Okay, so the Warding Box can't be teleported and it hides the contents within. If opened, the Five Storms find out about the party and their location. I get that much. Now here's the dilema. I'm currently running JR for two players of mine. Both fighters, and they both keep having near-death situations and are running low on funds for potions and whatnot. Without a proper healer, they make a habit of running to Spivey for help (They've been rivaling Koya, so she's just kinda being a b!#+* to them whenever they ask for help). It's getting to where they're asking me what happens if the Warding Box is opened so they can use the Amatatsu Seal to cast Heal or whatever they need from it. Heal, Remove Curse, etc.
So when they asked me, I told them the obvious answer. "The Oni will know where you are." They accepted that, and have since stopped asking and decided it's best to tough it out, but now I'm curious. Thus far(We're on Book 2, almost diving into 3), there has been nothing saying that if it's opened all hell descends on them. Is there something in the later books? Or is it just kinda flavor thing? They don't really use Caravan rules, so I can't up the caravan encounters. I could maybe throw something at them for opening it, but I'm curious with you guys have to say about it.
That sounds tricky. A two-player party is cause for worry enough, and I've been in an all-fighter group enough to know that all-fighter groups typically take tons of damage. Personally, I think it would be appropriate if they were accompanied by NPCs to round out the party and provide some necessary healing/magical support (Ameiko and Sandru?). Barring that, here are my thoughts on "upping the ante" for opening the box:
1. The box is opened, the Five Storms detect the seal.
2. The Five Storms contact their agents closest to where the seal was detected.
3. Agents track down the characters and attack
4. The Five Storms assume the PCs have died if they don't sense the seal again.
5. Rinse and Repeat.
Pretty much every time they access the seal's power they end up fighting on additional battle (I'd say EL = average party level). On the Crown of the World, the agents would probably be ogre magi, but otherwise they could be ninja.
I hope this helps.
That said, if you want to make them more paranoid then pretty much what Kaushal said; before they hit Kalsgard they get Ninjas and/or Monks sent after them (if repeatedly, possibly with a troll), after Kalsgard if they do it they'd probably have a bit of a break since the five storm's presence in the inner sea has been disrupted/destroyed. On the crown there's already an Oni Ogre Mage written into the adventure that's sniffing around for info of the PCs (towards the end of the book, on the page with the giant spider from memory, I did advance it by the time my PCs ran into it). In Hongal more ninjas, and once they leave the city I statted up some Kuwa Oni Samurai for a road patrol to discourage them from following the Spirit Road which I would also emply if it came to it.
I'm only up to Forest of Spirits right now so can't say too much beyond that, bu there actually are a few spots in the next book where you're meant to reveal the seal (especially if you want a decent sized weapons cache with some story stuff attached), and the only consequence is right at the end of the module when the Jade Regent finally gets around to sending some forces to assault your new 'home base' I believe there was a nother thread on here somewhere about dealing with the deal being revealed for story purposes, but I can't remember which thread.
Well, hope that helps!
That sounds tricky. A two-player party is cause for worry enough, and I've been in an all-fighter group enough to know that all-fighter groups typically take tons of damage. Personally, I think it would be appropriate if they were accompanied by NPCs to round out the party and provide some necessary healing/magical support (Ameiko and Sandru?). Barring that, here are my thoughts on "upping the ante" for opening the box:
** spoiler omitted **
I hope this helps.
Thanks. I was actually thinking about having a part of ninjas or monks or something thrown at them. As for the party, it consists of a Cad Fighter wielding polearms and a Bow Fighter, and thus far they've been fairly good at the encounters (The only one that gave them trouble was in Book 1 with the Ogre Jailer).
That sounds tricky. A two-player party is cause for worry enough, and I've been in an all-fighter group enough to know that all-fighter groups typically take tons of damage. Personally, I think it would be appropriate if they were accompanied by NPCs to round out the party and provide some necessary healing/magical support (Ameiko and Sandru?). Barring that, here are my thoughts on "upping the ante" for opening the box:
** spoiler omitted **
I hope this helps.
So far they've just finished investigating the Rimerunners Guild and successfully did the Diplomacy to find out about Ravenscraeg. They've decided to break in during the night. As for their NP, I think they only just got to 5, which is a lot less than I initially anticipated. Adding NP if the Box was opened was another idea I was thinking of, though I'm at a loss as to if it should be a lot(like sailing Aril's Hammer into Kalsgard) or just a little.
The NP system is sorta broken- it doesn't increase nearly as fast in the beginning as it ought to.
NP starts rising quickly once they get enough NP (it snowballs, in a way), but getting to that point is actually surprisingly difficult. But perhaps they may experience a sharp rise in NP following their escapades in the Rimerunner's Guild (especially if they botch some part of the infiltration).
It's not clear at all how the Seal / Warding Box trigger the Five Storms ire.
My impression is that the Five Storms do NOT know "instantly" when / where the Seal is.
It is my impression that the Five Storms DO regularly "search" for the fifth (Amatatsu) seal using resources available to them; such as high level divination spells and effects.
When the campaign starts, the Five Storms are looking for the Amatatu Seal. They lost "track" of it 30 or so years ago, but are still looking. They know that it's warded, so probably once in a while they cast a divination to see if they can find it. It is a low priority project.
Once the Five Storms are aware that Ameiko (a viable heir) exists (and likely has the seal), they are likely to get MUCH more paranoid. So sometime in the middle of book 2, they should be casting their divination spells/effects once per day.
It's not really relevant what spell they cast, just that they probably cast it once per day or once every other day as a form of "due-diligence".
The reaction they use should vary in each chapter, as the situation becomes more desperate/dangerous (for the five storms).
Remember it takes time for the bad guys to cast a divination spell, realize what the results mean, communicate that to a superior, have that superior make a decision as to how to proceed, and then take action. So the PCs always have a delay between when they used the Seal and when the Five Storms "react". And that delay could be hours, days, or weeks.
So, as suggested above, the Five Storms should proceed as follows:
During Chapter 1: Brinewall Legacy: no issue, The PCs don't have the seal yet.
During CHapter 2: Night of Frozen Shadows: Kimandatsu is in charge of finding and killing them. Using the Seal probably just gets her better Intelligence (albeit a few days later), effectively increasing the PCs notoriety.
During Chapter 3: The Hungry Storm: The Five Storms are worried; Kimandatsu is dead and the PCs are nowhere to be found - presumably...
You should probably put some of that stuff in spoiler tags, mate.
Did someone just quote someone else's spoiler and ask them to spoiler their text, making their unspoilered text permanent? ><
Also-- warding box, Five Storms, Spivey, Amatatsu Seal, oni-- all spoilers.
I'm just saying.
Yeah, I realized that wasn't such a good idea after I did it, but I wasn't certain how else to get the poster's attention on the subject. Can we get a mod to delete my post please?