First time I've done anything like this, so I thought I'd get a second opinion.
My RotR group consists of only three players (switch-hitter ranger, oracle of flames, and archaeologist bard), so I expect they will be level 4 (which means animal companion) by the time they get to the second level of Thistletop. Most of the fights should still be a challenge since it's a lot of relatively tough people. The problem I see is Lyrie. She only has 24 hp, so mirror image is basically the only chance she has of seeing the end of the second round. Plus the group might have recruited Orik.
Now, the group caught Tsuto, stripped his gear, and took him to the garrison. They are currently in the Catacombs of Wrath. What I'm thinking is to have Tsuto escape while they're down there. This way he's available to back up Lyrie, and it makes Lyrie herself more memorable than just "random wizard." It will also put pressure on the group to raid Thistletop without waiting for Sheriff Hemlock or Shalelu to return to Sandpoint.
If I did this, how do I adjust for Tsuto's lost gear? Normally the two of them make a CR 5 fight, worth 1600 XP (800 each). I was going to drop the CR by 1 for the lost gear, but I realized the only thing that really affected Tsuto in combat was the ring of protection +1. So maybe I should leave the CR and XP alone.
I need to make a decision about Tsuto's escape by tonight, but I don't think they'll get to Lyrie until next week at the earliest. Any advice is appreciated. I overthink things, and I needed to take my hands off this for now.
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I would not change Tsuto's CR. A plus one ring of protection is not enough to change it.
Lyrie likes Tsuto. But Tsuto like Nualia. But Orik likes Lyrie. And Nualia likes no one. I always envisioned that Tsuto would be with Nualia at Thistletop and not Lyrie.
I had been running RotR earlier this year, but suspended it at the end of the second book to get the AE and miniatures. I recently restarted my RotR campaign and wrote about the restart in this thread. You may find some of the twist in my campaign interesting, or at least different.
Each campaign has its differing twists and turns. Tsuto was killed below the Glassworks in my campaign. So please write about your campaign and let us know about your twist and turns.
Cheers.
Mazra
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Lyrie isn't for solo fights. Let her blow grease and/or burning hands/shatter once but that's it. Instead of fighting with her, let her escape down to warn Nualia. She doesn't present to much danger due to many utility spells.
She is more of hit and run specialist mage. She might even surrender if Nualia dies.
Yeah; she's not useful 1-on-party. My party happened to take out everyone else, so she just surrendered. I'm pondering having her escape, but she lost all her stuff and her magic book, so she was relatively forgettable, unfortunately.
I tried to boost her a little, but it's just no go. I made her a metal elemental specialist, planning to use Glitterdust and Shocking Grasp to make the fight at least annoying, but nope.
Eh, just let her be a pushover. :P In my game, she got blinded by Blindness/Deafness, so I just had her surrender, as getting blinded is kind of demoralizing!
The party took her to Sandpoint, and she'll be carted over to Magnimar, where her ties to the Skinsaw Cult will allow Ironbriar to release her. Then she might get revenge on the party. But I have my hands full, so it might not happen.
Yeah, I've been looking for a way to get Ironbriar more involved so far -- at first, I wanted him leading the reinforcements that showed up at Sandpoint (figuring he wanted to know what the heck was going on with Nualia), but his position and personality were such that such a trip was unreasonable. Then the party's sent Orik, Lyrie, Dr. Habe, and the necromancer for trial in Magnimar. Lyrie's the only one Ironbriar would care in the least about, but I just don't see her as being particularly useful to him at this point.
So he remains in the shadows, and I keep looking for a way to get him in there before the party has a Scooby-Doo moment. "Oh, it was Old Man Ironbriar all along! Whom we've never met nor heard of before!"
The only way I really see Ironbriar getting involved (I haven't read that section in over a month, though) is if the party tries to talk to the authorities before going on there own investigations. The way my group's been going, they're likely to do so.
Ironbriar can be extremely concerned and appreciative of the PCs' efforts. He can't spare any men to help them, but he promises a reward if they bring any information they discover about the murders to him.
The party reached an agreement with Orik after he surrendered. He followed them until they beat Nualia, then since he had bound Lyrie's wounds, he took her spellbook and carried her away with the party's approval.
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Sissyl, that is very similar to what happened in my campaign. Orik took charge over Lyrie. And after a time apart from the party Lyrie has begun to soften her stance under Orik's influence and protection, not to mention his love. She is now going through a process of redemption with the Pathfinders. Lyrie and Orik are now with the party, with Lyrie acting as their chronicler.
Oh, that's sweet. =) I figured that even tied up and without her spellbook, Lyrie is far, far smarter than Orik. Once she gets the chance at his first slip-up, she will solve the issue in some way, and come back to haunt the PCs. =)
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If the PCs have been clever/lucky enough to catch Tsuto early on, they should benefit from that. Don't have him escape, unless he does genuinely possess a reasonable means of doing so. If the players see that the plot or setpiece encounters are fixed, regardless of their actions, they can become disillusioned.
He does have persuasive skills, but you'd have to match what he says to his guards, with events that have actually happened in-game. Only you can be the best judge of that.
Have any Sandpoint citizens been kidnapped by the goblins? He could suggest that they would be in trouble, if he were not there to control them. Maybe that could prey on the mind of a guard whose relative was missing?
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Now, the group caught Tsuto, stripped his gear, and took him to the garrison. They are currently in the Catacombs of Wrath. What I'm thinking is to have Tsuto escape while they're down there. This way he's available to back up Lyrie, and it makes Lyrie herself more memorable than just "random wizard." It will also put pressure on the group to raid Thistletop without waiting for Sheriff Hemlock or Shalelu to return to Sandpoint.
I can't imagine the PCs wanting to camp down there, overnight.
If they do come back up for air, it's likely to be before Tsuto can make a break for it, or else very soon after.
Either way, he won't have much of a head start. If townsfolk are forming a posse, he'll have to keep his head down, so is unlikely to beat the PCs to Thistletop if they head straight there, especially if they are loaned horses or a boat.
Depending on how many goblins survived the raid, and how many of them returned to Thistletop (rather than scatter into the woods), Nualia may not realise he's been captured for a while, and is unlikely to send a rescue attempt.
I don't think Tsuto will realistically engineer an early escape, avoid recapture and travel fast enough to get back to Thistletop before the PCs, and forcing it could be a bad idea.
The most likely encounter with an escaped Tsuto would be alone, unarmed, and tired, as he breaks cover of the forest, to run for the coast.
As a monk, he's less dependent on gear than most, but it should still be taken into account. He doesn't need a weapon for melee, but his lack of a bow means he can't ambush the PCs or return fire except at close range. No cure potion, no ring, means he's equipped badly.
But most importantly (and this is something that should be considered by all GMs and scenario writers far more than it currently is), the CR for any opponent is set on the assumption they are in a moderately favourable situation, which for Tsuto, is as one member of a group.
Sneak Attack is effectively non-existent without flanking allies, Stunning Fist only delays the inevitable, unless he has allies to capitalise on the inactive PC, Deflect Arrows is best when the whole party is having to split its fire between several targets.
So I would reduce his CR, if he is encountered alone during his escape, or later, on the road.
If you think a solo Tsuto would be an anticlimax, he could recruit some goblins along the way, to make his recapture more of an event.
Or he could make it to Gogmurt's hedge maze, and the PCs have to get through it, and grab him before he can get over the bridge and raise the alarm.
In our game, the PC's captured Tsuto and went about trying to interogate him in a cell in the Sandpoint garrison. Two went at him with some very bad cop and when he didn't break another PC tried to play good cop. She entered alone and armed and after conversing for a while Tsuto made a grab for her sheathed sword. Surprisingly, he was successful in his attempt. Even more surprising for the PCs was when he spouted something about being saved by his love after death and promply fell on the sword.
Not at all what the PCs were expecting. The shock was excellent.
Lyrie turned out to be nothing more than a road bump, even with Tsuto's help. Tsuto deflected the first arrow shot at him, only to get an elf bane arrow in the gut. The ranger got lucky and hit the right Lyrie out of six images. Burning hands from the oracle took her down. It didn't help that I rolled terribly almost the entire time they were in Thistletop.
They finally had a challenge when they got to the lowest level. Nualia's yeth hound scared off the ranger, but the other two just managed to handle it. Nualia wasn't able to get away with Sanctuary, but even if she had, she would have run into a rather angry ranger who would have used his hero points to be sure he got her.
I gave them warning about the barghest via writing on the door. They went in anyway, since they had Nualia's magical bastard sword. They escaped two rounds later with the ranger having one hit point left after getting a cure moderate.
My virtual table top saved the shadow fight. ("Why are you only doing half damage? Hey, I didn't realize incorporeal worked that way!") The Shadows dealt 10 STR damage to the ranger and piddly amounts to the others by the time they were killed. Fortunately, the oracle knew Lesser Restoration.
My players came out of this with a better appreciation of both the dangers they could end up facing and their own abilities.