Anyways, the reason I'm here... I know I've probably had some evil cleric strike me with blindness but I can't for the life of me see how the party is suppose to get into the Caves of the Mother. I assume it is through V19, but where is the top of the pit at V19 topside?
How is the party supposed to know it's there?
Check out area V2.
It is fairly central to the camp and it should be easy for the group to notice when they check out the area.
Thank you, I knew I must have been blinded...
I really like open ended adventures like this but my group tends to need some direction or they all fight and go off on their own goals.
Well, if they try that when shipwrecked on an island with dangerous beasts, cannibals, diseases/infections, and no easy way to leave, then they deserve anything that happens to them. The main goals of this adventure are "survive and find a way to be rescued;" everything else is tangental or to set up the rest of the AP.
I really like open ended adventures like this but my group tends to need some direction or they all fight and go off on their own goals.Well, if they try that when shipwrecked on an island with dangerous beasts, cannibals, diseases/infections, and no easy way to leave, then they deserve anything that happens to them. The main goals of this adventure are "survive and find a way to be rescued;" everything else is tangental or to set up the rest of the AP.
My players have been meticulously explored every inch of the island and have been there for over a month and barely explored roughly half of the island, although they have managed to finish all of the other castaways personal quests and befriended Pezock.
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Is it just me? Or does Malikadna have spells that are not on Witch's Spell List.
Spell that don't Belong
2nd - hideous laughter, lesser restoration
And what is her Patron?
Pathfinder AP #37 went to the printer a little before the APG, and there were some last-minute changes to how some things work in the APG. Specifically, there were changes to how the witch worked. We did our best to make sure that those changes wouldn't impact the adventure, but as you see, we didn't quite match them up perfectly.
In any case, Malikadna's spells won't break any adventures as written; if you want to change them, I suggest swapping those two 2nd level spells out for any two witch spells you want.
Malikadna's patron should be animals.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Been prepping the final encounter:
(don't why I'm using a spoiler, this is the GM thread after all)
It's looking like I'll have five players in the final encounter, but even with four, it's likely that Yarzoth will have a hard time unless her domination works (the whole "against their nature" thingy throws some difficult DM decisions in there - is defending a nasty snake-headed creature that is attacking your friends "against your nature"? How many saves do you get as this goes on?, etc.)
So - One thought to make things a little interesting is the introduction, -late into combat- of the mouther from area 7. I am thinking this would happen only if her suggestion works, and by the time it shows up, she will likely be running.
Ostensibly, it will up the EL (CR) of the encounter into dangerous levels for a four person party, but it seems like all of the elements are there for Yarzoth to use - assuming she has had some time in the temple to learn her way around and has devised such a strategy.
I'm not a fan of the disguise and illusion route, maybe because I've taught my players not to trust anyone. I highly recommend Yarzoth instead stays gaseous and waits until the PCs pass her in the tube then she sneaks out and finds the NPCs. *Then* she will take on the guise of one of them and the ride back to Eleder can become "eventful".
Anyway, in working up the encounter I put together an aid with Yarzoth's stats (minor mods, full hp at first level, etc.):
Yarzoth -> CLICK HERE
~D
Been prepping the final encounter:
** spoiler omitted **
~D
Thanks for the Yarzoth pdf. Very useful!
|
Starting the Adventure:
1. I was planning on having two small rowboats on the Jenivere. I figure Yarzoth is confident her poison has worked and thus abandons the crew and passengers of the Jenivere to die on the rocks of Smuggler's Shiv. Using the first rowboat, the Captain and Yarzoth leave the ship before it wrecks and rows around to the far side of the Island. The First Mate left alone to steer the ship to its doom, makes his Will save just before the wreck. Unfortunately, with the crew passed out he cannot correct the course or save the trapped crew.
2. Also, if a character actually rolls a 20 on the save versus the poison they are not knocked unconscious like everyone else. Instead they assist the First Mate in evacuating the Passengers and other PCs. I just feel it is bad form to completely railroad someone who makes the save. This way the character is left to guard the group, while the First Mate makes his fateful last trip to the Jenivere and dies at the hands of the Sea Scorpions. I figure the character exhausted from the long night, passes out on the beach. Only to be woken up with the attack.
So who is going to write up stats for an Eurypterid animal companion? I want one!
How about little ole you?
Just some small stuff in my game. To streamline the roleplay process, asked for two of the players to take on special roles to help out. One of them keeps track of initiative and who goes next and the other keeps track of the time of day and days spent on the island.
Made a poster to hang on the wall that says "Days on Island" that they add a hash mark to at the end of every day.
Could do it myself, of course but there's enough work as a GM in any case and this frees me up to keep a better eye on opponent tactics and terrain.
As a benefit, the two players each get to reroll any one D20 roll once during the first adventure. Has worked out well so far.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Updated Malikadna -> CLICK HERE
I went ahead and updated Malikadna a bit - replaced the spells she shouldn't have, added a couple of potions she brewed, and a few other touches. She should be a little more of a challenge for my group when they catch up to her.
Malikadna may detect the PCs if they fight the skeletons (Perception DC2 [+7 distance, +5 closed door, -10 sounds of battle]) or if a fight breaks out in camp (DC5 [+5 distance, +10 through a wall, -10 sounds of battle]). She will cast her spells, then venture out, collecting her skeletons if the PCs are in the camp proper.
She will use her potion of levitate to attempt to escape, hopping off of the cliff and scrabbling along the wall under cover.
Point of clarification: I assume wands are treated as spells with regards to delivering by familiar? Didn't see this covered elsewhere. I know the witch needs to be touching the familiar when casting and cannot cast again while the familiar holds the charge.
Anyways - hope this helps.
~D
Very nice work daemonslye!
I'm going to be starting this AP soon, and I'm an avid MapTooler.
Does anyone have any maps for the wilderness predator encounters? Or a good map they made of their PC's base camp? And actually any good maps made for this chapter would be gratefully received.
In face-to-face I'd suggest/prompt the PCs to draw their own base camp, but that's less practical in this medium.
I'm a little lazy, true, but I also like to employ really good production values whenever possible; and my own maps are hit and miss. I'm less self-conscious on a vinyl battlemat, but on maptools I try to go for as immersive as possible.
Sometimes someone else's maps are just handy for inspiration.
About the random encounters....
My group just started but after 1 (all be it long session) they have made all the NPCs friendly and are fully taking advantage of the jobs they can preform. They have yet to stray more than a mile from where they woke up making camp just off the beach about 15' While this does not seam to be a problem it has raised a question about the first couple sessions worth of REs.
I have rolled up about 2 weeks worth of Random Encounters in advance to help me as a new GM and in 2 weeks I have 13! random encounters.... (Rough dice) I am not worried about TPK despite sometimes 2 encounters in a row, the actual rolls of what they encounter are not too bad, my concern is their defenders.
They have both Ishirou and Sasha always set as defenders giving them 4D6 worth of trap damage at the camp and NOTHING has survived to fight them. it has turned into "you wake up to find "X" Dead everyone gets 85xp"...
Should I worry about handing out XP like this? Do they get XP for this?
Also I have rolled Pezock as a 2nd RE on one of the days. While this is good because the traps will have gone off already and not risk killing him before they even get a chance to talk to him I'm worried about this making them hostile to each other immediately and have considered using Pezock's quarks to my advantage and making this a visual encounter only.
I thought of them spotting him as he wanders the beach during low tide talking to himself (and the fish) as he collects sea urchins for food spotting the camp and running back to the safety of his crab dropping his urchins in the process.
any thoughts?
|
|
Should I worry about handing out XP like this? Do they get XP for this?
Also I have rolled Pezock as a 2nd RE on one of the days. While this is good because the traps will have gone off already and not risk killing him before they even get a chance to talk to him I'm worried about this making them hostile to each other immediately and have considered using Pezock's quarks to my advantage and making this a visual encounter only.
I thought of them spotting him as he wanders the beach during low tide talking to himself (and the fish) as he collects sea urchins for food spotting the camp and running back to the safety of his crab dropping his urchins in the process.
any thoughts?
Regarding, XP that is up to you. Depending on the creatures you roll, you may want to give them a Perception check to make it through the traps. It would make the encounters a bit more interesting. Also, you could have the traps kill 1 monster and set off an alert as 'other' monsters attack. Either way they still have to fight.
I like the Pezock idea. Remember not all of the RE need to result in combat. I would give them a Perception check and let them react from there.
|
I'm going to be starting this AP soon, and I'm an avid MapTooler.
Does anyone have any maps for the wilderness predator encounters? Or a good map they made of their PC's base camp? And actually any good maps made for this chapter would be gratefully received.
In face-to-face I'd suggest/prompt the PCs to draw their own base camp, but that's less practical in this medium.
I'm a little lazy, true, but I also like to employ really good production values whenever possible; and my own maps are hit and miss. I'm less self-conscious on a vinyl battlemat, but on maptools I try to go for as immersive as possible.
Sometimes someone else's maps are just handy for inspiration.
I've been making maps throughout my PbP game for the first chapter. They aren't professional by any means but they are serviceable.
I'll show you one of them and if you like I can send more.
This is the first one I drew, just a simple beach with the PC's equipment piled up with the NPC's. These are screenshots of the maps mid-combat.
Links- Beach
I've also drawn the bottom of the treasure pit and a few others.
Thanks for the advice it is appreciated! This is my first time running anything but WW or Star wars. So I'm still working out the kinks.
|
|
Thanks for the advice it is appreciated! This is my first time running anything but WW or Star wars. So I'm still working out the kinks.
Just read your previous post and wanted to check- your aware the trap damage is spread out among all the enemies attacking the camp right?
Lets assume two of the savages attack. They take an average of 7 damage each from the traps (4d6 average= 14 /2= 7). That wouldn't take down either of them.
Also, surely your group doesn't stay in camp and do nothing all day? My PC's tend to be active at dawn until midday, then back for dusk or a bit after. Not every random encounter has to be at camp.
Just read your previous post and wanted to check- your aware the trap damage is spread out among all the enemies attacking the camp right?
Yes I am aware they have only had the first 2 RE's. The traps rolled high and the mobs were low HP for example 4D6 against 3 vipers at 3 HP each.....
Also, surely your group doesn't stay in camp and do nothing all day? My PC's tend to be active at dawn until midday, then back for dusk or a bit after. Not every random encounter has to be at camp.
No, and they will get encounters out but both of these hit at the midnight hour when they were in camp and had watches up.
Found a really good resource for running the survival aspects of the island, posted under the Fair Use clause of US copyright law (educational purposes). This is educational, right? Only the relevant parts are listed here, courtesy of youtube.
Belize Jungle:
part 2, part 3, part 4.
Part 1 is escaping a cave and part 5 is banter and eating coconuts. People here don't need to be taught how to eat coconuts, right?
Laos Jungle:
part 1, part 2, part 3.
Part 4 and part 5 is finding a river, making a raft, going down rapids, and finding a beach of tourists. Not relevant to the way Smuggler's Shiv is set up or relevant to travel in the Mwangi (as far as I've been able to tell).
Nova Scotia Shipwreck:
part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5.
I know it's January in Nova Scotia but it's got all of the basics for the adventure: shelter building, fire, hunting, gathering, signal fires, deserted island, everything except the climate.
If you're not willing to stretch Fair Use Policy (obviously I am but then I'm a scavenger by nature) to roleplaying games then there's always the Discovery Channel...
Hi. Today I ran the first session of the Adventure Path, and the group really enjoyed. It's the first time I run a pre-made adventure, after 5 years of games written by me, and I've found it very entertaining. The party consists of:
- Kirin, Human Cleric of Olladra.
- Rangart, Halfling Rogue.
- Vix D'Lyrandar, Half-elf Fighter.
- Luenthyan, Half-elf Bard.
As I did not give the handout to the players, as I am using Eberron for setting, I started with a small intro on the Jenivere where they got to meet all the PCs. After all of them had met, dinner arrived and they went down.
Only the rogue and the fighter went to what's left of the Jenivere, and they had a really hard time getting there. Both had Climb or Swim maxed out, but the DCs and distance are extremely high. They looted the ship but forgot all the keys and Jask's armor.
Both returned safely to shore. After all Diplomacy checks passed, they got Jask, Sasha and Gelik to Indifferent, whyle Aerys and "Ishiro"* kept Unfriendly.
They spent the night at the beach, after setting up camp, where the bard heard the Chupacabra flying closely. The Rogue had Nightmare #1, but they didn't give much thought to that.
Next morning, the Rogue traveled back to the Jenivere, to get the keys needed to free Jask .After he was released, they got his Attitude to Friendly and agreed to accompany them through exploring the island if they promised to search for the Brine Demon. He also got to NORMAL Morale. Only Gelik got FRIGHTENED, the rest remaining on NORMAL or SHAKEN, and keeping the same Attitudes as the previous days.
I gave them the map with only the shape of the island, and they decided to explore heading south to the Coast, where they fought Encounter C1 against 2 Dimorphodon and captured a Baby Dimorphodon.
By then, it was 12 pm, so they decided to rest until 3 pm, and we ran out of time to play.
I really liked the adventure, although sometimes there are too many things to keep track off (NPC attitudes, NPC morale, environment, nightmares, diseases, random encounters...) Still, I'm sure i'll get used to it by the next session.
I ran the first session last weekend, I've been using a blog to get the players excited, giving them bits of info about the NPCs and other player characters.
I used Gamemastery flipmats which worked well for encounters, and the 4th Ed Dark Sun Game Day map for when they are camped in caves on the beach. The hex map of Smugglers Shiv provided on this forum was invaluable, and the Smugglers Shiv Checklist was very useful - thank you!
- Initially they thought they'd been abandoned by the crew, and it took some time before they decided to scan the horizon and saw the wreck.
- Without much prompting a couple of the more Role Play orientated PCs tried to improve the relationship with the NPCs, and the other three joined in once they saw the benefits.
- Keeping track of everything was a challenge (disease, rain, encounters, NPC morale/, heat, starvation/thirst, etc) and I made a few blunders but no one knew and I kept the story running as a priority over religiously sticking to when the rolls had to happen.
- Three PC and one NPC currently have dysentry. The group has decided to hole up until everyone is well.
- One PC was a druid and she wanted to be already on the island rather than a passenger. She came up with a plausible backstory so I made it so she only knew about the northern part of the island because she wanted to stay away from the cannibals. The druid PC was able to warn the party about the dangers of heat exhaustion and what times it was best to rest which was helpful.
- I made two different encounter tables - night and day, I wanted the winged chapucabra to have a greater chance of making an appearance, undead only to appear at night and reptilian creatures to appear only during the day.
Trickster, I like your idea of day/night encounter tables, could you post the ones you made?
|
I've been making maps throughout my PbP game for the first chapter. They aren't professional by any means but they are serviceable.
I'll show you one of them and if you like I can send more.
This is the first one I drew, just a simple beach with the PC's equipment piled up with the NPC's. These are screenshots of the maps mid-combat.
Links- Beach
I've also drawn the bottom of the treasure pit and a few others.
These maps look very good. I'm going to start DMing this AP next week via MapTool and your maps could be a great time saver for me. :-) Could you please share your campaign file or at least the base maps you're using without the tokens shown?
|
|
These maps look very good. I'm going to start DMing this AP next week via MapTool and your maps could be a great time saver for me. :-) Could you please share your campaign file or at least the base maps you're using without the tokens shown?I've been making maps throughout my PbP game for the first chapter. They aren't professional by any means but they are serviceable.
I'll show you one of them and if you like I can send more.
This is the first one I drew, just a simple beach with the PC's equipment piled up with the NPC's. These are screenshots of the maps mid-combat.
Links- Beach
I've also drawn the bottom of the treasure pit and a few others.
Provide an e-mail address and i'll send the campaign files over.
|
|
Provide an e-mail address and i'll send the campaign files over.
These maps look very good. I'm going to start DMing this AP next week via MapTool and your maps could be a great time saver for me. :-) Could you please share your campaign file or at least the base maps you're using without the tokens shown?
Thanks very much! You can send it to robert@rpotor.com
Do we have any information on the number of crew present on the Jenivere at the start of it's run? I mean the total, not just the named NPCs. How about the overall size/capacity?
|
|
Thanks very much! You can send it to robert@rpotor.comProvide an e-mail address and i'll send the campaign files over.
These maps look very good. I'm going to start DMing this AP next week via MapTool and your maps could be a great time saver for me. :-) Could you please share your campaign file or at least the base maps you're using without the tokens shown?
Sending now. I have a few more maps done but hopefully this will tide you over for now.
Alexander,
I never thanked you for sharing your maps. It was much appreciated and gave me some ideas on how to approach my own.
Thanks again!
|
Creative Director
|
Do we have any information on the number of crew present on the Jenivere at the start of it's run? I mean the total, not just the named NPCs. How about the overall size/capacity?
What's given in the Serpent's Skull Player's Guide pretty much sums up everything there is in print about the Jenivere. The GameMastery Guide talks a bit more in general terms about ships and crew, though.
First time DM here, and we had our first session playing last night.
The party is:
Sir Titan Stoutblade human wizard.
Titan is a member of the Jenivere's crew, and thus was aboard the entire trip.
Balazar the human cleric of Sarenrae.
Balazar boarded in Magnimar along with Gelik and Ieana, and thus was on board the entire trip.
Rat Wulfbane the dwarf ranger.
Rat boarded the Jenivere in Corentyn along with Jask.
Jamal Esimail the human fighter.
Jamal boarded the Jenivere in Bloodcove along with Ishirou.
Félix the "human" (tiefling) bard.
Félix boarded the Jenivere in Ilizmagorti along with Sasha.
Things went pretty good. We ended the night at around 10 pm on the 5th day. At the end of the session Aerys, Gelik and Jask were all at friendly attitude and had brought up their personal quests, while Ishirou was at indifferent and Sasha was unfriendly. Aerys and Jask had also been brought up to hopeful moral, while Gelik, Ishirou and Sasha have all been fluctuating between shaken and frightened.
My PCs have explored most of the "shiv" part of the island, they looted the Tattooed Lady and found some gold.
They also encountered a solo Cannibal on a random encounter. While trying to approach and talk to him, the bard was charged but not hit. The wizard was able to get a successful Colour Spray off and knocked out the cannibal. After tying him up the PCs tried to talk to him, but he mearly cursed and spat at them. Knowing that they wouldnt get any cooperation out of him, the PCs decided it would be a good idea to execute him. He said that he would finally be able join "Mother Thrunefang".
Trickster, I like your idea of day/night encounter tables, could you post the ones you made?
MM = Monster Manual (I don't have the Pathfinder Bestiary)
Also I know having a d100 for one and d20 for the other isnt ideal but it works :) Also it didnt convert too well from Excel, but you get the idea. Feel free to steal and convert to suit yourself.
% Roll Result CR Source Notes
01-50 No Encounter
51-53 1d6 Dire Rats 1 MM p64
54-57 2d8 Ramphorhynchus 1/3 Page 82 Will only attack isolated PC
58-60 1d4 Monstrous Centipede, Med 1/2 MM p286
61-63 Flying Insect Swarm 2 Checklist p6 chance of disease
64-66 1 Monstrous Spider, Med 1 MM p288
67-70 Monkey Swarm 1 MM p276 Abuse and throw poo at party
71-73 1 Spider Swarm 1 MM p239
74-77 1d4 Thrunefang Cannibals 1 page 29
78-80 1d4 Vipers, Sm 1/2 MM p280
81-83 1 Constrictor Snake 2 MM p279
84-86 1d4 Dimorphodons 2 page 82
87-89 Pezock 1 page 22
90-92 1 Monitor Lizard 1 MM p275
93-95 1 Snake, Viper, Lg 2 MM p280
96-97 1d4 Shocker Lizards 4 MM p224
98-00 Winged Chupacabra 5 Page 43 Quick sighting, noise
D20 Result CR Source Notes
1-10 No encounter Dream or event instead
11 1d6 Dire Rats 1 MM p64
12 1 Ghoul 1 MM p118
13 1d4 Monstrous Centipede, Med 1/2 MM p286
14 1d6 Human Skeletons 1/3 MM p225
15 1d4 Snake, Viper, Sm 1/2 MM p280
16 1 Bat Swarm 1 MM p237
17 1d6 Human Zombies 1 MM p266
18 1d4 Thrunefang Cannibals 1 page 29 Night raid - if any escape 2d8 will attack later
19 1 Snake, Viper, Lg 2 MM p280
20 Winged Chupacabra 5 Page 43 Quick sighting, noise
What's given in the Serpent's Skull Player's Guide pretty much sums up everything there is in print about the Jenivere. The GameMastery Guide talks a bit more in general terms about ships and crew, though.
Okay, cool. That is what I thought but I wanted to be sure. Thank you James. This AP looks really solid so far. So solid that I have reactivated my AP subscription.
The documents on the Brine Demon can be used for Jask's quest and boon. It also states that they can be turned in for a 1,000 gp reward. Is this meant to be a choice of the two, or do the PCs get the boon for finding them and then the 1,000 gp turning them AND clearing Jask's name. The wording is "could also" so it sounds like the PCs are allowed to get both rewards but I wasn't sure of the intent.
Similarly, the Nighvoice's logs can be turned in for another 1,000 gp reward. AND/OR? given to Gelik. This one seems to me that it should be OR since Gelik needed to improve his reputation. Not sure though.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The documents on the Brine Demon can be used for Jask's quest and boon. It also states that they can be turned in for a 1,000 gp reward. Is this meant to be a choice of the two, or do the PCs get the boon for finding them and then the 1,000 gp turning them AND clearing Jask's name. The wording is "could also" so it sounds like the PCs are allowed to get both rewards but I wasn't sure of the intent.
Similarly, the Nighvoice's logs can be turned in for another 1,000 gp reward. AND/OR? given to Gelik. This one seems to me that it should be OR since Gelik needed to improve his reputation. Not sure though.
The PCs can certainly use the documents to clear Jask's name and get a reward, provided they turn them in to the proper authorities. If the PCs just hand over the documents to Jask for him to clear his own name, they obviously won't get the reward since they don't have the documents anymore.
Similarly, the PCs can sell the Nightvoice's logs to the Pathfinder Society for a reward, and share the information within them with Gelik to get his boon. But if they give the logs to Gelik instead of just sharing the information with him, the PCs will not be able to get the reward.
OK, so let the PCs decide. I like it.
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Stat Block Question: Gelik Aberwhinge p. 60
He only has Perception +1, seems low for a gnome bard
+3 class skill +2 racial bonus - 1 Wis, at least +4
It seems like there would be some ranks for this skill...
Gelik has no ranks in Perception; he gets only his Wisdom penalty and his racial bonus, for a net bonus of +1.
When we build NPCs for adventures, we almost never build those classes to be fully optimized, since that results in the same statblock all the time. NPCs are unique, individual characters, and that pretty much always means that they'll have some quirks that make them non-perfect. Such as the case of a non-observant, easily distracted, foul-mouthed shipwrecked gnome.
But Perception is a Class Skill for Bards, no +3?Stat Block Question: Gelik Aberwhinge p. 60
He only has Perception +1, seems low for a gnome bard
+3 class skill +2 racial bonus - 1 Wis, at least +4
It seems like there would be some ranks for this skill...Gelik has no ranks in Perception; he gets only his Wisdom penalty and his racial bonus, for a net bonus of +1.
When we build NPCs for adventures, we almost never build those classes to be fully optimized, since that results in the same statblock all the time. NPCs are unique, individual characters, and that pretty much always means that they'll have some quirks that make them non-perfect. Such as the case of a non-observant, easily distracted, foul-mouthed shipwrecked gnome.
You only get the +3 if you spend a rank in the skill. Gelik evidently hasn't made that investment yet.
|
|
No ranks in the skill= no +3 bonus.
What I find strange however, is that the cannibals do the same damage (1d6+2) both when raging and when not raging. The damage from the scimitars when not raging should be (1d6+0). I've heard you guys mention a stat block generator before, but in every AP i've seen there are always stat block errors. This is one of the more minor ones.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
What I find strange however, is that the cannibals do the same damage (1d6+2) both when raging and when not raging. The damage from the scimitars when not raging should be (1d6+0). I've heard you guys mention a stat block generator before, but in every AP i've seen there are always stat block errors. This is one of the more minor ones.
The non-rage version should indeed be 1d6, with no bonus. I suspect that this crept in there because we forgot to account for the fact that the scimitar is broken (and therefore has a -2 damage penalty) on the "Base Stats" line. We caught this in the normal attack roll, fortunately, and since the majority of fights against these guys will involve them raging anyway... it's a pretty minor error in the grand scheme of things.
We DO use a stat-block generator for our stuff. It's a custom-built generator built for excel, and it's a constantly expanding document that, with each new version, gets more and more accurate. Is it perfect? No, because we're playing a constant game of catch-up as we add new rules and classes and stuff.
That said, it IS getting more and more accurate with each version. The question shouldn't be "Are there errors in an adventure" but "Are there fewer errors in this adventure than the one before?"
Simple Fact: The game is complicated, and we have to produce these installments on a monthly schedule. We don't have all the time in the world to make them perfect, so the best we can do is aim for as CLOSE TO PERFECT as we can get.
So while I can guarantee that there'll continue to be errors in stat blocks forever, pretty much, I hope I can say with accuracy that as we keep producing adventures, those errors will grow fewer and fewer.
Ran the battle between the Thrunefang Cannibals and the party at the lighthouse settlement ruins. Used Malikadna as per daemonslye's awesome witch version and..
Thought a TPK was going to happen for a while there. The party won but it was tight. Great fun.
Everyone is loving this adventure so far, they love the background, the mystery, the recurring villains (eg Red Mountain Terror), and especially the side quests with the NPCs.
Our rogue is completly dead, (thank heavens for that scroll they found in the treasure pit) and when they attempted to flee forgot about the trap they jumped over and opened up a the pit trap just outside the flensing room. So now our ranger who is strong enough to drag the rogue can't get him over the thirty foot pit. Not to mention that Yarzoth managed to enthrall him just as he was getting out the door. which brings me finnaly to my question.
Do you think I should let Yarzoth kill off the party and have my players roll up new people on the mainland only to be sent back to the shiv to uncover the last of what they needed or is there anything that you...
My advice: Try to avoid the TPK. Take a look at enthrall - it's pretty limited especially for victims above three hit dice. If the lighthouse has been lit (or hey, even the weird lightning storm played out), Yarzoth would rather have a few dupes along for the ride back to mainland rather than be questioned alone.
Yarzoth has what she came for, information. Now she needs to get back to the mainland to find the legendary city. She would rather have a few (unconscious, dominated) humanoids along for the ride to take most of the questions. She will be safely disguised as a NPC.
She seems more of a controller who does not like to be alone without guardians. This is more than enough reason for her to leave some PCs alive, dominated or simply intimidated, wounded, and closely watched. (ie. "diseased" when the ship appears and quarantined until she can dominate them).
Don't get me wrong, TPKs have their place. But as a new DM, it's better to come across thoughtfully to keep the campaign alive and save the TPK for something epic where the death of the PCs may mean something.
Strength and Honor,
~D