I'm curious how other DM's answered the following questions:
1. Yargos replicates the codes on a lark. Why on earth would he do this? And what happened next? Did the Black Echelon destroy the bell towers?
2. Yargos then tries to alert the city. I take it nobody believed his story? If the bell towers were destroyed, why didn't they believe him?
3. He then tries to hurl the codebook into the sea. However, Nessian "intervenes". How exactly did Nessian learn of the book and how did he intervene?
4. Nessian later sends his goons to kill Yargos. Why didn't he kill the historian immediately?
5. Act 1 starts at early evening. Act 4 at sunrise. Since the PCs are under time pressure, I assume they didn't sleep. Where did the time go then? Surely act 2 and 3 don't take all night to complete?
6. Nessian plans to blackmail the city. However, it is made clear that unless the abort code is given within half an hour of the cathedral attack, the city is doomed. So how exactly does he plan to go about his blackmailing in that short timeframe?
7. For that matter, is it wisdom to be encamped just outside the city when you summon an army of undead to sack it? :-)
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You know there's already a thread for this mod right?
1. Yargos replicates the codes on a lark. Why on earth would he do this? And what happened next? Did the Black Echelon destroy the bell towers?
You wouldn't believe how stupid some 'smart' people are. Remember the super collider experiment that some scientists feared might cause a tiny blackhole that would destroy us all? Yeah, they still went along with it. Plus, how often do the dead come back on their own without the help of some evil cleric/necromancer?
2. Yargos then tries to alert the city. I take it nobody believed his story? If the bell towers were destroyed, why didn't they believe him?
I'm guessing the bell tower is something your GM said, as it's not in the mod. As such he has not a leg to stand on.
3. He then tries to hurl the codebook into the sea. However, Nessian "intervenes". How exactly did Nessian learn of the book and how did he intervene?
Grandmaster Torch. It explains why GT comments on Nessian as he does, as he'd be propping up the young warlord. Intervention can be as simple as grabbing the book as it's sailing over the cliff to as rough as you'd like.
4. Nessian later sends his goons to kill Yargos. Why didn't he kill the historian immediately?
In case he needed to use the old man to decipher the codes. By the start of the mod he's found he doesn't need Yargos, and has him disposed of so no pesky Pathfinders use the old man's knowledge to upset his plans.
5. Act 1 starts at early evening. Act 4 at sunrise. Since the PCs are under time pressure, I assume they didn't sleep. Where did the time go then? Surely act 2 and 3 don't take all night to complete?
Early evening is 6-7pm, sunrise is (around here anyway) about 5-6am. Given the group runs across the city a few times over, searching the granary for poison, and the time it takes to open the boxes, the timeframe isn't too far off.
6. Nessian plans to blackmail the city. However, it is made clear that unless the abort code is given within half an hour of the cathedral attack, the city is doomed. So how exactly does he plan to go about his blackmailing in that short timeframe?
I didn't see that in the mod either.
7. For that matter, is it wisdom to be encamped just outside the city when you summon an army of undead to sack it?
As opposed to within the city? Absolutely!
Thanks for your answers.
I will DM a group that really gets into the backstory, that's why I need to get my story straight beforehand. :-)
I'm cool with the "bright people can do very stupid things" explanation. I'm thinking of twisting it so that Yargos and his friends (the three guys that are chained to him in Act I) are history fanatics who like to re-enact historic events. So they dress up as Old Taldorans, light the beacons and rush to the bell towers pretending they are the saboteurs (of course not with the intention of sabotaging anything). Imagine their surprise when they witness the Black Echelon actually destroying the towers.
I still don't see how Nessian gets involved in all of this. Maybe he's a fanatic Taldoran and one of his goons overhears Yargos and his friends in the Drowning Depths as they plan the event. He reports this to Nessian, who orders the goon to steal the book. As the War Hounders follows the group around waiting for the right opportunity, they also witness the attack. They then take the book from the group and bring it to Nessian. He then tells them to erase the traces for the reason you gave.
Nessian's motivation now becomes not to blackmail the city, but to carry out the Silent Tide, mistakingly believing that this would be in the interest of Taldor.
Sound reasonable?
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The bell towers are mentioned in the second paragraph on page 3. The blackmail scheme is also on page 3, second column, paragraph beginning with "Recognizing his own follishness".
The bell towers are never destroyed. That paragraph was discussing the intentions of BE during operation ST, which never happened due to being discovered and killed.
The 30 minute time limit is on page 10 right at the beginning of Act 5.
The time limit (assuming that the cathedral fell) is to catch Nessian and abort the operation before ST begins. With the codebook Nessian can call BE to attack and withdraw, making for the perfect threat to the city.
I still don't see how Nessian gets involved in all of this.
GT is an information broker, now seen in multiple mods, thus he has eyes and ears everywhere to get him information from throughout the city. This is why having GT inform Nessian is the easiest way to connect N to the codebook.
Maybe he's a fanatic Taldoran and one of his goons overhears Yargos and his friends in the Drowning Depths as they plan the event.
This doesn't show the hallmark of Taldan Tactics, furthermore why would Nessian be interested in an old man's book purely by chance.
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But you are right. This scenario is full of gaping logical holes. They can all be patched up though. Eh- it was the first scenario. Hopefully they worked out the details once they got rolling with the line.
Here's another for you. As you pointed out, Yargos does the first code for a laugh. Unless the echelon rises in front of him how does he know it did anything? If he was worried that it did do something, why didn't he immediately flip to the back of the book and enact the abort code? Instead his book gets stolen later so and he goes for dinner with friends?
And I believe it does mention that once the abort code is enacted the Silent Tide is permanently aborted. So Nessian's plan really is that terrible. But maybe he just isn't that smart.
Also be prepared for questions about how Torch has made a subterranean lair in the tunnels below a district which is flooded to shin level on the surface. There were some decent ideas about that in the other thread on this scenario if I recall. Maybe he has dammed or diverted the culverts in certain areas, but still...
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Unless the echelon rises in front of him how does he know it did anything? If he was worried that it did do something, why didn't he immediately flip to the back of the book and enact the abort code?
Anywhere he could successfully perform the code he would have line of sight to BE. So he'd have to be pretty blind not to notice the horrific undead abominations marching ashore from the sea.
And I believe it does mention that once the abort code is enacted the Silent Tide is permanently aborted.
That would be the master abort code. Remember this is a code *book* not a code pamphlet, there's more than the 3-6 codes mentioned in the mod itself.
Also be prepared for questions about how Torch has made a subterranean lair in the tunnels below a district which is flooded to shin level on the surface.
He's GT information broker and underworld boss, it's well within his means to have some simple plumbing (drains) done.
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Sorry for the thread necro, but I am currently prepping this myself.
General rules questions:
I am supposed to run this "as is", right? Does that mean I also use the 3.5 creature traits and 3.5 feats?
Would undead be immune to crits?
Does Nessian use the 3.5 version of combat expertise? It states in the module that he takes the full -5 to attack to get a +5 to ac, which is quite different from the pathfinder version of the feat.
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