Anyone got any suggestions for making the final dungeon less of a slog?
I put my PCs through the Ruby Phoenix Tournament as a 'replacement', but I might as well let them fight Munasukaru as well.
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Anyone who has run this recently - which parts of this dungeon are worth keeping and which should definitely be skipped? (I ran it ten years ago but the only thing I really remember is that the Destrachans could be really deadly if they make smart tactical choices.)
I myself also ran Jade Regent long ago, around 8 years ago, but I wrote down some of the adventure in a chronicle: Amaya of Westcrown: Forest of Spirits. Following the advice in this subforum (and some of the advice was from Matthew Downie) I also purchased The Ruby Phoenix Tournament as a replacement for the House of Withered Blossoms. But my players had been mission focused and went to talk to the kami in the Forest of Spirits instead of the tournament. Once the PCs learned that the situation in the House of Withered Blossoms had no urgency, they went to the Ruby Phoenix Tournament. They returned to the House of Withered Blossoms afterwards.
What I remember is that because of the extra level and the extra gear they had earned in the tournament, the House of Withered Blossoms was a cakewalk.
The party's sneaky people eavesdropped on the araneas in the pagoda and learned that the araneas had nothing to do with the oni, so they went down to the underground section, Munasukaru’s Penance, without fighting the araneas. That shortened the dungeon crawl. They fought some of the initial hobgoblin guards in sections B1 through B7, but when they could see B9, the Great Cavern, from the ledge, they skipped the fight with the main cluster of hobgoblins. I vaguely recall them climbing the waterfall at the north end of B9. Maybe I had set up a shortcut via underground river from the waterfall in B9 to the waterfall in C1. Underground rivers don't have to be entirely filled with water.
Sections C, D, and E went as written, but combat went quickly due to the extra level on an oversized party. Ordinarily I make the challenges more difficult to compensate for a large party, but I left them unchanged this time because the PCs already had the XP from the Ruby Phoenix Tournament and because I was interested in a speedy adventure. The defeat of Munasukaru was almost anticlimactic.
Then the party doubled back to B9 to free the human slaves of the hobgoblins, which also went quickly.
Anyone got any suggestions for making the final dungeon less of a slog?
As a player in this campaign, I just wanted this dungeon to end. IMHO eliminate two of the dungeon levels in the middle and call it a day. IIRC there was nothing important there.
Edit: I think the bonsai tree was in one of those levels. Just relocate it.
My modifications:
(1) Sandru was captured when the caravan battled the hobgoblins, staying behind to collapse a tunnel and prevent pursuit. This creates a vague sense of time pressure, without which the party can just leave the penance to rest whenever they want.
(2) Allow the party to explore the gardens as they please. All battles here can be avoided.
(3) Present the Araneas as a diplomatic challenge rather than having them attack the party.
(4) Floor 1: Keep the Withered Blossom Warriors at B2 and the hill giants at B6 (I had the hill giants at half health due to an earlier battle with the caravan). Omit the 4 Withered Blossom Warriors at B5. Have some hobgoblin troops (my custom versions that use regular attacks) supporting three Withered Blossom Warriors at B9. Keep 1 Hill Giant at B11. The leopards and boars were a diplomatic challenge for the druid. The boar fled up the stairs, and the swine shogun rode down the stairs, followed by a mini-troop of hobgoblins.
(5) Floor 2: Remove Water elementals; add some tunnels / underground river routes that made it possible to avoid this floor entirely. Maybe relocate Munasukaru's shrine to a place the party will visit, if you're looking for more ways to gross them out. (Warning: it's kind of hard to persuade a party, presented with a fort and a drawbridge, not to see it as a challenge that needs to be beaten because they're so used to content not being skippable...)
(6) Floor 3: Splash down into the pool at the entrance to the room with the Sisters and the giant fish. (This is quite a fun encounter, especially when the sisters start setting off the confusion traps on purpose.) Keep the Oni riding a giant gorgon. Have the rest of this area eerily empty, just dead bodies of pulverised hobgoblins, until the party finds the Destrachans.
(7) Floor 4: Skip the first two ogre mages. Keep the nagas. Keep the kyton / ogre mage encounter. (This is as far as I've got - remaining stuff is untested.) Make the hobgoblin lepers a potential diplomatic encounter. Other enemies can retreat to bolster the final encounter with Munasukaru - here we can add back in some Sisters / ogre mages / Withered Blossom Warriors, depending on how much challenge we want the party to face.
Maybe have Sandru explain to Munasukaru (before she dies) why she was left behind by Anamurumon. Otherwise Munasukaru is another of those NPCs with a potentially interesting backstory that is wasted because the party never learns anything about it...