So my group got bored with the mission I wrote for them (ungrateful snots) and on a whim, we rolled up some 9th level characters and i pulled out a copy of The Styes, one of my favorite missions. Now that were about a third of they way through, the group is really having fun with it. But there are two problems...
1) One of my players was studying for finals and missed the first mission.
2) Another player made an... interesting character choice that never got explained.
3) I read the sequel to The Styes and didn't think it was right for my group. Now I need to figure out what to do next.
The characters are as follows:
-Walter NG human cleric of Pelor
-Rat Goblinsplitter LG dwarf fighter
-Brogli CG changeling rogue/sorcerer
and of course...
-Tozan LE human fighter/blackguard
Why is he with these people?! To make matters worse the missing player is playing Woody, a LN warforged monk with technomagical implants.
I was thinking that since we are about to enter a combat heavy part of the mission, Woody could be sent from Mechanis to try and stop Thrazidun from gaining a powerful foot hold on the material plane. Though the PCs will foil Thrazidun, Primus or some other great being of law will decide that the continued existence of The Styes is to risky and will send some officers with war machines to destroy the city. Woody will now find himself a splinter agent and the PCs will work with the councilmen and their former enemies to take out the war machines.
All feedback is good, especially from those DMs who have run The Styes before. I'd also like ideas for war machines. I was thinking of some sort of sentient Astral ship with a modron crew and some sort of devil or inevitable as the captain.
I ran a campaign in The Styes for a while, fleshing it out with my own ideas and other Dungeon modules.
My suggestion for the blackguard: if he's lawful evil, he may be working with Councillor Thornwell against Mr. Dory. And if he's got an interest in someday ruling the city himself, why would he want to allow someone else to destroy it? He may not like the good characters and they may not like him, but they have one goal in common. As for what happens next: it's up to you. There's plenty to work with; you may look into the background and note that another Councillor, one Mr. Rashlen, has a manor reportedly guarded by half-construct troops. Maybe the warforged has something to do with that or maybe Rashlen stole the construct limbs and the secret of those implants from Mechanus and that's the warforged character's original mission: to destroy them.
What is "The Styes"?
I haven't heard of it.
The Styes is a famous adventure in Dungeon about a really disgusting city and a group of abeloths with a fiendish kraken who try to take it over for Thrazidun.
I ran a campaign in The Styes for a while, fleshing it out with my own ideas and other Dungeon modules.
My suggestion for the blackguard: if he's lawful evil, he may be working with Councillor Thornwell against Mr. Dory. And if he's got an interest in someday ruling the city himself, why would he want to allow someone else to destroy it? He may not like the good characters and they may not like him, but they have one goal in common. As for what happens next: it's up to you. There's plenty to work with; you may look into the background and note that another Councillor, one Mr. Rashlen, has a manor reportedly guarded by half-construct troops. Maybe the warforged has something to do with that or maybe Rashlen stole the construct limbs and the secret of those implants from Mechanus and that's the warforged character's original mission: to destroy them.
Thornwell was the one who contracted them to deal with Dory. I think I could easily put in an encounter in his manor with some half-golems and magical traps. I could also give out technomagical implants as treasure for Woody. When they kill Dory (and possibly Thornwell) there will be council positions open that maybe the blackguard could fill. I also kinda want the Lantern Man to come back as an evolved morgue or something. I think I'll go with the Mechanis idea but put more stuff in between. Maybe some clerics of Pelor come in and try to help the crippled city get back on its feet. I also would like to do something with mutant merfolk who have changed due to the chemicals in the surrounding ocean. I'm not sure what to stock Thornwell's manor with besides golems and traps tough.
It's by Richard Pett, who wrote the Skinsaw Murders.
Both excellent and vicious modules.