I should be finishing TFoE in the next session or two. I am looking to change up the next installment a bit. Here are my ideas I would love to hear how others approached it.
Tying in the party
1) One of the characters is awaiting a shipment from the south (that shipment is slaves). That caravan will be traveling along a northern route (close to Blackwall Keep) and will be raided by the Lizard Folk.
2) Allustan will have already been near the keep when the attack took place. (In fact he was with the caravan). He went to a town nearby Blackwall Keep to meet with Marzena who will be a Sage that has knowledge of the Ebon Triad. When the Lizard Folk raid the caravan Allustan and the NPC merchant (Draths) will have escaped from the ambush via a teleport scroll.
3) Returning to Diamond Lake Allustan and this NPC will request that the PC’s go to the Keep to rescue (the hopefully kidnapped and not dead) Marzena as well as the other merchants that were taken into the swamps. The Garrison in Diamond Lake in my game is only responsible for guarding Diamond Lake so they have no association with the Keep.
4) The characters have a very good rapport with Allustan and will want to help him, also Draths has information the characters want so this hook will convince them to go. Allustan will tell them to go to Blackwall Keep to get help and information on the swamp (he does not realize the Keep is about to be seiged).I'm starting the keep tonight. How did your tweaking go?
Jason
Details of the Seige
5) I plan on having about 90 instead of 30 Lizard Folk seiging the Keep.Implementing the Spawn of Kyuss
6) I am removing the Spawn of Kyuss from the Keep.
7) I plan on having Marzena be implanted with a worm. Presumably they will rescue her and bring her back to the Keep. Overnight she will turn and start attacking the soldiers and the PC’s will have to deal with her (and perhaps whatever other spawn she creates).
There are a lot of nice ideas for this adventure on these boards. Just search them using 'EABK' or 'encounter at blackwall keep' and you'll find a heap of treasure.
Its interesting how much less this installment of the AP seems to need a plot overhaul compared to 3FOE. I suspect that as we get further from Diamond Lake there are simply less issues until late in the AP when things start to coalesce around Allistar.
From a role playing perspective the biggest difficulty I have with this adventure is the role playing scene with the Lizard Folk Shaman and that only seems an issue if the PCs have put the majority of the tribe to the sword. The problem part is having the Lizard Folk eventually flee from the PCs without most of them actually dieing but not in the direction of their eggs.
That said they are not actually allowed down that way for their own safety hence they may believe that the Dragon, Ilthane, will see their eggs protected. If she has ever actually over awed them with here presence in front of the warriors of the tribe that strikes me as plausible.
My only other issue is that Marzena does not actually know jack...making the whole expedition kind of meaningless. Working on Marzena's character and including her again later might help with that. The AP kind of never really addresses why no one else in the world really seems to be doing anything about the coming Age of Worms. Possibly she can be used in connection with that in some manner.
OK having spent a little more time working on my conversion this afternoon I realize that the Lizard Folk lair really does not have a 'lived in' feel. We know about the garbage disposal system of the lair and where they physically sleep but...well where the hell is the rest of their stuff. I mean apparently they spend their time sitting on sleeping pallets looking at blank walls while twiddling their thumbs. These are not living quarters, I mean military barracks would have more going on then these sleeping chambers.
I choose to have them cover the walls of their sleeping rooms with a whitish clay, they paint recent events (which become history) on the walls using pigments gathered from the swamp or traded for. Lots of swamp creatures, hunts and such but also representations of Ilthane, their lost eggs, green worms humans and Blackwall Keep. The floors are covered with the bric-a-bric of life, bones and teeth shaped into tools, carvings, various small mundane items that the tribe has traded with humans or other nearby tribes for etc.
Adding more lizardfolk (maybe include some elites that have been advanced in different ways?) to the siege is definitely a good idea - my players' PC's made mincemeat of the beseiging force in no time, as have many other parties who played it by the book, from what I've read. Some other cool ideas already posted here too.
The only tweak I gave this adventure was to allow one of my players' lizardfolk PC's to remain with the Twisted Branch tribe as their new ruler, taking Hishka as his cohort via the Leadership feat I gave him the benefit of as a bonus for as long as he remains king of the lizards (all 3 or so of them who survived the party's assault, anyhow!) He took the offer & made up a new character who he's still running - this offer was too good for the character to refuse, as it represented all of the power-hungry PC's long-term goals. But there is a good chance the party will run into King KoKo again some day, when they least expect it...
Good luck,
Kang
Maybe I'm a bit late, but...
I should be finishing TFoE in the next session or two. I am looking to change up the next installment a bit. Here are my ideas I would love to hear how others approached it.
Tying in the party
I foreshadowed Marzena, a former Allustan apprentice, by giving the old coot the habit of comparing his current apprentice performances (one of my PCs) with Marzena's. He doesn't know her but already positively hates her.
For the rest, I intend to run the show as written : escorting Allustan for a visit, having him teleporting away (after the battle) to Diamondlake to get quick reinforcement from the garrison, etc.)
Details of the Seige
5) I plan on having about 90 instead of 30 Lizard Folk seiging the Keep.
I will keep the same number of opponents. In my mind, this battle isn't an important plot point; an easy battle is fine, sometimes.
Implementing the Spawn of Kyuss
6) I am removing the Spawn of Kyuss from the Keep.
7) I plan on having Marzena be implanted with a worm. Presumably they will rescue her and bring her back to the Keep. Overnight she will turn and start attacking the soldiers and the PC’s will have to deal with her (and perhaps whatever other spawn she creates).
Agreed on both points; I planned to do the same.
The worm implantation should be in fact the whole point of the lizardmen assault on the Keep : they were looking for hosts.
After the Ebon Aspect birth, Kyuss cultists are here beginning the implementation of the next prophecy (the one about the hills and undead). IMC, they make a point of doing those things in sequence.
Great ideas here... I'm in the middle of running EaBK in a PbP game. I am using Eberron, and I converted the lizardfolk tribe to a reclusive, xenophobic shifter one. I spec'd out all of the warriors and NPCs, and gave them a tad more oomph to make the encounters more challenging (and lessen the contempt factor towards the BW keep guards when the party wades, laughing, through the siegers). Seems to be working out so far, but the artificer with his shifter-bane infused weapons is cutting a swath through them.
The tribe's lair doesn't realistically seem large enough to host a tribe of any sort. Considering the party just wasted 40-ish of their tough warriors, simple math would imply there's at least 200-400 folk in a full tribe (including children, females, eldars, etc). In my mind, the lair is only just the chieftain's outpost, and the surrounding wilds include several small "households" where the majority of the tribe lives. That would help account for the eclectic monsters (harpies/otyugh - not something you'd want around the children either). Focused on operations, the outpost's residents are the chief's most loyal warriors, his advisors (the shaman), and prisoners... and his loot!
I have to change the egg chamber to something else - haven't quite worked that out yet. Luckily, the pace of the PbP gives me time to muddle. :) My unmolded plan is to have Ilthane influencing the shifter tribe, and her plan is to eventually turn them all into Kyuss-spawn via the big egg. Ilthane leaves the near-ripe egg (one of her brood, sacrificed for the cause) in the outpost for the chieftain to "guard" (not knowing that within lies the doom of he and his tribe).
The shaman is aware and suspicious of the chieftain's loyalties to the dragon, and allies with the party to bring him down and destroy the egg. Obviously, I'll remove the tribe's eggs from the whole encounter. Yoinking some ideas from other threads, I'm considering having the one big egg guarded by two very young dragons - Ilthane's brood - providing a little foreshadow and some motivation for vengeance down the road. The big egg can burst during the final fight, so they'll get to face a Kyuss-spawn dragonling as well. (I'll probably just remove the whole spawn in the tower basement bit, unless I can think of a good reason to keep it...)
While I'm on the subject, I'll post my tie-in tweaks between 3FoE and EaBK. Basically, (like many) I didn't think the "escort Allustan" link was well developed, especially his sudden and awkward departure at the first sign of trouble.
I inserted two Blackwall keep guards into the last temple of 3FoE - they were caged prisoners, captured a few days before the party's arrival. Not wanting to waste resources, TFO was planning to use them for wormy experiments. Happily, the party is able to rescue them from this grim fate.
Speaking with the freed prisoners, the party learns that Blackwall Keep (normally a quiet post) has been having serious issues with strange worm-ridden undead wandering the wilds, and the local lizardfolk (shifter) tribes were getting restless/aggressive. The two guards were sent to DL by Marzena to request aid from her old mentor, Allustan... they never made it. Warned in advance of their arrival, the Ebon Triad cultists nabbed them on the road.
When the party finishes 3FoE and brings the guards to Allustan, they don't have many specifics to share (IMC, one of the two died while battling the Ebon Aspect - "unfortunately", she knew most of the details). Allustan asks the party to travel to Blackwall Keep to meet Marzena and investigate further (IMC, the party suggested it first!).
Ultimately, when they arrive at the keep, they find it under siege and Marzena has been captured. If/when they rescue her, she doesn't know much, but the party has already been exposed to the whole situation. Marzena/Allustan suggests further research in the Free City (Sharn).
I hope that makes sense...
The problem of Marzeena knowing "jack" solved itself.
When fighting their way through the lizard nest (after the sneaky approach failed miserably) the lizardmen held Marzeena and another soldier as hostages, threatening to slit their throats if the players didn't surrender. Which they didn't.
The healer was cut off and couldn't arrive in time to save Marzeena or the soldier. Marzeena's diary was lacking lots of information (that she was going to write down once she found the time) so the players didn't get to know anything BUT it wasn't because Marzeena didn't know anything (as written). They now had themselves to blame.
This also solved the fact Marzeena has no further use in the AP apart from being rescued. And Allustan was mourning her, concentrating on his research (of the WC) thus becoming more of a hermit until part 6.
Now they had to go and see Eligos because after Marzeena he is the best option they have.