Island of Empty Eyes - Encounter Difficulty and Tactics (Spoilers)

[Aldarionn]

My group just finished blowing through the Free Captain's Regatta with almost no difficulty, and last night we began the Island of Empty Eyes.

As mentioned in the title, there are spoilers in this thread. If you are playing in this campaign and have not completed this module, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER!

Below is a recounting of what occurred during the session last night. It's quite long, but it illustrates the point I want to make:

Spoiler:

So my party approached the island from the small eastern bay rather than sailing up through the southern bay, and in very short order they found themselves staring at the Ruins of Sumitha. One character scouted ahead of the party and was caught in the net trap at the entrance, though since they had mentioned they were carrying weapons in hand from the beginning, I allowed him to cut himself free with a full round action on his turn, and he spent a Ki point as a free action to turn invisible.

Of course, in short order they were staring down the barrel of 6 Cyclops Warriors wielding Greataxes using Flash of Insight to deal automatic critical threats for an average of 70.5 damage per successful confirm roll. The invisible character took 81 damage from one critical hit that connected (He was in a bottleneck spot so the Cyclopes pinpointed him by bumping into him) and was immediately knocked unconscious (I fudged 5 damage off the roll to prevent his death) and near death while another took a critical and a standard hit that reduced him to single digit HP in a single round. Fortunately that character had Great Cleave and the bottleneck allowed him to finish off most of the Cyclopes in one very impressive set of rolls.

After putting their blood back in, they ventured inside the guard post and headed east until they ended up in the Cesspool with the Great Mother's trap. They spotted the sword for what it was right away, but after throwing pebbles at it proved ineffective for "triggering the trap mechanism", the fighter decided to approach cautiously. He was immediately enveloped in the surprise round by the Gargantuan Trapper and killed in the following round, forcing him to use a pair of hero points to stay alive and unconscious. The party pulled out all the stops and managed to knock the Great Mother to 10 HP, forcing her to drop the fighter and retreat. Her slow speed were not enough for her to get away so she was unceremoniously cut down in the following round.

Deciding that these ruins could wait until later, the party retreated off the Island to their ship, rested, and approached from the larger southern bay after I hinted that it might be an easier path for dealing with the inhabitants. They had no real trouble with the Giant Octopus in the cove, and in fact they turned it into something of a scenic battle, firing siege weapons at the creature latched onto the side of their ship, and having the Ninja make acrobatics checks to jump onto the beast itself and Ginsu it with sneak attacks. Next session they will be entering the Chelish Fort.

TL;DR Version - The encounters on the Island are proving to be an almost insurmountable challenge for a 9th level party, and they only get worse as the adventure progresses. I'm worried in-particular about the encounters with the Animate Dreams, and with the final encounter within the Ruins of Sumitha where they attempt to take back the Immortal Dreamstone. I would like some advice on dealing with the difficulty of these encounters and perhaps some means of preparing my PC's for them.

Some of the ideas I have are listed below, and any further ideas would be appreciated!

Spoiler:

I am considering having the Cyclopes launch scouting parties to investigate who killed their gate guards, which should prove easier for the party to deal with and I'll thin out some of the numbers in the later encounters to reflect the loss. Also, I'm considering having the Cyclopes attack the fort while the PC's are there, creating a 3 way battle and giving the PC's the ability to exploit the distraction. Finally, assuming my players approach Bikendi with diplomacy rather than violence (They try to use diplomacy where possible, so I assume they will) I am going to have him warn them about the dangers of the stone, and encourage them to do some research on the subject before they attempt to collect it. Hopefully that will mitigate some of the horrible things the stone can do.

Thank you for reading!

[sabedoriaclark]

We have not gotten to this book yet, but I plan to significantly alter it. Just exterminating the Cyclopes (or getting exterminated by them apparently!) isn't very satisfying. I am dividing the Cyclopes into two factions and making one amenable to negotiation with the PC's. The idea of them having an island fortress with some friendly Cyclopes guardians/laborers seems way more appealing than just showing up and having to enact a bloodbath to conquer the place.

Of course, there will still be unfriendly Cyclopes and other dangers, but hopefully the danger will be lessened some by having gained information from the friendlier faction.

I'm sorry your group is struggling. I hope you find a good solution that keeps them invested in the campaign.