Hello,
my playing group just freed Fort Rannick and is now in Skull Crossing and dealing with a particular "Fiend" ;)
A while after that I will start the desperate plea from the little faery (maybe I change Yap into a female Pixie, because my players are more likely to help women).
But as written the Whitewillow Part seems extremly short. It´s just 3 pages long... if you subtract the stat block even less. Some of the suggested encounters are interessting, but I will add some more. I would be glad if any of you would share his toughts how I can make the visit to Whitewillow one of the saddest and horrorfiying moments in this campaign.
One of my ideas is to integrate some haunts (like in Skinsaw Murders) which details the relationship between Lamatar an Myriana, other focus on the ravaging of Myrianas Body (targeting female characters). Other ideas?
Heh, awesome avatar! I actually edited this part of the adventure out of my group's campaign entirely because I felt it might be too much of a red herring for them and derail things.
That's a shame because, you're right, some of the little suggested "events" are pretty cool and the whole thing could be pretty moving for the PCs.
I think you're on the right track with maybe expanding these into haunts and maybe adding some more along the same lines. Maybe you could add some more encounters with miserable locals struggling under the shadow of their new "dark mistress".
If you're tracking sin, maybe have the PC with the "rage/anger" sin get caught up in some of these somehow? Nothing too game-changing, just give him/her flashes of anger...and fill in the back-story with it?
Wish I could help more. It did seem like it could be a cool little side-trek. My players just have a way of turning every event into a plot hook and going off in search of things that aren't there :)
M
Did anyone have ideas? I would like to avoid real combat encounters.
Some things that come to my mind:
- a treant, his mind poisend by the darkening woods, laments to the pc´s to cut him down or burn the taint of evil from the wood
more later
Heh, awesome avatar! I actually edited this part of the adventure out of my group's campaign entirely because I felt it might be too much of a red herring for them and derail things.
+1
The entire section felt out of place and tacked on to the whole module. I removed the Lamatar wight and replaced him with an animated object:large cauldron with chains on it, that would try to grab the PCs and pull them into the cauldron while the invisible hags cast their coven spells.
The hook to get them the location of the stronghold was a map and recent scout report found in the wreckage of the meeting room of fort rannick on the recent increase of abnormal ogre activity there.
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My players just began HHM, but I played out their travel from Magnimar to the Hook Mountain region, in order to add in more of their own personal plots.
I used this time to do some foreshadowing of Myrianna's corruption. As the PCs left Sanos Forest and entered the Shimmerglens, I had a former vassal of Myrianna's, a fey named Laryssa prye on the PCs using whispering wind to send a message begging for help from deeper in the swamp. When the PCs investigated, Laryssa attempted to strike down the PCs and use them as her playthings.
For Larryssa's stats, I used an alternate version of the blodeuwedd queen from Kingmaker, with the terror template from the module City of Golden Death. I described her as being covered in fungus and moss, with hair of sickly cattails, with her body constantly dripping fetid bog water.
XP 4,800
Female terror blodeuwedd queen
NE Medium fey
Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +12
Aura allergen (30 ft.; DC 21 Fort or sickened for 1d6 rounds), fear (20 ft.; DC 21 Will or as fear)
DEFENSE
AC 22, touch 16, flat-footed 16 (+5 Dex, +1 dodge, +6 natural)
hp 117 (9d6+72)
Fort +10, Ref +10, Will +8
Defensive Abilities negative energy absorption
DR 5/cold iron; Immune fear
OFFENSE
Spd 30 ft.
Melee 2 claws +9 (1d8+6)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 11th; concentration +18 [+22 defensively]):
Constant—endure elements, nondetection, speak with plants
At will—create water, dancing lights, detect animals or plants, entangle (DC 18), plant growth,
whispering wind
3/day—command plants (DC 21), deep slumber (DC 20), modify memory (DC 21), move earth, spike
growth (DC 20), summon nature’s ally IV
1/day—fire seeds (DC 23), goodberry, hallucinatory terrain (DC 21), lesser geas (DC 20), plant shape II
STATISTICS
Str 22, Dex 21, Con 27, Int 14, Wis 17, Cha 24
Base Atk +4; CMB +10, CMD 26
Feats Combat Casting, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Mobility, Weapon Finesse
Skills Diplomacy +19, Escape Artist +10, Handle Animal +12, Heal +12, Knowledge (nature) +13,
Perception +12, Perform (wind) +15, Sense Motive +12, Stealth +15 (+20 in swamps); racial modifiers +4
Stealth in swamps
Languages Aklo, Common, Sylvan
SQ change shape, spoiling step, wild empathy +13
Gear ring of the ram (45 charges)
Hope this helps.
One of my ideas is to integrate some haunts (like in Skinsaw Murders) which details the relationship between Lamatar an Myriana, other focus on the ravaging of Myrianas Body (targeting female characters). Other ideas?
Hi Patrick,
My party was already hellbent on ascending the Hook and ending the Kreeg presence in the area once and for all, so I didn't need to motivate them to go up there. They also got intel that Lamatar had been removed from Fort Rannick while still alive, and they assumed that Hook Mountain was where he was taken.
Instead of using Yap, I pulled my sweety aside to suggest a sequence of events tailored to her character involving Myriana and Lamatar. To sum up:
The druid then changed into a dire eagle, snatched up Lamatar's remains, and made a beeline for Whitewillow, with the PCs scrambling to find a way to follow her and find out what was going on. They were able to, and the final tragedy of the Hook Mountain Massacre was revealed. Lamatar was reincarnated, Myriana's spirit was at peace, and the PCs had ended Whitewillow's blight.
It was a sobering, bittersweet end to the adventure, but the players walked away knowing that they had done the right thing, even if that meant the Hook would run red with ogre blood that winter...
I hope that provides an idea or two :)
Your Friendly Neighborhood Dalesman
"Bringing Big D**n Justice to the Bad Guys Since 1369 DR"