and unarmored. After he fell in combat, the guards left alive ran for it.
|
My group just finished the scenario at All the World's Meat this past weekend. After casing the joint and getting enough info on the street to ask for the "night's special cuts", they sent one guy in to hire the Cow Hammer Boys to take care of another member of the party. He gave them directions to Zellara's house, where they set up an ambush. Two Color Sprays later, they had the Cow Hammer Boys out of the way. They then proceeded to jam the locks on the back doors of the slaughterhouse, pick the lock on the front door, and sneak up on Verik, who was asleep at 2AM. Fight was over before it began.
While I commend them for their planning, they never asked Verik a single question, so the entire link to missing people and to House Arkona never saw the light of day. I don't have Escape From Old Korvosa yet, so I hope that it's not that important.
Which reminds me, in the description for Verik's room, the Raktavarna was piercing a piece of paper on the desk, but nowhere could I find what was on that or any other of those papers. Once again, I hope it's not important!
The link between Vancaskerkin and House Arkona isn't vital. There is a big enough hook in Escape from Old Korvosa to get the party right on track.
So we've already seen a few examples of this (in the "Interesting Resolution at All The World's Meat" thread), It seems this AP encourages some real innovative thinking beyond "Kick down the door", possibly due to the urban setting. So I thought a thread for people to compile interesting resolutions to the situations in the AP that come up in their games could be quite cool.
My party (Campaign Diary here) the Shingles Chase
Anyone else?
My Party, during the shingles chase succeed in arresting Trinia thanks to the halfling sorcerer who felt one stair down but use "sleep".
Another moment thaht I'd like, was in fact 2 times, they decided to have a strategy to enter in the "World's meat" and in Trinia's flat and in fact they made nothing they decided during 1 hour :-)The bard succeed in fascinante Devargo but did ask the wright question so it was useless :-)
|
My group just finished the scenario at All the World's Meat this past weekend. After casing the joint and getting enough info on the street to ask for the "night's special cuts", they sent one guy in to hire the Cow Hammer Boys to take care of another member of the party. He gave them directions to Zellara's house, where they set up an ambush. Two Color Sprays later, they had the Cow Hammer Boys out of the way. They then proceeded to jam the locks on the back doors of the slaughterhouse, pick the lock on the front door, and sneak up on Verik, who was asleep at 2AM. Fight was over before it began.While I commend them for their planning, they never asked Verik a single question, so the entire link to missing people and to House Arkona never saw the light of day. I don't have Escape From Old Korvosa yet, so I hope that it's not that important.
Which reminds me, in the description for Verik's room, the Raktavarna was piercing a piece of paper on the desk, but nowhere could I find what was on that or any other of those papers. Once again, I hope it's not important!
My folks did much the same thing with the Cow Hammer Boys upfront, save that they staged an attack and offered to pay for protection right on their doorstep.
They swung the other way in the aftermath, though. Interrogations of the Boys and Verik lasted a few in-game and table hours.
I decided that the documents were related to the former operation of All the World's Meat, and that Verik was fruitlessly studying them in an effort to run the place smoothly. I had them dated long before the present day to drive home the point that the place had been abandoned before Verik and company took up residence.