| Maha-Sam-atman |
My party has defeated the cannibals and the ghouls, has found the clues to the Tide Stone ritual, seen the lightning that erupted from the Tide Stones, and found Yarzoth’s tracks leading from the stones and walking straight into the water.
They stopped there, decided that they don’t want to mess with any ancient serpent folk magic, and are hoping to ambush Yarzoth when she comes back from wherever she went. Last I heard, several of them thought she was lairing on the sunken ship in the cove below the Tide Stones. The one that Ekubus lives on.
I don’t think they realize what the Tide Stones do and they don’t have any intention of activating them and following Yarzoth. Ack! My railroad is going off the track!
Any suggestions? The best I’ve come up with so far involves either letting them catch a glimpse of the very top of the temple doors at low tide and try to encourage their curiosity or maybe finding a way to have Ekubus talk to them about the 'scary person'.
| Asphesteros |
Let them wait. Yazoth can happily stay in there working for as long as you need her too. In 6 hours when the tide rushes back in call for arcana and religion checks. If anyone rolls anything decent, let them realise that the tides around the Shiv, like the tide in the bay, are connected to the temple somehow, not to Yazoth. Let Nature or Profession(sailor) checks tell them that no rescue ship will risk the Shiv no matter who's stranded there while those tides remain so fearce. So, if they want off the island, they got to deal with the temple.
If they botch rolls, let them wait another 6 hours after triggering the tide again, then let them check again.
Alternativly, if the tide stones keep on getting activated, Yazoth will know - it's not like it's very quiet. She's smart, she'll sense an ambush and put two and two together of who it might be. You might be able to skip to her tactics upon being initially defeated, have her appear at the entrance in the form of a missing ally, calling the party in to show them 'the body of Yazoth', and have her try to bluff her way into useing the PC for a rescue. You can even play off their timididty by responding to their protests how the boss is dead with, "You're the ones who wanted to wait outside and see what happened. Well, that's what happened was NPC stole your kill." Have the disguised Yazoth point to all the parts of the dungeon that wore her down (which she cleared herself to support the ruse), then have Yazoth finally lead them to the temple, and have her encourage them to smash the alter to calm the tides so they can get off. If they fall for it, have her make the dramatic reveal, "ha ha! I needed someone Good to undo Zura's power, now I need you no longer!" or have her keep up the pretence until book 2 and have her be a recurring villian.
James Jacobs
Creative Director
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Don't forget that there's a pair of doors down there too—if the PCs discovered the shipwreck, they should have a pretty good chance at noticing some submerged doors in a deep tide pool as well... Unopened doors are a great way to lure PCs, especially if they think that they're not supposed to go there! :-P
| BQ |
I reckon you need to get them a bit more curious about it and could do that by adding in some more dreams. I had to make up some snake related dreams on the fly and reused the ones in the book to keep the storyline and plot elements alive as my group spent ages working through the shipwrecks and exploring the top end of the island. I can't recall the ones I created exactly, but for your situation I'd look at dreams tied to red mountain, tidal stones and the doors. Maybe something like:
1) You're climbing up red mountain desperate to reach the top before sunset. Your arms ache and burn as fatigue sets in as you've been climbing the mountain for what feels like forever. Your heart fills with dread as you hear the doors down in the lagoon at the base of the mountain grind open loudly. The sun is setting quickly and you don't have much time. You're desperately scrambling and trying to pull yourself up when your grip slips and you're hanging off the edge by one hand. You're too heavy and your arms start to burn with pain as you feel your fingers sliding loose. You swing your other arm up desperate to grab a hold. But you're left clutching at air as you've lost your grip and plummet down the mountain screaming.
2) You're on the jungle trail heading towards red mountain in the pouring rain. Lightening crackles across the clouds as the rain starts to get heavier. Looking ahead you see the great stones glowing brighter and humming louder as the rain picks up. A crack of thunder booms out as lightening strikes the top of the stones. The rain starts to get real heavy when you something smacks your shoulder. Looking down you see a snake hissing up at you. Another and another hiss up at you as you realise that they're falling from the sky as part of the rain. A crack of thunder and flash of lightening reveals a set of large stone doors down hidden away in the lagoon.
| Maha-Sam-atman |
Don't forget that there's a pair of doors down there too—if the PCs discovered the shipwreck, they should have a pretty good chance at noticing some submerged doors in a deep tide pool as well... Unopened doors are a great way to lure PCs, especially if they think that they're not supposed to go there! :-P
All good ideas, thanks everybody. They spotted the doors and figured it out.
Then they didn't bother to chase Yarzoth when she activated Gaseous Form.Never even crossed their minds. :)
Ah... Players.