My PCs struck maximum suspicion almost immediately too. But I still gave time for things to happen because my player (solo campaign) wasn't as suspicious back.
She eventually figured it out after she tortured the halfling and let him run back to his master covered in red hot poker scars.
Only then did she realize that Estovion had been villain-mocking the party the whole time. He figured out they knew when she started responding. They had a whole civilized "I know what you're doing and I'll make sure you die horribly" dialogue at dinner with the rest of the guests confused, not a clue what was going on.
Made it more fun to play on both our ends to have that bit out in the open.
My PCs just defeated Mathus at the top of the Stairs of the Moon. Two of the PCs are inflicted with lycanthropy (I'm kind of amazed not all 4 of them are). For a module that leaves such a high likelihood of the party contracting lycanthropy, it provides little guidance...
My understanding is that the lycanthropy does not manifest itself until the first moon. HOWEVER, the module seems to contemplate an immediate full moon after the Stairs of the Moon encounter, because the demon wolves turn Duristan into a werewolf, and he is aware of and has embraced his new condition by the time the PCs get to Feldgrau...
And how have you handled your PCs getting lycanthropy? Did they all gobble wolfsbane? I kept the FORT save secret and all four of my PCs got bitten -- does that mean I should let them all think they have lycanthropy and gobble wolfsbane? But all the CON damage they will take would throw off the pace of the adventure.
I guess the cleric can cast remove curse, and might prepare it a few times if I gave enough hints, so she can cast it on the two inflicted party members the night of the full moon?
I'd love to hear how this all went down in your games.
I kept the Fortitude saves for lycanthropy secret when they took the wolfsbane potions and the other fresh doses they managed to forage from the Shudderwood. Of the five PCs, only one has contracted the disease -- and doesn't know it yet.
The timing of the adventure is interesting, and the plot hole re: Duristan is one I hadn't considered before. I will likely handwave this in-game; after all, a prominent demon worshiper like Adimarus likely has ways of provoking an infected person to change (in fact, the witch spell lunar veil does the opposite of this, reverting targeted lycanthropes to humanoid form; I'd simply say that one of Adimarus' minions found a way to reverse that magical process). In our game's timeline, there are five days left until the next full moon, but they only need about four days to cover the ground between the village of Chastel and the ruins of Feldgrau. If they push their horses too hard to gain extra ground, though (they're traveling by carriage), that trip could end up taking longer with bad Handle Animal or Profession (Driver) check results... and that's bad news for the party, but even worse for the captured Estovion Lozarov, who is currently strapped to the roof of their carriage and has not made a good impression on the infected PC.
Remember that even if their cleric can cast remove curse, it has to be cast at CL 12 or higher to negate the lycanthropy, and must be applied within 3 days of being infected. If you're at the same point as me in the module, your party is probably about 8th level -- so that cure is a no-go. (Of course, you don't have to tell your players that.... =D)
My player played an Inquisitor of Calistra so when the inevitable failed fort save happened I wrote a prestige class.
The power boost from lycanthropy was not unwelcome. Small parties make use of and appreciate such power boosts more than larger ones.
The PCs stocked up on wolfsbane before entering the Shudderwood - Count Caromarc, who I made pretty damn savvy about Ustalav's supernatural side, warned the PCs they were going into werewolf country.
I allowed heal checks to determine if someone was infected. I believe both the cleric and the alchemist auto-passed the DC to recognize infection at that point.
Infection usually resulted in someone taking an anti-plague and eating wolfsbane (and voluntarily failing the con damage save) with both a diviner's insight (from Kendra) and a Good Fortune (from the party's Desnan cleric).
So people got infected but got it fixed pronto.
Remember that even if their cleric can cast remove curse, it has to be cast at CL 12 or higher to negate the lycanthropy, and must be applied within 3 days of being infected. If you're at the same point as me in the module, your party is probably about 8th level -- so that cure is a no-go. (Of course, you don't have to tell your players that.... =D)
I have kept this in mind, and I think the players are aware of it too (they rocked some research rolls). But I believe there is a CL 12 remove curse scroll in the room where the Vilkacis' remains are, so they can use that to cure one of the PCs.
I allowed heal checks to determine if someone was infected. I believe both the cleric and the alchemist auto-passed the DC to recognize infection at that point.
Infection usually resulted in someone taking an anti-plague and eating wolfsbane (and voluntarily failing the con damage save) with both a diviner's insight (from Kendra) and a Good Fortune (from the party's Desnan cleric).
So people got infected but got it fixed pronto.
I think I want to make it a bit harder on the PCs. How could they determine infection with a heal check, where the disease/curse says it doesn't manifest until the first moon?
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Has anybody expanded out the Ascanor Lodge part of the adventure beyond what the module says? It's even money that my group will end up stranded in Ascanor for the winter - I've been emphasising that this winter is far harsher than normal (a bit of foreshadowing, you know, the Whispering Way drawing the life from the land type of thing), and it's approaching fast.
I'm sort of envisioning a bit of layover in Ascanor...to quote President Bartlett from the West Wing episode "Holy Night":
"And now we're one-third of the way through an Agatha Chrstie story. 'Where nobody be goin' nowhere. The bridge be washed out.'" :)
Anyway...I'm thinking of adding in a bit of a tournament of sorts - one of my players, Izaark, is a cavalier and his backstory involves some "issues" with the Knights of Ozem (largely to do with them refusing to admit him because he's a half-orc...never mind that he's Lawful Good and about the bravest, most honourable soul you'd find, but y'know, those Knights of Ozem? They're like that...:).
So I thought, as part of Izaark's overall character arc, a tournament with some jousting would be fun. And of course, there being a Knight of Ozem present to make sure Izaark doesn't get too uppity couldn't hurt, and a bit of a fight between them would be fun.
Now, I was also thinking that Ascanor Lodge couldn't possibly survive on its own. It would *have* to have some kind of life support system. It's a pretty hoity-toity place, so I can't imagine them serving beef jerky and pickled turnips for meals through the winter, so there would have to be a source of fresh food about somewhere.
My solution is to put a small village nearby. Somewhere for the employees to live, somewhere from which to buy food and supplies. And, of course, somewhere to toss in a couple of mid-module adventures. Since I didn't get to use the mostest-excellentest Legendary Games plug-ins when I ran HoH, I thought I could level-up the "Murmuring Fountain" adventure and toss it in here.
I was going to use the village of "Denton's End", from Raging Swan. It's a creepy little village with some, umm, *odd* practices, that should be nice and off-putting.
Has anyone else done something similar to this? If so, what pitfalls did you run into, and how did the whole thing pan out?
Cheers, all.
And May the Fourth be with you, always...
Interesting ideas. We have limited game time, so I'm generally not looking for ways to expand the AP, other than customizations that don't add a lot of game time. I think the main things you would need to think about are (1) how does the village survive in a woods full of werewolves (not to mention other creatures) and (2) how would a long winter residence in the lodge affect the overall timeline of the AP?
On the second issue, I suppose it is easy enough to suggest that Vrood has to stay in Feldgrau a long time to raise a big enough army, although you'd want to include an explanation of why his work wouldn't be discovered over the course of months. The first issue seems trickier, at least if your players are (like mine) inclined to ask questions trying to figure out whether everything makes sense...
I wanted to share a perspective on Estovion's last stand at the Stairs of the Moon. The module suggests that Estovion is cornered and will fight to the death, but he has the dimensional steps ability, so he isn't really trapped at all. At any time he could just blink out the back wall.
Also, I don't think he is a very formidable opponent for the party in a direct match like that.
Interestingly, my PCs let Estovion go after he handed over the canopic stone that would allow them to destroy the Vilkacis. Although they viewed him as evil, they (accurately) understood that he wasn't really aligned with the WW. They also thought he was more of a threat than he was. And they had trouble getting at him through the bars (be prepared to know the DCs to break through the bars; I decided the lock was melted so that our rogue couldn't just pick the lock.) In the end, they gave Estovion a dose of wolfsbane (since he is infected), he gave them the canopic stone, and then he dimension stepped some distance away with the understanding the PCs wouldn't give pursuit, which they didn't.
I actually found it a pretty logical resolution. I'll have to decide whether Estovion shows up in Caliphas or something. Any ideas for bringing him into the story later would be appreciated.
Interesting ideas. We have limited game time, so I'm generally not looking for ways to expand the AP, other than customizations that don't add a lot of game time. I think the main things you would need to think about are (1) how does the village survive in a woods full of werewolves (not to mention other creatures) and (2) how would a long winter residence in the lodge affect the overall timeline of the AP?
Hi Voomer, thanks for your input.
Couple of things: I'm sort of portraying the werewolves and humans in a kind of detente. The werewolves themselves are low on numbers, generally, and don't want to become embroiled in a war with the individually-weaker, but numerically-overpowering humans, so it's pretty much a "don't bother us, we won't bother you" scenario.
Occasionally, a human will be taken, and occasionally, an idiot like Duristan will wander in and hunt werewolves, but by and large, they leave each other alone.
(Plus, I'm actually changing the packs around a bit - the Prince's Wolves are going to actually be a mix of CN and CG, and Rhakis himself is going to be CG and play a bigger role in the module)
As well, Denton's Rest has some...odd...practices which might well make the werewolves shy away a bit :) It also allowed me to add it in as important - Vrood needed to know where he was going to find the Raven's Head mace (or whatever it's called), so I had him consult "one of the elders" of Denton's Rest. If you have read Denton's Rest, you'll know why this makes sense, as well being both cool and creepy.
On the second issue, I suppose it is easy enough to suggest that Vrood has to stay in Feldgrau a long time to raise a big enough army, although you'd want to include an explanation of why his work wouldn't be discovered over the course of months. The first issue seems trickier, at least if your players are (like mine) inclined to ask questions trying to figure out whether everything makes sense...
My timeline can slow down pretty easily. I am thinking of having Vrood essentially stuck during the worst of the winter, as well, possibly in Ardis. There are also other campaign complexities I can throw in - one of them is that Vrood needed to return to Caliphas to consult with Adrissant or Vladimus (a new, boss-type NPC that has a link to one of the characters), so he'll send his followers on to Feldgrau, and meet them there. He'll be caught in Caliphas by the winter, and only arrive at Feldgrau a few days ahead of the PCs.
I think that all sounds workable. I like the idea of the werewolves being diminished in number. That matches with the limited numbers that appear in the rest of the module. It also makes sense that the tribes of natural werewolves would have trouble maintaining numbers. But it does beg for an explanation why the demon wolves, who are not natural werewolves, wouldn't immediately dominate the other tribes, especially considering how virulent the curse of lycanthropy is. Perhaps only a small number of infected werewolves can gain enough control over their transformations to become a part of werewolf society?
The small number of werewolves approach answers the issue with respect to your village, and also why travelers to the Lodge are not attacked. My PCs asked about that, and I said the Lodge had powerful allies whose wrath would be brought down on the werewolves if they targeted the Lodge or its guests. That worked.
One note of caution -- when the PCs meet two Primals in the woods early on, the module describes a cascade of howls in the wood, giving the impression of numerous werewolves. That is certainly how my players took it. In my mind the howls were from wolves under the sway of the werewolves, not other werewolves. But you should be aware of the possibility of creating a misimpression if you play that part as written.
I also like the idea of making Rhakis CG -- it makes sense considering the role of the Prince's Wolves vis-a-vis the WW. I've effectively done the same. I introduced him before the attack on the Stairs of the Moon. In my game, Madam Ivanja in the Lodge is an ally of the Prince's Wolves and she set up a meeting with Rhakis once the PCs convinced her of their goals and of the danger of the WW.
Good point re: the Primals in the woods. I was thinking of switching things about a bit with that, and rather than there being a lot of howling werewolves, actually having the Primals be allied with the Ghost in Grey (is that the term? The big winter worg that's become something of a legend).
So the two Primals actually get some winter worgs as their backup, rather than extra werewolves. Just a thought...
We're starting the third module. I think I'm going to coordinate the thread that is driving the adventure a little better than the module did. I'm going to have Estovion be a member of The Whispering Way. Auren has instructed him to kill the party should they have arrive. So the events are going to be arranged specifically to kill the party. The Vilkacis will be his last ditch effort to do the job given he has little control over it.
I see no reason why that wouldn't work, and it would certainly make things more straightforward. I found Estovion's ambiguous position with respect to the WW to be interesting, and my party certainly had some good RP in terms of figuring out where he fit in (they even let him go ultimately, since he wasn't actually aligned with the WW), but I don't think there is a fundamental problem with making him a straight up WW agent.
I liked Estovion's background as a player in the politics of Ustalav. I wanted The Whispering Way to have a wider sphere of influence that threatens all of Ustalav rather than this side mission to bring back The Whispering Tyrant. In the modules The Whispering Way seems like a small, relatively unimportant cult that is doing some major evil. I wanted to make them more of an active and powerful political force trying to take over Ustalav. Estovion having a long held position at the Ascanor Lodge fit in well with where I wanted to take the story.
I made Estovion the one that located the Stairs of the Moon. He studied the werewolf tribes to determine who the pack leader was and set up the pack leader for Vrood to kill to complete the Carrion Crown. I wanted the construction of The Crown to be part of a long developing plot by The Whispering Way. Estovion's history worked well with my changes to his role.
My party's wizard was convinced that Estovian was evil and working with the Whispering Way. When it was determined that he was evil but not working with them, the wizard proudly announced that he was right and that he told everyone so and they should have fireballed the compound at the start like he wanted to do. I can't imagine what I'd have done if he did that, heh.
I did like the "world is full of many evils" feel that comes into play with book 3 and beyond (four also has a few situations of evil vs evil where the players can happily set the whole place on fire).
I like it, Raith. Makes sense to me. We definitely get some "world is full of many evils" flavor in volume 4, and the demon wolves are another evil, non-WW, presence in volume 3. Maybe Estovion's tension with them could be built up more.
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Well, I regret to say that at least one of my groups may have reached a critical mass point where I can't go forward because I believe that at least one of the characters is too powerful for me to enjoy the AP anymore as the GM.
I added a third werewolf thinking that might be enough.
NOPE.
My least favorite character, the paladin archer (the same guy who got angry with me because I wouldn't let him cheese the abberant promethean from the stairwell), started out the fight by critting and doing a total of 115 damage to one wolf. The three wolves roll in the high teens and low twenties don't get a single hit.
Rest of the party does some damage and kill one of the other wolves.
Paladin does 78 Damage next round to finish the fight.
I had to surround them with twenty werewolves in order to deliver the Vallensag threat and they still discussed fighting them. They walked out completely unhurt.
I'm not sure what I can do to challenge them at this point.
Just had to vent. Maybe I should hold out until one of them gets possessed by the werewolf spirit and see if I can get the paladin to blow up one of the other pc's with his arrows.
Should be fun.
Huh. What's the paladin's weapon? Was he using smite?
Manyshot + deadly aim should give him a pretty strong opening shot, but that looks like really good rolling to pull off that damage at 7th level.
Now, I will note that my own PCs found the werewolves pretty trivial opponents; the Jezeldans were the only werewolves that ever accomplished anythings.
When the party gets to Feldgrau, I strongly recommend replacing all of the skeleton champions with max HP simple advanced template apocalypse zombies.
(I also gave the simple advanced template, and all of the abilities of an apocalypse zombie, to the festrogs too).
In the latter half of Carrion Crown, most enemies will have relatively low ACs and middling accuracy, with only the occasional critter standing out as genuinely dangerous. If your party is heavily optimized, you'll want to look at adjusting encounters upward.
A paladin doing that much damage at that level in a 15 to 20 stat point buy campaign seems high, especially in Carrion Crown without much treasure. If your characters have higher stats and more treasure than is recommended or you're running a party larger than 4 or 5 members, then this is going to happen over and over again. The modules weren't build for characters with more than 15 to 20 points in stats and more treasure than the module offers.
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He sent me an email suggesting altering his character to make it less unbalanced.
I suppose effectively admitting that he broke my game with his character is a small price to pay.
If I choose to let him keep playing the character as is I have a few problems.
I think that the biggest one is that this paladin is really the only character who is maximized to this level. If I go out of my way to throw in tower shields, spells of wind wall, or even poisons that damage that 7 int or that 8 wisdom, then it looks like the monsters have meta knowledge of the group (the paladin in particular) and are gearing all of their efforts to fight him (thus making him far more central to the plot than he should be). The rest of the group might feel like they are less useful than they usually are.
Also I threatened to just double the number of monsters in any given encounter and give them the advanced template. That would be fine for the paladin but the rest of the group would be slaughtered.
His perception score is atrocious and the Vallensag did hint that they now had the group's 'scent' so I suppose it wouldn't be out of the question to change the Vallensag they fight from here on out from barbarian types to rogue or ninja types or even a mix. The problem is that the group acts as a buffer in that regard with plenty of extremely high perception checks.
They are also being chased by a vengeful Totenmaske which I am itching to use against him. (charisma drain)
I suppose I have no one to blame for this paladin but myself. He is a replacement character for one who died and I foolishly allowed him the gold for a fifth level character to build his new guy.
Allowing that and then not checking his character as closely as I should have was the biggest mistake.
I will probably just have him alter the character to cut down on the absolute cheese and allow the rest of the group to enjoy themselves more.
Thanks for all the suggestions guys and sorry for venting.
Ah, Tybid. I feel for you. A 7 intel and 8 wisdom means that is a pure min-max player. Probably plays his character a lot wiser and more intelligent than the character actually is. He's playing a character that would be borderline mentally disabled (can barely learn), and I'm sure he's doing it in a normal manner. He cheesed his stats because his character is nothing more than a chance for him to do some damage.
If I were you, I would screw him up something good. Use a maze-like wind wall or fickle winds, then have him make an intelligence check to figure out why his arrows don't hit the bad guy. I'd probably have one of the Vollensag sunder his bow or take it from him.
And remember, the players are known to the Whispering Way. You can start to customize some of the spell lists to exploit party member weaknesses. If the WW knows the paladin is some kind of idiot savant, they would be sure to have at least a spell or two that can target his low saves or drop his intellect down even further.
Vrood should be able to basically incapacitate him with some spells and magical trap (magic words perhaps?)
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I'm running Feldgrau right now, and one thing I suggest is to encompass the town in fog. I made it in my game so that visiblity in the town only goes to 60 feet, fog being too thick beyond that to see through. While I did this to prevent the Magus from just flying around and fireballing every group of badguys, it also helps to pace the encounters so that every bad guy doesn't just convene onto whatever battle first takes place in the town. This would also help to limit the Smiting Paladin in that part since EVERY creature in that part is Smite-bait. I recommend trying to have Admiarius engage him in close combat (inside the mill as written), because Paladin vs. Anti-Paladin should totally happen.
Don't worry about the difficulty level in the Shudderwood; most groups seem to not lose anyone in that part except to freakish crits from the Tarantula or the Vilkicis possessing the wrong person. None of the Werewolves, with the exception of Adimarius. have proved to be a challenge for my group either. (To the point that I used some of the re-worked stats found above in this same thread)
Also Wake of the Watcher has lots of stuff that's gonna give that Paladin fits: Underwater Combat, The Colour out of Space, the Lake Octopus, the Tick Swarm, and even the close quarters of the Mi-Go tunnels. Heck, even the teleporting Chuul in the temple might give him a nasty surprise, especially if it grabs him and prevents him from using the Bow. Come to think of it, a lot of monsters in that module have Grab, making using a bow problematic.
Tybid: (On Meta-ing) While The Jezeldens should have no real reason to 'meta' against the PCs, the Whispering Way would definitely do this. Not only does Vrood have the spellcasting capability, but the Clerics of Urgathoa that accompany him all have access to divination spells that would reveal much about their foes. In an organziation that specializes in secrets as much as the WW does, you can be darned sure that they will periodically cast Divnation and Augery to provide warning about any possible disruptions to their plans. It can be something as simple as a divination leading to the question of 'Is there any danger to our plans?' followed by 'Is the Danger X', until a few spells later, the WW knows the classes and tactics of the PCs without ever encountering them. I had the church of Vecna do this for one particular encounter in Age of Worms, and it made for one of the most memorable fights of the campaign.
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Thanks for all the advice guys.
I'm going to take all that you've offered into account and alter the next game to see if I can challenge the paladin without putting the group in danger. If it doesn't then I will work with the player to alter his character as he wishes.
I've got an idea to throw in an extra encounter while the group is out on another hunting trip with Duristan. I think I'm going to post an actual thread about my changes and maybe fashion some stat blocks for the monster changes.
Thanks again guys.
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Yet another quick question. The text indicates that when cornered at the Stairs of the Moon Estovian fights to the death because he is cornered but wouldn't he likely use his scroll of dimension door to escape?
He is pretty cornered at the moment. At the moment I had him use the scroll he was still doing well on hp but being grappled by a paladin.
Would you guys rule that he didn't know the area well enough or allow him to escape?
In my game, the players confronted him in his room and killed him oh so very violently that he couldn't escape. I believe the AP suggests he bails out of the Lodge via the scroll should he not do so well in a fight while there. Thus, by the time he's confronted at the Stairs, he no longer would have the scroll.
He'd have had plenty of time to get enough of a look-see around the Stairs to use Dimension Door if he's still got the scroll. In fact, his running away and showing up in book 5 with some more power and several friends could be some fun! However, I suspect the AP is just cleaning up all the loose threads by having him fight to the death.
I had Estovion flee. I might work him in later. I don't make NPCs do stupid things they wouldn't have any reason to do. The reason Estovion fought to the death didn't make any sense.
Sometimes even reading the AP beginning to end isn’t enough--there’s a little detail that’ll screw you up.
For me, it was a Climb DC at the Stairs of the Moon.
The spiral stairs begin 50 feet above the ground, and climb another 90 feet before ending at the Skychamber (area E7). The stairs are precarious and have no rails to prevent a fall. Any creature ascending the stairs must make a DC 15 Climb check to avoid falling to the ground below.
A DC 15 climb check...really, Tim Hitchcock? That’s about the DC to pull yourself up when dangling by your arms, or to climb a tree. By comparison, ship’s rigging or a very rough wall is DC 10. Okay, fine.
We’ll assume that Cybrissa wildshaped to get to the top of the Stairs, since her Climb take 10 is only 13. The Silverhides have no trouble, their take 10 is 21 or more.
Your average party member’s going to have a time of it, however. In my 6-person party, only one person had better than a 50% chance to get up those stairs without falling. If they went to the lower levels first, they would have found the wand of spider climb down there, but that’s not what happened.
Instead, I had one person drink a spider climb potion and one person fly up. They got into a scrap with Mordrinacht and Cybrissa almost immediately. Cybrissa started tossing lightning at the flying one, and Mordrinacht started chasing the other around. He had to step out on the stairs to do it...
Mordrinacht had a +13 climb bonus. He rolled a natural one and failed his skill check, falling 140 feet to the portico below. My players, who had been biting their nails moments before, burst out laughing and beat the already nearly unconscious packlord to death in a single round.
...okay, it was hilarious. But I kind of wish I had lowered the climb DC to 12 or so.
That's awesome. I imagine it is because the place is practically a ruin and the 'stairs' are barely more than a rough wall that is crumbling away.
Still, that's a great image and probably something your group will remember for years. That is the goal of the game, after all, so in that way it did succeed.
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sorry for the question
Carrion crown episode 3, broken moon. last part.
talking about the G "tower" on feldgrau
i am a bit perplexed.
the G5 floor, that is the second floor, has most of his floor collapsed in to the G3 section, under it.
in G5 there are the skellies
they can see outside the tower and are placed there to fire on anyone approaching the tower
so i presume the ceiling of G5, that means the "old" third floor, is open.
Anyone flying can enter the tower from G5 into G3.
how high is the jump ? that means, how high is the remaining floor of G5 in respect of G3 floor ?
and if i a assume right, anyone with ropes can try to grapple the remains of the parapet and climb up, doing the same going down into G3.
Or G5 has a "ceiling" aswell ?
anyway, why G1 is defined as "the only entrance" to the inside of the tower, if the whole structure is broken on top ?
really really confused.
thanks for any suggestion/explanation
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the description of G3 says that the room G3 is open to the sky, due to the fact that G5 has its floor collapsed.
Hence the tower has a huge opening above, that can be exploited by the players using flying or climbing (ropes, etc.)
the only thing that i still can't find is the height of G5 "floor" plus the parapet.
how can Vrood think to exploit a situation where anyone can enter it's refuge simply flying in ? the alarm is on G2, so entering G3 shouldnt ring it.
an invisible flyer goes in unnoticed and can go near vrood without him having the slightest idea of what it's happening..
meh..
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The way I understood it is that siege weapons had destroyed the original third floor of the tower. All that remains of the second floor is a ring of stone around the edge up against the ruined stone sides of the tower that can be used as cover. I generally assume that rooms are 10 feet high so the second floor with the archers is about 20-25 feet up.
I think that what they meant is that the front door is the only 'proper' entrance to the tower. When I ran it I had Vrood fly up out of the tower to attack the party from the sky with his spells.
The players totally can fly in through the top of the tower but to get them all in without alerting the skeletons it would require a lot of fly and invisibility spells / potions. If the entire group isn't buffed like that then they risk splitting the party.
If they are willing to foot that many resources then they certainly should be able to catch Vrood unawares or at least have a chance to. Beyond some scouting with a shadow companion my party did not try that.
Right now, I have a bunch of players in Haunting at Harrowstone, and they are nearing the end of the module.
The party is composed of
goblin Rogue (knife master)
aasimar Cleric (Heroism, Sun; very anti undead)
elf Fighter (great physicals, has a ghost touch greataxe)
elf Wizard invoker (very much into direct damage)
I will do my level best to ensure all of them have great saves, but convincing the Cleric and Fighter to take Great Fortitude may take some doing.
I was wondering if any of you have advice for the players; gp purchases & feats?
Do you have any advice for me as DM when running this module?
There's no reason to boost their saves. If they aren't careful and become werewolves, all the better. That is a risk they are taking in fighting them and they have NPCs at the inn that can give them information on the cure (or you could stick it in the libraries somewhere).
I know I rolled for them in secret, so they wouldn't know if they were infected. The assumed they would be fine, but were wrong. They ended up all being infected and wolfed out near a farmhouse on the way to Feldgrau (I gave them plenty of unsubtle hints that the full moon was approaching). Became an awesome RP session as they dealt with the fallout from their actions as wolves.
But, to answer your question, really not much for feats other than the Great Fortitude line. Increasing CON also increases Fort saves. If you don't want them to become werewolves, could just remove the mechanic as well. Again, I wouldn't force these upon them, it isn't critical.
Items would be resistance cloaks or even belts of mighty CON. There may be items that make you immune to disease, which could work.
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Since you are still near the beginning of the AP and it wouldn't hurt to mention it you might also tell your players that the area where Petros died has a circle of dead vegetation around it.
Also maybe throw something in Trial of the Beast with a scene of unharmed but very dead bodies with similar circles. Give a knowledge arcana roll to let them know that they may well be facing someone with Circle of Death and for your cleric to prepare Death Ward.
Auren Vrood kills a lot of characters.
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While Vrood having circle of death is technically an error (he's only a 10th level caster due to his prestige class), it's far more satisfying to give him the spell (I gave him an extra level) and give the party advance notice of it.
My PCs' strategy planning for Vrood revolved around how the heck to engage the guy without losing half the party.
Their answer was to successfully recruit the Demon's Wolves as cannon fodder, under the premise of "we just want Vrood dead, we don't care what you'll do with the Packlord's heart."
Turns out Adimarchus has a terrible sense motive check.
Vrood's servants were all pretty useless against a group of fiendish werewolf rangers, and the werewolves kick ass all the way up to Vrood's tower and torn down the front wall.
And then Vrood killed all of them, because a circle of death followed by a cloudkill gets results.
The party was very, very glad it wasn't THEM leading that attack =D
If they do become werewolves, where is the nearest 12th level Remove Curse caster that can cure them?
Second, is Improved Fortitude/Iron Will worth getting?
Just looked it up, it takes a 12th level caster of Remove Disease, not Remove Curse, to get rid of werewolfism. Where the heck would one be? How far away is it?
lepidstadt
Just looked it up, it takes a 12th level caster of Remove Disease, not Remove Curse, to get rid of werewolfism. Where the heck would one be? How far away is it?
Well, the nearest source is at the Stairs of the Moon, where the players can find a CL 12 Scroll of Remove Disease in the old priest’s lab. There are also several sources of wolvesbane in the adventure.
Outside the adventure, the answer depends on whether your game is set in the canonical Ustalav.
By the description of Lepidstadt in Trial of the Beast, there’s at least one person there willing to cast level 7 cleric spells for money, so getting a CL 12 Remove Disease is possible there.
Also note that Count Caromarc is a level 13 alchemist. If your players rescue him and don’t loot the schloss, perhaps he can gift them a number of potions whose total value approximates the gold they missed out on by not looting. Among these could be one or more CL 13 Potions of Remove Disease, if he knows they’re headed into the Shudderwood.
(Other high-CL potions that might be useful gifts include Oil of Darkvision (Communal), Oil of Resist Energy (Communal) and Oil of Protection from Arrows (Communal). A big store of CL 4 Potions of Lesser Restoration would also be handy.)
Note, however, that Remove Disease and wolvesbane only have a chance to get rid of lycanthropy if used within 3 days of infection. After that, it takes Remove Curse cast on the fully transformed werecreature to get rid of it.
thats right, i forgot he was running in forgotten realms, doh! My mistake:)