| mythSSK |
I was wondering if anyone has ever DMed or PCed in either of the two adventures listed in the title, and what your experiences were during the game. Are they fun? Worthwhile? Did the PCs actions diverge greatly from the predicted paths through the adventures? Were you thrown any curveballs? Did you supplement the existing adventures with your own material?
I'm looking for any and all anecdotes relating to these two adventures. Hell -- even if you haven't run them, but have thought about it and have an idea you want to post, please do.
W E Ray
|
I've spent the last several days trying to remember to read them before I go to bead at night so I could post -- but I keep forgetting.
Maybe by posting this I'll better remember to read them later tonight or something.
I'll try to read them again and post by, say, Tuesday (busy weekend, sorry)
| NPC Dave |
I am combining Box of Flumph with Mad God's Key as a lead in to Savage Tide. Irontusk points to Grackle rather than the Green Dagger Gang directly. So far the PCs have just located the tavern the Grackle is staying at.
One question about the cone effect of a flumph's rancid spurt, since I am still learning the 3.5 rules. Since there is no reflex save to avoid the cone spurt, I assume that I simply use my map grid to determine who is hit by the cone, and just allow a fortitude save? Whoever is in the path of the cone effect on the initiative tick the flumph fires gets hit automatically?
| fey'Dorian |
For some random reason I voiced the flumph in question with my very poor impression of Jar-Jar Binks complete with the flailing. My group at the time found it amusing but others might want to squash it instead. The aquatic undead (I forget what they're called) prooved tough to handle but we didn't have a cleric on hand. A rookie mistake that I've made sure not to have repeated since. Aside from that I don't really recall much that isn't PC centric. Overall I think it's best for a more light hearted game but it's all in how it pans out.
| NPC Dave |
Box of Flumph is turning into a blast to play.
The PCs interrupted the fight between the flumph and Cami, Cami had gotten the worst of it and was down with nausea. I was sorely tempted to have the flumph hit the PCs with color spray first, but realized that might mean a dead flump and a dead end adventure. Ulmoapop got to go first and begged for help, and the PCs parleyed.
As soon as I showed them a picture the players got a kick out of the fact I was using a flumph, all being fans of OotS. As soon as it mentioned the Angelina, they knew it was a ship, so quickly asked around to find it. They discussed checking it out before coming back to the room to wait for Grackle to pick up the last crate, so I made sure that they heard the Angelina would soon be leaving.
Since I am using Savage Tide and Sasserine, the ship is anchored just outside the city near Teraknian's Arch. They used Grackle's skiff to reach the ship, and literally asked for Grackle while still on the skiff. Dusky denied knowing anyone by that name, but the PCs were able to use Diplomacy to convince the captain to get onboard.
Realizing Dusky was speaking with a lisp, they went along with the plan to go below deck with him...planning to intimidate him while he was planning to ambush them. Here is where the PCs ended up diverging off the path.
The adventure assumes that the PCs will likely be above deck soon after things go wrong, Grackle begins his sabotage as soon as the PCs begin to go below deck. Instead, however, a melee developed down below decks.
First, being below deck I had the two PCs with Sailor profession roll DC 15 checks to notice they were adrift...both failed. So that didn't get them back up top.
The players and Dusky wanted to enter A6(cargo hold) as quickly as possible, so they entered on Round 2 according to the event timeline. That meant they heard the crate knocked over just before Dusky opened the door. The elf rogue rolled his spot check...and got a 23. Grackle takes 10 and with 25 feet between him and the elf rogue that gives him a 22. The PC immediately used his surprise round to move across the cargo hold and attack Grackle in the doorway of A5.
At which point, Dusky attacks the rest of the PCs, and the fight is on.
Two sailors were also below deck, one a mutineer, so he joined the fight. In several rounds of combat, Dusky took a lot of damage but using Power attack he badly wounded the elf ranger and human paladin. Meanwhile Grackle kept trying to trip the elf rogue so he could move to open the hatch and climb up top...but kept failing and ended up getting tripped himself. The players heard the sails tear and panic begin to set in up above.
Eventually the halfling warlock squeezed past Dusky and helped the elf rogue. On Round 6 Grackle finally tripped the elf rogue and moved to open the hatch...only to take an attack of opportunity by the warlock who promptly critted and dropped Grackle to 1hp with a busted knee(Dragon Compendium table after rolling 20 and 20 to confirm). Then the flump got loose and sprayed the halfling warlock and elf rogue with his rancid spray. Amazingly both made two sets of Fortitude saves.
Meanwhile Dusky's cries had brought two more of his co-conspirators down below.
On Round 7 all the PCs near Dusky were toppled except the elf ranger. I had Dusky take advantage of the situation to run back up above deck rather than finish off one of the PCs. His mutineers were told to hold the steps as long as possible. Meanwhile the hafling warlock is trying to pacify the flump while the elf rogue takes Grackle prisoner.
We stopped at that point. I was worried about having the PCs fight both higher level NPCs by themselves, but it worked out...Grackle was fighting to escape and Dusky using Power Attack won't hit often.
We stopped at the end of Round 7.
I plan to have Dusky attempt to bullrush the captain off the ship in Round 8. From his point of view he needs the crew to regain control of the sails but eliminating the captain is the only way to prevent being arrested for smuggling a criminal onboard. Rather than an outright mutiny he hopes to use the confusion to take control and turn the whole crew against the PCs. Regardless of whether he succeeds or fails though it is likely that this will prevent the sailors from gaining control of the ship. I also need to see how many sailors are sickened.
The chaos and deteriorating situation reminded some players of an old adventure I ran in the Five Shires using Rules Cyclopedia...it was based on an adventure hook from the Five Shires Gazeteer. I don't recall the exact name but it quickly became called by the players the Halfling Harpoon Debacle.
Oh, and waving the arms while roleplaying the flumph is mildly amusing.
| NPC Dave |
So we wrapped up Box of Flumph last night.
Despite drinking his potion of Bull's Strength, Dusky failed to bull rush the captain off the ship, thanks to my pathetic rolling. Dusky was quickly cut down after that by the party ranger, and the party paladin cut down another mutineer who was covering Dusky. At that point, with the leaders of the mutiny gone and the Angelina about to smash into the Terknian Arch, it didn't make sense for the remaining mutineers to fight.
Thanks to one PC knowing Celestial and making a good Diplomacy check the flumphs were calmed down so only the first sprayed the ship.
It was too late to save the ship so an evacuation began. When the lacedons boarded the ship, there were still 14 sailors on board so the undead didn't have much impact. The sailors delayed the ghouls long enough for the party cleric to get off two good turn attempts and drive them away, with one ghoul destroyed by the party's melee pair.
One PC was pitched into the water as the ship broke up but made a swim check and got rescued by the rest of the party who made it back to their skiff. The freed flumphs The adventure doesn't mention what happens to the skiff the PCs came on, I had one player make a sailing check and having made it the skiff was still tied to the Angelina and on the opposite side of the rocks.
Next up is returning to Mad God's Key with Grackle giving up the location of the Green Dagger Gang. The PCs turned Grackle over to the Watch rather than the Lotus Dragons thieves guild.