This is all spoilers. So players please take care.
My party finally decided to tackle the piper last night after, literally, running from the haunt 3 times now. It's funny, they still haven't found Vesorianna yet and, as such, are convinced that they cannot kill the Piper. They neutralized him (which, as a DM, you know that Vessy keeps the 5 from manifesting again) but they thoroughly believe he will be back.
How did I get them to not run, finally?
We had a new player join, a 7th (sigh!). I brought her in as part of a rescue party from Tamrivena. The council had sent for help before the main party had looked like a viable option. So I brought that 1 new player in by saying her raiding party had come into town, quickly learned that the problem was the prison, and headed off - without any preparation. They stormed up to the prison, followed the PCs (original) tracks to the western balcony and through the smashed door into the Piper's haunt area. See, my PCs did that on their first approach and then fled and have been going carefully through the prison using the front door.
Anyway, the reinforcements go in that door and this new PC, being a lowly level 2 fighter, was assigned to cover the rear - so she stayed outside (out of the haunt). She then reported hearing lots of fighting and flute music (I really shouldn't have added the music since she shouldn't have heard it outside of the haunt area - but I flubbed on the spot on that). She ended up coming in the front door after hearing the PCs below (we have a gnome bard who crafted his own very weak pistol, which he fired, making a hell of an explosion sound).
So she comes in, joins up with the party, and tells them that her party is lost in there. So FINALLY my original crew of 6 have the motivation to go in there. So they dive in there and start grabbing bodies that are dead and dragging them out, and grabbing some folks who are held by the flute music and dragging THEM out too. It was clear to me that they were on a rescue mission and so I had the commander of the party from Tamrivena show up in there and bark orders for the PCs to come help him find his men and then go out of sight, deep into the 2nd floor.
So after dragging all the survivors and corpses out, they decided they had to go back in for the rest that they couldn't see and to rescue this foolish commander. So they go in, and finally are motivated to combat the piper - which they handled. Then, still exploring for the commander, they came across Father C's room.
The PCs were thoroughly pissed at this point, playing up that they had to come into this area that they were already convinced was bad just to save this foolhardy commander. So when they found his body they were pretty grumpy and dragged him out. But, here's the kicker, as they went to leave Father C's cell (whom they recognized from copious research) one of them kick father C's skull. I decided this would be the trigger that would assign the haunt to him.
Feeling confident, and not knowing where the rest of the bodies of the Tamrivena party were, they went back in. They got into combat with the stirges in the Mess Hall and I had the haunted PC go down - see, he is also the front line ninja who is always engaging first. So quickly the haunt engaged, he was wrapped in tightening chains. It was an interesting encounter because he couldn't roll a will save to save his life. I followed the directions appropriately, leaving the room and conducting the "illusion". It worked great. At one point the ninja was at -2 hps.
What was funny, though, is that the healers then began channeling positive healing into the ninja to save him. They weren't able (probably due to being unable to metagame) to know how much damage was being done to him (because it was said in the other room). So we went on like this for several rounds.
On one hand, it was an easy encounter because the ninja could be healed while being strangled. In fact, he loved it. His deity is Asmodeus (he's evil, but covert and hiding it) and so felt that the deity in the dream was torturing him - harming him and then healing him repeatedly. It really fit the deity in his mind. On the other hand, it was what it was intended to be - a major resource drain on the players.
When it was all said and done, every single caster was pretty much tapped out and they decided to leave and go back to town. There was a lot of discussion about whether they should just leave, leaving the rest of the Tamrivena party (whom they were assuming were alive) to survive on their own. "If we leave, they are as good as dead!" "They're already dead, it won't help them if we die with them!" Lots of that kind of discussion. Lots of alignment discussion about how a NG would view this versus a CG character.
In the end, they loaded up the corpses and headed back to town.
It was great, when they got back to town, they went straight to the priest, Father G. With him were several councilmembers. The ninja had a great line which went something like: "Next time you hire help, make sure you don't hire amateurs." He then proceeded to point them to the 6 or so corpses they had hauled back (on the horses left by the Tamrivena crew).
All in all, a great session full of role playing which is what I expect from this talented crew. The players are absolutely loving this module. Good job Paizo for painting a great background for us DMs and players to elaborate on top of.
Cheers!
(/wall of text confirms the critical hit!)
Where are the party having the most difficulty? Not enough magic or divine presence? No idea on how to deal with the supernatural?
** spoiler omitted **
So far the party isn't really having that much of a problem - they just feel as though they don't know how to harm a haunt. The party is pretty equipped w/ channeling so they don't realize how easy they have it. If the adventure hadn't already gone on for 7 weeks or so, I'd be making it harder on them but since it has I think it's about time to move on to the next adventure so I'm letting them mop up the dungeon.
The party has not yet found the hidden stash of items nor found Vesorianna yet.
Interestingly, we played out the end of the Gibs event and they captured him and he yelled the bit about "the woman will die again". They were able to associate this with Vesorriana doing research on the name in the historical records. What's interesting is that they have decided one of THEM or perhaps Kendra is the reincarnation of Vesorinna (like many cheesy horror movies) and that the splatter man wants her to "die again". They have literally had "the original Vessy can't die again, we know she's already dead."
So they are off the rails a bit on that and I'm letting them explore.
Ember Maw is one place that really rocked the party. They were getting their face beat in by him and didn't roll high enough to understand it as a haunt. My players, being good role players, refused to assume it was a haunt and just start channeling, so they have left that room alone.
Hope that helps?
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Where are the party having the most difficulty? Not enough magic or divine presence? No idea on how to deal with the supernatural?
** spoiler omitted **
So far the party isn't really having that much of a problem - they just feel as though they don't know how to harm a haunt. The party is pretty equipped w/ channeling so they don't realize how easy they have it. If the adventure hadn't already gone on for 7 weeks or so, I'd be making it harder on them but since it has I think it's about time to move on to the next adventure so I'm letting them mop up the dungeon.
The party has not yet found the hidden stash of items nor found Vesorianna yet.
Have they made the requisite Know (religion) checks to id a Haunt? If so you should explain the base mechanics. At least Notice checks, and how to neutralize them in the surprise round.
--Vrocky Horror
Have they made the requisite Know (religion) checks to id a Haunt? If so you should explain the base mechanics. At least Notice checks, and how to neutralize them in the surprise round.
Yeah my group is struggeling with the Haunts too. They even know that they can (with the board) communicate with the Haunts, but they just go right ahead and ignore it. They "solved" the Slamming Door Haunt by "simpley" blocking the doors with large stones. The cold Spot got them a bit, but they just grunted trhought it. The Rouge spend 6 rounds trying to open the log (needed a 20 role) and she got was permanently helded by the cleric and the paladin, while doing so...The Ember Maw....it stared to animate and they run like Girls...
Said that they finished the first level and then had a thought that they go down into the Dungeon, cause "it saver then upstairs"...players...lol