I'm planning on running this for my group on monday, and there were a couple things I noticed when I read the scenario.
Act 1 enemies have wonky skill bonuses. I suspect armor check penalties form their armor have been left out.
The enemies in act 4 do one point of damage too much with their off-hand attack. Their skill bonuses look like armor check penalties have been left out.
the enemy in act 5 has one point too high AC and touch AC.
She has 9 skill points to spare and she should have one more feat. Makes sense if one assumes human racial abilities are gone with this template. I don't think it works that way.
She has DR 5 instead of 10 it should have. Is this an intentional change to allow parties without the correct weapons to have a fighting chance?
Also, her dominate ability probably has a DC 15 (10 + ½ HD + Cha mod), but this omission isn't so much scenario's fault as it is WotC's fault for not clearly telling what DC to use in their rules.
Also, cloak of resistance is listed in scenario chronicle with a price of 2000gp, when it probably should only cost 1000gp.
Edit: One more thing. If the enemy in act 5 drinks the potion she has, can the PC's buy it after the scenario?
The skill issues you're seeing are because armor check penalties have not been figured into the skills.
The DR 5 issue is a typo and will be corrected.
The 2,000 gp cloak of resistance is a typo and will be corrected.
Per the guide book, items consumed by enemies are still "found" and thus can be purchased from the chronicle sheet.
Thanks for the info.
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Right...
I played this module in Lehmuska's group. The group consisted of the following:
* Deus - Halfling Bard 2/Ranger 2
* Navdi - Human Ranger 1/Sorcerer 4
* NiTessine - Human Fighter 2/Monk 2
* Ratpick - Gnome Illusionist 3
* xJx - Human Conjurer 5
In my opinion a reasonably strong group of players and characters, although could have used a divine caster and some more muscle.
This is what happened:
* The goons and their dogs were a breeze (Color spray, Grease, mop-up)
* The constructs required a bit more elbow-grease (Grease, Grease, damage, damage, damage)
* The Vampire Spawn were lethal. Lots of lost levels forced us to retreat post-battle and return after several costly Restorations.
* The archer assassins were a real pain in the derriere to deal with, but eventually summoned creatures and color sprays won the day.
* The End Boss is an awesomely lethal and dangerous foe that didn't even break a sweat in cleaning our clocks. The Fighter/Monk was sacrificed while the rest of the team beat a very hasty retreat vowing never to return to Sothis.
Pretty straight-forward module with in my opinion the most dangerous end boss so far.
What I'd like to know is this:
Have you played this scenario? What was in your team? How did you fare? Has anyone actually played this scenario and had a 100% success sans casualties?
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The skill issues you're seeing are because armor check penalties have not been figured into the skills.
The DR 5 issue is a typo and will be corrected.
The 2,000 gp cloak of resistance is a typo and will be corrected.
Per the guide book, items consumed by enemies are still "found" and thus can be purchased from the chronicle sheet.
quick question. if i find a potion, as a player. may i purchase more than one of it?
Items listed on the chronicle sheet can be purchased more than once unless otherwise noted.
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Right...
I played this module in Lehmuska's group. The group consisted of the following:* Deus - Halfling Bard 2/Ranger 2
* Navdi - Human Ranger 1/Sorcerer 4
* NiTessine - Human Fighter 2/Monk 2
* Ratpick - Gnome Illusionist 3
* xJx - Human Conjurer 5In my opinion a reasonably strong group of players and characters, although could have used a divine caster and some more muscle.
This is what happened:
** spoiler omitted **
What I'd like to know is this:
Have you played this scenario? What was in your team? How did you fare? Has anyone actually played this scenario and had a 100% success sans casualties?
we had a team of wizard 6, sorcer 1/druid 5, wizard 3/cleric 3, fighter 4 and rogue 5.
we had no trouble with the early encounters.
the archers were a pain, but fun to fight in the end. our halfling rogue squeezed in, and our fighter managed a few lucky criticals to skewer the archers even through full cover.
the vamp at the end, well it was nearly a tpk as the fighter went down, the cleric fell, the druid nearly had to play dead... that was rough.
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The party:
6th level half-orc archer w/ enchanted +5 strength bow
6th level rogue
6th level bard
2nd level barbarian/4th level druid
5th level rogue
3rd level cleric
The GM was a player taking his turn behind the screen. He didn’t have a lot of experience GMing but he ate the scenario as a requirement for playing on the “Judge’s Table” we have arranged. He made a good effort to kill us but ultimately his ignorance of certain rules allowed us to squeak by. I know we appear to be a strong party, but that can work against you when
I was playing the 3rd level cleric. The only reason I was playing with this group was to get the scenario under my belt so I could GM it at the upcoming Pandemonium Mayhem convention. As I have said in other threads, I’ve died plenty so I’m not afraid to take chances.
The game went much as the other tables reported. Act One and Act Two were handled without a lot of trouble. Act Three is where things turned sour. Round One the spawn win initiative and dominate the half-orc archer. He fails his save & his T-shirt re-roll. On his turn he plugs three players with arrows and the bard hits him with a Tasha’s Hideous Laughter. Our best offensive weapon is now nullified. The barbarian/druid opted not to bring his animal companion with him, so he rages and melees with the spawn, sucking up negative levels. The rogues couldn’t sneak attack the spawn and the damage they inflicted was minimal. The hero of the day was the bard, through his use of glitterdust and grease he was able to keep the spawn suppressed long enough for the barbarian/druid to whittle them down.
The worst part of the fight was my cleric wasting five rounds trying to touch the prone, cackling half-orc with a protection from evil to interrupt the dominate effect. He was prone and I still couldn’t hit his touch AC. The bard didn’t think I was serious when I told him I needed him to flank with me so I could touch the half-orc. Five times. I rolled a 5 or less five times in a row.
Act Four was a cinch except for when the three Andorans at the tabled killed their faction objective, belatedly asking if his face was scarred. Two of them were at 19 PA points so it really burned to miss this one.
Act Five was not as tough as Act Three because our archer had drank a potion of protection from evil, and he had the right weapon for the job. Two other PCs were dominated but who’s afraid of a 3rd level cleric with a 7 strength? The archer lit up the vampire while the other party members engaged in a grapple fight to non-lethally deal with the turncoat rogue (who did more damage to the party than the vampire did).
I haven’t read through the scenario yet, but I don’t look forward to GMing it. It’s very brutal with the vampires and the negative levels can outright kill PCs in a few rounds despite healing magic.
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i had fun playing this, but now looking to DM it i have some problems with it.
1. the pit fighter archers at both tiers never take precise shot. they take toughness. ( nevermind the fact that a pit fighter archer would have a pretty short career ).
2. the creatures of the night aren't "summoned" they're called. they arrive through normal means in 2d6 rounds. so they don't just appear in the room with her, they need to come in the back door of the dungeon. so it should be noted in the tactics that they will approach from behind the players and attack them during the pit fighter encounter ( when she starts calling them )
3. the animated statues are a bit of a thrown in encounter. someone in the pathfinder lodge may have known that there's a password to bypass the security defense on the "old jail" below the lodge. even if they don't, 2 or 9 large animated objects is the same problem that half of the mods published lately have: using a mob of low CR creatures to equal a high CR encounter. its not effective. it gives a few groups a chance to have a cinematic fight where one hit can kill things, but more often then not, its poorly thought out. ( see the boatload of pirates in pfs #17, and other adventures where a lot of low level creatures are thrown in ad hoc as a CR equivalent encounter. )
other than that. very fun.
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Ok the last three scenarios have all had one thing killing it for our play group. FIREBALL FORMATION
All these LOW level MOBS coming at our party in Fireball formation were just way too tempting for our 6th (and now 7th level) sorceror.
MOST of the encounters were over just that quickly
Can the designers please remember that FIREBALL is the spell of choice for most sorcerors and do something when designing the denizens.
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This mod has one major flaw.
Magic Circle Against Evil.
Most of the baddies got within 10' of the melee dude and snapped to their senses. The animated objects wasted time, but little else. She brought down 3 of the PCs and nearly killed one outright.
I loved the story, and playing senile wasn't too bad either, but I don't think the PCs got as much of it to be as satisfying as it was for me.
BTW how was the vampire sealed down there? Wish mist form shouldn't she be able to flow through the cracks in the walls there?
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BTW how was the vampire sealed down there? Wish mist form shouldn't she be able to flow through the cracks in the walls there?
From page 3:
"He rushed to the experiment chamber to see Harkus, free of her bonds, mindlessly tearing the researchers apart in a small room just off the experiment chamber. Bossell fled the battle, closing that chamber’s door, locking it, and trapping the researchers in with the vampire."
OK, just assume that the door he actually shut was the door to the cell, not the door to the experiment room which would not have stopped the vampire from escaping earlier.
On page 8:
All three of the cells on the north wall can be shut from the outside, trapping anyone inside behind a heavy steel door. There are no means of opening the cell doors from the inside.
Let's also assume that it wasn't the threat of the vampire he was fleeing--because she wasn't a danger so long as she was locked in the cell. Let's assume he just was cutting his losses and covering his tracks.
Until we get some clarity from page 3 again:
Fendel ventured beneath the Sothis Lodge. He broke through the false wall, discovered the experiment chamber, unwittingly opened Harkus’ cell door, and fell to the attacks of Harkus and her spawn. With Fendel dead, Harkus then probed the experiment chamber, the hall of recognition, and the antechamber in gaseous form. Eventually, she found a crack beneath the secret door in the experiment chamber and ventured beyond, discovering the secret surface exit and the old chambers beyond.
The Pathfinders didn't build that lodge. They took it over from the local guard after they built a new building elsewhere. The basement level of that lodge was once, basically, a prison meant to hold all sorts of oddities. It's reasonable to assume that one oddity the primary cells could hold would be those who can assume different forms to escape.
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Our group played through this adventure this weekend, and we got hammered. We are a fairly unoptimized group, generalists to cover all the bases rather than specialists, and with a couple of odd race/class combos: human fighter 2/rogue 3, human druid 5 (still working out the potential of wildshape) plus wolf animal companion, human cleric 3/ranger 2 (archer style), half-orc paladin 5, half-orc sorcerer 4. Since we've recently lost our heaviest damage dealer (the spiked-chain-wielding elf barbarian), the paladin is our tank, but she's more specced for defense than offense. As a result, we were in serious trouble for a lot of this mod.
At this point, we should have stopped, left the library for the night, and come back the next morning to kick her ass. Unfortunately, we had been given the impression that we only had one shot at this, so we pressed forward.
It went about as well as you might expect.
The druid's wolf handled most of the hyena pack on his own, but even with the rest of us concentrating on the vampire, we just couldn't do much to her. Her DR was too much, her AC was too high, and her fast healing was just plain too fast. She also hit like a Mack truck. The druid died outright (from 5 hp to -12 in one shot), and I was dropped to -7 before someone managed to stabilize me. Everyone else had almost nothing left, hit point or healing-wise, so we grabbed the druid's body and ran. By that time, we were approaching the four hour limit on the slot, so we decided what our strategy would be for returning (including raising the druid, which we fortunately had the cash for), and the GM decided that we would be successful in doing so without actually making us play through it again.
It was easily the nastiest fight we have yet had in PFS, and I can't recommend enough that only full 6-person tables of APL 6 or even 7 be the ones to go through the lower tier.
As a sidebar, if a PC is killed in a mod but is then raised, should I check the "Died?" box for that character when I report the mod?
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The vampire spawn were actually fairly easy - I'd dropped a few buffs (I play the ranger/cleric) on the group during the statue fight, and most of them were still active, so the spawn weren't hard to hit, and we had little trouble shaking off their negative energy attacks.
:) Shisumo, you got luckier than you realized. You don't "shake off" a negative energy hit. You suck it up, no saving throw. The GM didn't know this, so you guys were fortunate. The saving throw listed is against the negative energy level becoming *permanent* 24 hours later, unless you get a restoration.
From the 3.5 D&D FAQ:
Is there any saving throw to resist the negative level
applied by the energy drain attack of a vampire or other
undead creature?
Typically no. In most cases where a creature has an energy
drain attack, the negative levels are automatically applied. The
save occurs 24 hours later, determining whether the negative
level results in a permanent level loss.
Maybe I misunderstood it the way you told the story, but it sounds like your GM allowed you a save when you got hit to avoid the negative level. There's no save, you gain the level and that's why vampires are so feared. You take enough and you're hosed the rest of the scenario.
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Actually, you're right, the GM didn't know that, and I forgot it. O_o Well, it wouldn't have made too much of a difference - if I recall correctly, we only took two hits total (one on me, and one on the wolf) from the spawn. I wonder if, in the end, it might not have been worse for us this way, though - after all, if the cleric is sucking down a negative level, the pressure to come back tomorrow to do something about the vampire would be that much greater, right?
Hm. No way to know now...
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As a sidebar, if a PC is killed in a mod but is then raised, should I check the "Died?" box for that character when I report the mod?
Noooooo! The way I read it is 'are they permanently dead?' and not 'did they die and get better?' as the latter is more common, and death is the only way a character really leaves the campaign other than retirement.
:) Shisumo, you got luckier than you realized. You don't "shake off" a negative energy hit. You suck it up, no saving throw. The GM didn't know this, so you guys were fortunate. The saving throw listed is against the negative energy level becoming *permanent* 24 hours later, unless you get a restoration.
As the GM who ran the mod, you're right, I didn't know that. It was the second mod I have ever GMed and I spent WAY too much time trying to find things in books before I started to run it in my opinion. But truthfully, I probably would have let them save anyway.
When I read the mod, I thought to myself, crap this could be a TPK. Most of the group (including my character) wouldn't be able to hit Harkus on less than a natural 20. And personally, I don't find killing characters or being killed fun. Nor do I as a player like to be thrown up against characters that I have little or no hope of winning against.
From the 3.5 D&D FAQ:
Is there any saving throw to resist the negative level
applied by the energy drain attack of a vampire or other
undead creature?
Typically no. In most cases where a creature has an energy
drain attack, the negative levels are automatically applied. The
save occurs 24 hours later, determining whether the negative
level results in a permanent level loss.
Where did you find this? I was going off of something in the MM that I had about 30 seconds to skim as I was GMing, something like this could be handy when I am trying to prep.
Maybe I misunderstood it the way you told the story, but it sounds like your GM allowed you a save when you got hit to avoid the negative level. There's no save, you gain the level and that's why vampires are so feared. You take enough and you're hosed the rest of the scenario.
It was really that I didn't know, but I would have probably let them have it anyway. Harkus was wiping the floor with them as was.
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Where did you find this? I was going off of something in the MM that I had about 30 seconds to skim as I was GMing, something like this could be handy when I am trying to prep.
Maybe I misunderstood it the way you told the story, but it sounds like your GM allowed you a save when you got hit to avoid the negative level. There's no save, you gain the level and that's why vampires are so feared. You take enough and you're hosed the rest of the scenario.It was really that I didn't know, but I would have probably let them have it anyway. Harkus was wiping the floor with them as was.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/er/20030221a
The D&D FAQ and Errata documents are little gems as far as Rules Lawyers go. They are official but not used often. Very handy when you get hit with Evard's black tentacles too.
chade, I encourage you to keep GMing. I made lots of rules mistakes but that's how I learned. It sounds like you have the right idea. Harkus is more than enough for most parties. Butchery is no fun for anyone.
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Thanks for your postings here. I ran the game last friday and your messages were a big help.
There were 4 characters in the party and they were badly shaken up by the adventure but none died. I didn't fudge the dice and I didn't play softball. But neither was I trying for a TPK.
Here's what happened if you are interested.
The party comprised: Shalwar 5th level Cleric of Sarenrae; Zaryk Spikestone 5th level dwarven fighter (spiked-chain weilder); Ramona (Ram) the 5th level greataxe wielding fighter; and Gerad d'Petit Fournier 5th level Sorceror and chef.
The Vampire Spawn failed to dominate anyone and didn't have high enough attacks to hit the frontline fighters with a Slam. So they were chopped apart pretty swiftly and Shalwar's Searing Light frazzled them. Broken chair legs made fine stakes and their heads were chopped off for good measure.
I had trouble making logic out of the story. I had to assume that the steel door cells in this room were air-tight and surmised that somehow Aygrim had locked the dissectors and Taylin in the middle cell but that stretched our credulity to the limits!!! But it would be even more incredible for her not to have found the secret door over 50 years imprisonment and then find it in a couple of days when Fendal entered.
The attack on the jail pissed the players off. They hated being shot at and not being able to shoot back. They started off by blocking the arrow slits with old furniture but there weren't enough of them to maintain this. They had no Rogue to pick the lock and, as it was a jail door, I ruled a 25 Strength check. Perhaps that was harsh and they kept rolling and missing even with Assists. At this point they started to hear a female voice calling "Come to me, my Children ..." [He, he, he.]
Eventually Zaryk the dwarf started groping through the bars looking for a key on the body of a dead pitfighter. I ruled that he found one -- to keep the adventure moving along. So they were through and rifling the bodies and looking for the scarred pit fighter. Then a very cautious approach through the next door with the dwarf first.
He was easily Dominated and told to "try to prevent his friends attacking Taylin because otherwise they would be very, very badly hurt". (If he had been told to attack them he would have got a second save at +2.) At that point nine called hyenas turned up from the escape tunnel but Gerard slammed the jail door just in time to block them out. Ram waded in, greataxe swinging but vs a Vampire with AC27 and DR10 and Fast Healing 5/round it was very, very tough combat. Shalwar kept trying a Turn Undead but she had very, very little chance of Turning a Vampire with +4 Turn Resistence. The Vampire sliced into the fighter time and time again doing massive damage and Shalwar couldn't keep up with the healing. One cut at the Cleric put her in a position where she would be dead next round and she had to retreat. Ram stepped back and took a Potion but things were very desperate.
At this point it looked like a TPK! Here I bent things a little and gave the dwarf a second save because of the horrors he was seeing. He saved and tried to support his friends. In rage Taylin tried to slam him and drain him but she missed. (Her melee attacks were far more effective that her slam attack.) Finally Gerard let loose his last Magic Missile and that finished the Vampire. The party took all precautions to make sure she didn't come back.
Of course Shalwar could have channelled positive energy to damage the vampire but she would have been killed in two rounds. She could have presented her holy symbol to repel the vampire and back it into a corner and Gerard had forgotten he was carrying garlic and could have done the same. A full party of 6 characters would have certainly made a difference. Some more hints about the nature of what they were facing would have made a difference.
Taylin holds all the Aces. Very hard to hit; shrugs off most of the damage if you do hit her; has two high attack rolls or a Whirlwind attack if necessary; dishes out huge damage or drains levels; highly mobile; calls for numerous allies.
I would say run this module, but be prepared to turn the volume up or down depending on the make-up of your party of adventurers. Otherwise it is the last one they will play.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Rob, that sounds like a terrific session. Nicely done!
Of course Shalwar could have channelled positive energy to damage the [redacted] but she would have been killed in two rounds.
Rob, are you playing in a PFS setting, using D&D 3.5 rules, or are you running a home game using something else (perhaps the Pathfinder Beta rules)?
I ask because there is no "channel positive energy" in Pathfinder Society.
I ask because there is no "channel positive energy" in Pathfinder Society.
I think he meant spontaneous conversion of cleric spells into cure spells, seeing as he talked about turning undead before.
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I ask because there is no "channel positive energy" in Pathfinder Society.I think he meant spontaneous conversion of cleric spells into cure spells, seeing as he talked about turning undead before.
Sorry, I expressed it badly. Yup, Shalwar Cleric of Sarenrae could have cast a Cure spell on the vile evil creature and it would have dealt damage by chanelling positive energy into a negative energy creature.
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Regional Venture-Coordinator, Mediterranean
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I'm plannign to run this on Sunday. It will be a party of 5 characters (a 5th level druid, a 5th level cleric of Irori, a 5th and a 7th level ranger and a 7th level rogue). I'm converting it to the new Pathfinder rules and I'm worried about what tier is appropariate. I think tier 5-6 would be too easy for them but looking over the comments here, will 7-9 be too tough. They have generally found combats on the easy side in the scenarios and with the improvements from Pathfinder then I think they'll be even tougher.
But on the other hand, having converted the encounters to Pathfinder they look pretty impressive.
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I'm plannign to run this on Sunday. It will be a party of 5 characters (a 5th level druid, a 5th level cleric of Irori, a 5th and a 7th level ranger and a 7th level rogue). I'm converting it to the new Pathfinder rules and I'm worried about what tier is appropariate. I think tier 5-6 would be too easy for them but looking over the comments here, will 7-9 be too tough. They have generally found combats on the easy side in the scenarios and with the improvements from Pathfinder then I think they'll be even tougher.
But on the other hand, having converted the encounters to Pathfinder they look pretty impressive.
My advice is this: Run with tier 5-6. Don't convert anything in the module (you're not supposed to anyway). Pray that you don't TPK the group. Yes, Mrs. Fangs in the last encounter really is THAT lethal in the hands of a capable GM.
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Regional Venture-Coordinator, Mediterranean
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My advice is this: Run with tier 5-6. Don't convert anything in the module (you're not supposed to anyway). Pray that you don't TPK the group. Yes, Mrs. Fangs in the last encounter really is THAT lethal in the hands of a capable GM.
I thought you were supposed to convert scenarios as well as PCs now. Is that really not so?
You do not need to convert scenarios. PRPG is backward compatible and besides calculating CMB and CMD when necessary, everything should work as written.
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Regional Venture-Coordinator, Mediterranean
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Yeah Chris, really that's the essence of my question. From Josh I've got the message that you don't have to convert anything , you just use the Pathfinder version of any abilities and feats. But I take it that if you want to convert NPCs then you can do and it remains a legal game.
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Yeah Chris, really that's the essence of my question. From Josh I've got the message that you don't have to convert anything , you just use the Pathfinder version of any abilities and feats. But I take it that if you want to convert NPCs then you can do and it remains a legal game.
That's the vibe I'm getting as well. You don't need to convert statblocks, but it isn't explicitly forbidden either, so if you have the Pathfinder versions of said monsters, go right ahead. ;)
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Regional Venture-Coordinator, Mediterranean
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My original question was what tier to run this at. The group have tended to find combats in the scenarios fairly easy so I think they'll find the tier 5-6 encounters easy and would cope with the 7-9 ones. All apart from the Big Bad at the end. But they play smart and tend to think of ways of using the location features or creative uses of abilities. So I think that although the numbers go against them, they could well surprise me and win the day. But the thought of throwing a CR 11 encounter at a party of 5th to 7th level characters feels off.
Has anybody run this at tier 7-9 and if so, with what level characters?
Wintergreen, if the party's APL isn't 8+, don't run the high tier. APL 7 means the last encounter is an epic challenge, APL 8 means the last encounter is hard, APL 9+ the last encounter is manageable. Playing "up" in any scenario always means you're choosing to play the scenario the hard way for greater rewards. Judging by the reviews of this scenario, folks have tried to play up at APL 7 and been TPKed or near-TPKed trying to do so.
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Regional Venture-Coordinator, Mediterranean
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Wintergreen, if the party's APL isn't 8+, don't run the high tier. APL 7 means the last encounter is an epic challenge, APL 8 means the last encounter is hard, APL 9+ the last encounter is manageable. Playing "up" in any scenario always means you're choosing to play the scenario the hard way for greater rewards. Judging by the reviews of this scenario, folks have tried to play up at APL 7 and been TPKed or near-TPKed trying to do so.
Thanks for the advice (and earlier clarification) Josh.
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Regional Venture-Coordinator, Mediterranean
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And in conclusion, I ran it at tier 5-6 but with encounters converted to Pathfinder. Pathfinder characters certainly seemed to be more powerful (though not over-powered) but the NPCs were also quite effective. The final encounter was a suitable challenge for the party. I think many of the characters were close to falling over and were csuitably intimidated by the final encounter.
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I just played the event this weekend with my wife running it.
We had the following:
A level 4 Human Two-weapon Fighter
A level 4 Dwarf Cleric of Cayden Caylien
A level 5 Human Cleric of Nethys
A level 6 Human Fighter, and my son.
A level 2/2 Human Fighter/Sorcerer
and myself a level 6 Human Monk
We took care of the entrance encounter like it was nothing.
The Statues wasn't too bad beat and repeat. The spawn were tough but we destroyed them with minimal loses.
We had the Nethys cleric run back for a restoration as we read the notes.
The Archer fight was brutal, but with the use of true strike and a few smoke sticks and me pulling my chime of opening, I have one as we really don't have a proper skill monkey with us, we were through the gate and mopped up we destroyed them.
The final fight was just brutal, my son go dominated and then unloaded on me, before I could react and disarm him. We slowly beat her down as she beat us six ways to Sunday, but we prevailed and incurred a level loss each.
In the end we got lucky. If I had to play this again I would ask for a straight caster to blast the Mistress Vampire.
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I noticed that none of you have paladins in your group... My 7th level Padadin with holy on his sword had little trouble. This is a senerio that was built for him
She does have very few hit points--if you can hit her high AC. I've run #18 four times now I think. The tables I've run since I first played it have all done pretty well. The pit fighters never were much of a challenge. The players all knew what they were facing and once Harkus revealed herself she never lasted long.
However, last Sunday I ran it the 4th time and the last encounter would have been a TPK had I allowed it. I kept the players in initiative order after they finished the pit fighters off. As soon as the fight had started I had rolled for the Children of the Night. After the last pit fighter was dropped the PCs had about three rounds in which they dinked around since none of them wanted to go into the vampire's room first. When the hyena pack showed up the party tank heard them coming and split the party to go plug the corridor outside. As soon as Harkus heard the pack arrive she drank her potion of haste and the next round she opened the cell door. Only two PCs were in the room, the healer and the rogue. Harkus dominated the healer and told her to kill her friends. Now at that point, the healer should have gotten another saving throw--but the GM hadn't read Dominate lately. The tank runs back into the chokepoint and closes the door with the hyena pack close on her heels. Now the PCs are trapped in the complex with the vampire.
The party takes it on the chin for three rounds before a player questions if there's a secondary save for dominate. Crap. There was. I give the healer (who is incompetent at doing damage to her friends) a secondary save and she makes it. But by then the tank had been dropped and it's rogue vs. vampire. The wizard is down to acid splashes and the other archer-rogue can't even hit the vamp's 28 AC. The healer gets one channel off which brings the tank back up and on the vampire's next turn she dominates the healer again (healer's dice suck) and this time has her do nothing (no secondary save for you!). After that it was a crit-fest with the PCs incapable of hurting the vampire and having no means of escape.
It put me in the position of either declaring a TPK or figuring a way out. If I was going to TPK a table I need it to be unambiguous, without any question if the rules were applied correctly. In this case I couldn't in good conscience tell the players their PCs were finished. I had to reset the encounter to the round in which the vampire first used dominate, then go from there allowing the immediate secondary save. This time the PCs made it through and the day was saved. I wasn't very proud of myself, but I need to get humbled once in a while or I become intolerable.
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Venture-Captain, Arizona—Tucson
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I ran this one with a crew playing up, so I tweaked the encounters (and treasure) each down a notch to levels matching the party's abilities. I also reminded them that they were in a major city, a place where they could purchase any items or information they might need over the course of the adventure.
For the most part, the adventure ran smoothly. Each encounter was challenging, but none were overpowering.
Sometimes the good guys win... Sometimes they don't.