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Cult of the Ebon Destroyer - GM report -spoilers
I did GM the Cult of the Ebon Destroyer at JensCon 0.5. This was the second weekend event at my place with sleepover and multiple slots. This format has the great advantage that you have the whole group together for the complete module.
We did meet up Saturday evening for a planned 18:00 game start. Playing into the night and restarting next day to finish the module.
All in all I would guess we spend approx 14 hours game time.
Characters:
Level 8 Dwarf Fighter
Level 8 Human Sorcerer
Level 8 Ranger
Level 8 Oracle of Life
Only the Dwarven fighter was naturally 8th level. of interest for PFS is the wealth level. She was on 33083 gold and items according to HeroLab. That is spot on with the suggested amount.
As tie in to PFS I used the Venture Captain and lodge from Kingdom of the Impossible. This was spontaneous as this time I hadn't prepared much of an introduction or faction missions as I did for Godsmouth Heresy.
The reason for help was political influence - and as the lodge is on the other side of the island this involved a ship journey and already heavy role-play / investigation before the official start of the game. I guess it was an hour into the game that they arrived in the first part of the scripted adventure. Actually that was good - nice role-play, time for characters to know each other and already a lot of knowledge checks.
Part 1 therefore had already started for the group ahead of arriving in Niswan. They talked to all contacts. They then followed the headless Body trail, found the ear-ring, via magic found the severed head, found the broken blade and with the help of a weapon smooth in town they got the address of Lankesh.
Was it Meta-gaming or should the knowledge checks been enough? The group did expect a rakshasa and prepared accordingly. Buffed with protection from electricity and good aligned weapons this was a short fight.
Next was the Silk Mill. The group did enter from the back with the key. A silence spell to get through the fence unnoticed. The fight in A3 was pretty fast. There was surprise on either side. After coming unnoticed that far the group didn't bother to listen.
Sarpini never dealt any damage to the group and the two alcolytes went down pretty fast as well.
To understand the following better you need to know that I misunderstood the layout a little. With the rafters on top I didn't include another roof on top. Somehow it looked like an open oriental area to me. Well - you learn.
The next bit came as surprise. they had taken Lankesh with them in a carpet and had left him outdoors. After the fight the ranger went out - only to get peppered by arrows from Utkroza. I had surprise round and a full attack round against a flat footed ranger.
It did help that the group still had protection against electricity up.
The sorcerer used some ice storm to let Utkroza flee up high. What followed was a long drawn out battle at the sky light in A3.
The honor guard was mainly a speed bump and annoyance. We had the ranger and Utkroza trying a missile competition. Utkroza out damaged the ranger easily by a factor of 4-5. This is where the healbot came in play. the Oracle of life was optimized for max. Healing. With a minimum healing of 13 for a Cure Light Wounds - up to 24 - this became a long drawn out battle of attrition.
Also to mention is that the Oracle took on a lot of damage via damage transfer for more convenient healing.
I couldn't see any reason for Utkroza to leave her nice place in the air 150 feet up. But while she outgunned the ranger, she failed to compete in damage output with the Oracles healing power. Interesting that you seem only to read about optimized fighters / Damage bots on the boards.
Eventually it got boring and I realized that Utkroza should have run out of arrows a while ago. The resulting fight close in was quick. I had one last Swooping Pounce and Utkroza was dead.
I didn't wanted to get too far off the script here and the fight had lasted much too long already. This concluded the evening session.
We restarted next day after a great English Breakfast in a neighboring b&b.
Moving South we role-played the journey, the elephants, the river crossing and the village at the river. I embellished that village a little to avoid meta-gaming in the next village.
At the shrine one member promptly fell for the smelly resin. His scent cloak got me into trouble as I don't think this was expected. So I ruled it would reduce the scent equivalent to 2 days time. Seemed appropriate with the description.
Sitrakha attacked at night - entangling most of the sleeping group and targeting the ranger. The step up was nice as it surprised the ranger. Once the group going he didn't stand a change. Mauling a dwarf without her +2 plate mail was fun. But it did cost his life as I did a last attack instead of a full withdrawal.
I thought he still would get away - but I underestimated the group and the were tiger went down to his surprise. Must have been some skill of the ranger ...
Anyhow - while it looked impressive that I took half the HP of the Dwarf in a single round it was of no consequence with the Oracle around.
Leecumgee
The group did heal one of the children, picked up so e hints and left the village before night fall.
The mass grave was a nice fight that really scared the group. I had build up a gorge and placed masses of dead bodies (based but unpainted figures) in the gorge. A lot of zombies went down fast but the group really got scared when all seemed to come back (they killed 9 in round 1 and 8 came back).
I didn't read in time the correction for the withering gaze. Well - the sorcerer made her safe - so no issue.
Having burned through a lot of magic I told the group to better rest.
The Cliff face caused some issues. The group didn't dare to climb. They also assumed 900 feet up. In the end it was a combination of fly and slippers of spider climb. Only to realize they still had enough time on the spell when they found the entrance half way up.
They did spot the Symbol of Pain but missed the Glyph of Warding. Probably I shouldn't have allowed finding the latter with a non rogue? Well - this was role payed during BBQ with a dice tray and a single d20 all we had outside.
All the following bits were build up using DwarvenForge terrain. Unfortunately I didn't make pictures. GM duty and photographer doesn't mix well.
The first two acolytes - warned through the sound burst waited until the first member arrived - one to and flee. He had the animal companion - a cheetah - in hot pursue. Unfortunately the ranger misjudged distances.
The AC caught up at the entrance to B3. Falling for a stunning blow and with the rest of the group a lot slower. The Oracle was lame and amoured - speed 15, dwarf 20, sorcerer 30 but not keen to be ahead of the group ...
By the time the ranger was close enough just in the last bend, the cheetah was on the ground - dying. Healing and life link with the oracle still out of range. I couldn't get enough acolytes into the passage - so three surrounded the dying AC. I'm not keen on Coupe Des Grace as GM. But I felt in this circumstances it had to be done. Really sad for the ranger as he stood there - watching from 20 feet distance - helpless as six enemies blocked his way to the AC.
Some lightning bolts later and 5 of the acolytes preferred to flee.
It was fun to build up the following rooms. First was B7 Suletka. She did some real nice damage. The dwarf really didn't expect to get disarmed (his favored DwarvenForge axe) in the round after the axe was aligned to good and then be tripped.
Suletka didn't expect the minuses associated with the axe. Switching target she went for the sorcerer who annoyed her. Tripping her she was on the floor - in a bad, bad position. Could have been deadly. She managed a defensive invisibility.
I wasn't sure if I should have treated Suletka as alway on in regard to Invisibility or if she would use it if needed. As it could have been deadly and I wasn't sure I rather opted in favor of the player.
One issue with so many buffs, feats etc. is to remember all as GM. I forgot early on the arrow snatching feat and the ranger hit at least twice before I remembered. I then wanted to see his face when I used it first time - but it didn't happen. Bad dive rolling and no more hits.
This was a great fight with surprises, drama, players fearing for their characters. Probably the best fight with this group.
It followed B11.
Zafafiras position at the other end of the room was the main complaint I would have here. She started to talk but then got zapped by the sorcerers. Sorceress and ranger had her nearly dead before she even could move anywhere sensible.
The five acolytes who fled earlier helped here to ensure the fight wasn't over too soon. The dwarf took massive damage (why, can't remember) and was lucky that when Zaafira finally got close and used the surprising charge I must have used the unbuffed stats. Missing one extra attack might have saved the dwarven life.
As it was getting late I wanted one more fight. The group did choose the labyrinth B8/B9. They only noticed the last alarm and only after they had triggered it.
Ikrimah waited for them at one of the last corner - throwing a smoke stick in the surprise round. Fights in a narrow corridor really are awkward. One member fights - the rest watches. I also didn't pick up the inability to cast spells. I'm not (yet) familiar with the transformation spell myself.
It was late, I taunted the group, the dwarf stepped forward away from the group into the smokestick cloud (she has blind fight) and I cast wall of force behind her. GM error - I shouldn't have done that. But if you have two pages of stat block this is something you just might miss - even if it is mentioned in the morale area.
The dwarf - without help - didn't stand a change. I got corrected after she was dead - but it was too late and 2 players still had a long way to drive home to reset the fight and start from scratch.
The group could have ended before that fight by just leaving (according to conclusion both Ikrimah and Deepti would have fled - no temple guards had survived)
We therefore ended here and didn't do any more fights. Not the best possible ending - but GM errors happen. This module contains complex encounter enemies with lots of hidden bits and pieces. As GM to run it first time in one complete go needs good preparation. This is also the reason for the report. It might help someone else who tries to run it by reading this ahead of time.
Thod
Cool, thanks for the post. I plan on running this one day soon. Good to know that can take a while! I also wondered, too, about all the low level monks and whether they would just be annoying speed bumps to the players.
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Nice report, I hope you and all the players enjoyed the adventure.
Very interesting to see how certain aspects worked for your group.
I know that some of the encounters, especially at the end, are quite complex, but as a player I want my PC to get themselves into a wide variety of situations.
Thank you for taking the time write such a detailed report.
Matt Goodall
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Matt
thanks for commenting here. One of the reasons I like Paizo is the feedback from authors and staff.
Yes - the group really enjoyed it. Two players from the home group aren't really used to higher level play. We tended to take years to get up that high and then somethink would kill or derail the group.
The opponents are complex - but in a good way. I also have to add that as a PFS game you try to be a lot closer to the material as written compared to a non organized play environment.
As such I have realized that I GM better if I played a scenario before or even better if I gmed it before. A few interested player couldn't make it. So I might GM it again.
What else?
Oh I was exhausted after the game. But that was in a good way.
Thod
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Thanks for the update, Thod. Your experiences will be very useful soon. If you're interested, I'm running this mod as a PFS PbP here on the boards (yes, it will take a long time). You can follow along HERE! if you like. I'm running it with 6 PCs, which means I can pull out all the stops on them, it seems.
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Thanks for the update, Thod. Your experiences will be very useful soon. If you're interested, I'm running this mod as a PFS PbP here on the boards (yes, it will take a long time). You can follow along HERE! if you like. I'm running it with 6 PCs, which means I can pull out all the stops on them, it seems.
I should have a look. I just started the Carrion Crown as PBP and it might have been one reason I did a few bits of preparation last minute.
Good if my write up gets read and is useful.Thod
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Thanks for the kind words JP. I know that I enjoyed playing through your LG mods back in the day. Hope you get a chance to have a read CotED and maybe see it from the GM's side of the screen.
I have stayed away from using the term "review" in that first post and fully intend to write one up. It's a given that I'll be running this one in the near future. (Especially since I liked it, people will ask me to run it!)
Nice job man!
One of the funniest moments (for me) was when we entered the temple and the beatific one was there. After she blabbed to us about her deity, I began ranting that her deity was weak and foolish and that she was but a bleak imitator of Rovagug the Destroyer. And that when Rovagug returns, she will be swallowed like all the other meaningless insects.
Needless to say that such rants did not last very long before combat erupted. On my first action, I cast blindness upon it invoking the wrath of Rovagug. I made the SR on the nose and it failed its fort save.
ALL HAIL ROVAGUG!
JP
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010
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I noticed that too.
I enjoyed reading along with your PbP group. Shame about the death from the random crit at the end (but it does happen). Seems like they enjoyed it, and I thought you made some good choices storywise.