What kind of things happen to a swallowed PC when encountering the gobbler? It's insides ac and hit points are listed, do you use the normal swallowed whole rules even though its a giant stove? I ran it tonight and was kinda mesmerized by it. Would the inside have hardness? Could you "cut your way out"?Yes, there's no reason you wouldn't use the normal Universal Monster Rules.
What happens is that a swallowed creature takes 1d6 fire damage per round. They can try to cut their way out with a light slashing or piercing weapon. Yes, hardness applies! The stove is, after all, made of metal. After 5 hp is inflicted (after hardness) the swallowed creature can cut their way out.
The swallowed creature can, of course, grabble its way out.
Yes, being swallowed by the gobbler really, really sucks. It is literally baking the swallowed creature. Fortunately there are a couple alternative ways to injure it.
If anyone wants to see an example of an encounter with the Gobbler where a PC gets swallowed, it just happened in my PBP ROW campaign. It's been a pretty epic battle and the swallowed PC is in serious jeopardy, but the actions and rolls of the rest of the party next round will determine if she lives or dies. Here is the link for the post where the character is swallowed.
Basically, 5 PCs entered the kitchen after dealing successfully and efficiently with all the others on the 2nd level, including Granny Nan, but with the exception of the attic whisperer, Evija, who slipped into the kitchen. So when the stove animates as the first PCs enter the kitchen, I roll for surprise and everyone makes the perception check and the stove is last in initiative order, so everyone gets a surprise round action. (I ran it this way instead of having the stove move, since the flue pipes had to come free first, which would alert the PCs.)
Grease was cast under the stove, but not much damage was done to it due to the hardness 10. Eventually it moved and the main fighter of the group engaged it. A bard tried to move to a flanking position, but the Gobbler made the AOO to bite and then made the grapple check to grab after the bite.
Meanwhile, Evija came out of hiding and begin to attack the PCs close to the door, which distracted some attacks from the stove until she was destroyed. By that point the bard was swallowed and now smoke is filling the room and so everyone has to make fortitude checks and deal with the concealment (20%) situation. But they only need to do 10 more points to stop the construct. It could go either way.
It happened in my first Reign of Winter game, but it wasn't a big deal. I was using the Mythic rules and the group were all under Mythic Endure Elements. So... the swallowed PC was taking almost no damage at all. But in this case, Evija wasn't going after the group so they were all focused on the stove (which I'd boosted in hit points and the like but it didn't help it that much).
Part of it is action economy. One foe vs. four isn't going to end very well for the one. But toss in a spoiler (a second or third foe) and now things become more interesting. Pull one of those characters out of the picture DURING that fight... and it becomes a much more even fight.
My players just finished SoS and I'm setting up a little side quest for the druid. In the pale tower's conservatory, they found a legacy weapon (a magic staff with unlockable abilities, from old 3.5 stuff). The party still doesn't know anything about it yet, just that there's something weird but unidentifiable about it.
One of druids of the local circle responsible for the pocket will be left behind to "upkeep" the spell. However, the white witch found out and they sent a hag (don't know what kind yet, probably an Annis hag) to investigate.
When the party gets into the pocket of summer, they will eventually spot some smoke comming out of a small cavern. If they investigate (I bet they will), they will find the Hag torturing the druid to get infos about the circle.
I tought to fill the cavern with smoke (Fortitude save + concealment), but maybe another gimmick could be interesting to spike the encounter a bit. Any ideas?
As a reward for the encounter, the druid will fill the party with some lore and infos about the legacy weapon, so he can make the first ritual.
Blowing leaves. The Hag is trying to "kill" the summer, and the leaves are the manifestation of this effort. It provides concealment for the hag, or could even be used the same as fog is.
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Good idea, thank you! I think i'll integrate it from the megaloceros encounter or while they search for it.
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I did the pocket of summer yesterday and it went incredibly well. I did foreshadow a huge storm in the comming days. And when they got to the pocket they got suspicious. They still elected to stay in the pocket for a couple of days, until the storm passes.
It was perfect for me.
after 2 days, they started to get comfortable and then I went with the blowing leaves. they went to investigate this mystery, and after a small search/survival encounter, they eventualy found the cavern where the hag was torturing the druid. It was accompanied with a small troop of snow hobgoblins.
Was a near TPK (that's when the barb realized he didn't really have a ring of regen :) ). After they rescued the druid, He recognized the weapon of legacy our druid found in the pale tower. He identified it and narrated a story about it (a triumvirat of a druid, a treant and a dryad who defended a forest, and they failed to prevent a war against mining dwarves). I explained the mecanic of weapons of legacy, and now our druid's player is preparing a RP ritual for the next session, on the theme of a personnal failure that made other people suffer . I asked to include a new part of the character's background to share with the party.
It should be a nice RP moment.
And now all my player want one of those personnal events. Everybody reeeealy enjoyed this session. Me too, and I'm very glad
That sounds awesome, I'm glad things went well! I remember when my group learned the Ring of Regeneration wasn't a Ring of Regeneration. The Barbarian player almost revolted. I actually explained that it was in the AP itself and that I'd set it up when I was GMing (I've since let my best friend take over the GMing duties while I run as a player for the first time in decades), and he settled down a little, but he'd been weirded out because he'd gone almost a half dozen game sessions without learning of its curse... because he didn't get into the middle of any fights and lucked out in not getting hit the few times he did fight. And then the whole thing was rendered moot when the party used the Scroll of Remove Curse that had been on the atomie oracle back at the Winter Portal and now he's carrying it on his axe while planning on selling it in Whitethrone. ;) Nice guy that he is. ;)
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So my party just made it to the Heralds under the city. The party's Ulfen Hunter from Losthome asked Solveig if he could join the order. I know that I could make this look however I want, but wondering if anyone has some fun ideas for what kind of induction ceremony might look like, or what kind of path had have to swear. I might interupt the book 3 super dungeon with a extradiminsional faerie market that brings them back to Losthome, and maybe there will be some work to be done for the Heralds there. Does anyone know if the Heralds appear in other modules?
Also, how have ppl handled the PCs selling the cursed ring. Takes a pretty good check to reveal the curse, so might they be able to get a ton of cash for it? they are staying safe and getting the Heralds' agents to do their shopping for them. I think for balance they might just not be able to find a buyer, but curious what others have done.
Some brainstorming material.
- Prove yourself by doing an assassination on a cruel jail warden or guard officer.
- Some kind of RP ritual where the character must atone some sins in his past. Can be good for background and character building (ike that time you snitched to the government, or the time you passed your way when someone needed help)
- do a series of low pay tasks like brooming the shrine, or handing out food at the orphanage. "you can play guerilla when we trust you enough".
For the ring, I ruled that removing a cursed item destroys it. Everybody went along. They understood that it's not the kind of money they are supposed to have available at their lvl, and it was a narrative device.
I've converted RoW to 2E fully and it's been great, consider just doing that. Most of the monsters are fairly easy to convert by just swapping out equal level ones. Treasure will need to be scrapped and converted from the ground up unfortunately, but it isn't too hard to do.I’ve been thinking about it as a possibility starting with Book 3, but I don’t want to do it right as we’re getting started again or in the middle of the book. The monsters & NPCs can be converted, the PCs can’t yet - mostly core classes (and one unchained rogue), but the players have been talking about prestige classes that aren’t available. I suspect my group will want to play it out mostly in the system it was written for and that they know best.
Also, how do you convert book 5 without guns, gunslingers, and related feats?
I have a party who think the idea of a trip to earth, and guns in general, is a very silly adventure that they hAve no interest in. So I'm working on a 're-write where instead they make a trip to the plan of fire, or maybe a demiplane where the plane of fire and the first world meet. Then there is reason to still have Baba Yaga's personal realm there. Rasputin can still be played as her son, his stay block still works. I plan to keep many of the indeed themed encounters, add some more fire ones, which will present some good opportunities. The PCs have been honing their craft of fighting the elements of winter, and have mainly been using fire to do so. On the flip side, there are also many ice themed weapons they will have picked up on the way, and this will give them some cool chances to use it. I might even borrow a few encounters from other AP Book 5s that I feel would be thematic. Book 5 as written is cool, but will really depend on your party's interests. I think mine will like book 4, but also imagine it will be a constant stream of Rick and Morty quotes from the Dragon episode...
Why not retheme it to be an arcane world with massive constructs that do war? The soldiers all have ranks in Use Magic Device or a level of wizard or sorcerer, and use magic wands to fight with. The basic themes can be the same (a devastating war and a granddaughter of Baba Yaga) but just alter some aspects of it to be magitech instead of technology.
So, I'm currently co-GMing Reign of Winter with my spouse, and they weren't feeling that good tonight so I took the reins. That said, I had their notes and had talked to them about consequences and the like for the assault on the Clock Tower, and started the group off just outside of the Clock Tower. And the group decided a frontal assault was... not a good idea. So they started planning it out instead.
First, thanks to a spectacular Knowledge: History roll by their Barbarian/Skald, they knew that the two statues outside were of Queen Betyrina and her daughter Zivia, known for their clockwork creations. Realizing that there were likely clockwork entities within as well as trolls, and their weapons were not likely to be effective, they backed off to do research.
Adamantine is bloody expensive. Ariam (my GMPC) admitted she had five adamantine bullets but that they were bloody expensive. (As an aside, it's odd that an adamantine bullet is a one-shot effect. I can understand that for weapon blanche (and honestly, seeing you can use that for 10 pieces of ammunition, it's cheaper than actual adamantine bullets for the same effect), but why can't it be pulled from a body and reused, even if it still costs a little bit to recraft the bullet each time.)
There was also a discussion about the Blood Oath/Mantle of the Black Rider, and the geas that is pushing the PCs forward. Currently, there are two PCs who do not have the Mantle, but I had the PCs in possession of the Black Rider's helm, which can be used to induct new people to the Mantle.
Solveig was told that they were doing recon on the Tower and realized they needed Adamantine for some of the defenders. While she was a little regretful (seeing she was hoping to see her old girlfriend again), she also understood. She and the Heralds went out to look for possible Adamantine weapons and some adamantine chunks for Ariam.
(Interestingly enough, a discussion about my spouse's old PC came up, who had been captured by the Witches using teleportation magic when the PC helped close the Winter Portal. The group seemed quite sure that the PC would not betray the group to the Witches. They also felt that the death of my previous GMPC (and sister of the old PC) would piss them off when they found out.)
Talk came back to Lord Logan and his pet dragon, and how to lure him out. They considered using the Tree Token to create a tree to climb to the tower, but realized it would not be at all subtle. The use of the Bird Token to send Logan a message was also considered and discarded. And finally the use of illusions to hide their presence and pretend guards were going up the tower was considered... and one PC realized "wait. We can disguise ourselves as members of the Winter Guard."
They turned to Solveig who after talking to a couple other Heralds admitted they could steal a few uniforms from the Winter Guard (when the uniforms are being laundered). This is actually how they entered the Pale Tower, btw. They dressed up as Pale Tower guards, entered, went to the second floor, encountered the captain of the tower, charmed her, and were able to reach Radovek and murder him.
They considered then how to get in. They could warn Logan that the Butchers of Waldsby were seen, but that would warn the Witches that the PCs were in Winterthrone. Then they thought of the forger, Morton, and thought about paying him to craft fake orders. And they scouted out the Clock Tower and saw a child being delivered. After visiting an orphanage they acquired a requisition order and plan on disguising (with Disguise Self) one of the PCs to look like a child.
Finally, silencing an alarm was big. They realized that Silence was most likely going to be of use here, as would Silent Spells.
That's where we wrapped up. The group was contemplating whether they should just march to the top of the tower, kill Logan and his dragon first thing, or start with the elite troll guard and risk Logan being forewarned. Most likely they'll march to the top first pretending initially to be guards with a child delivery, and fight once they get caught, reach Logan quickly, silence the bells (and risk of alerting outside guards), and kill Logan. Finally they'd descend, free the singer trapped in the Tower along with any still-living children, and when done burn the tower to the ground.
Next game is in two weeks. We'll see if the plan survives first contact.
The Endless Forest
I changed how the Endless Forest worked entirely. I made it partially first world because of the Reality Siphon, so what should have been a 300ft diameter small market turns into a 6-8 mile diameter forest once inside. Instead of the encounters/clearings being separated by impassible bramble walls, they are just separated by distance. The Hut, sensing the black rider (as played by the PCs), creates a path (since the initial forest was the Hut's defense mechanism, it can do such a thing) that exists only for the black rider to help him navigate to each of the Dawn Pipers to get rid of them (and also links the rest of the encounters together in one large loop).From the outside and above, the market is completely covered in trees with no clearings. Once inside the copse of trees, climbing above the canopy reveals a forest that expands endlessly in all directions, although one can make out clearings like the wood fire burning from The Last Party, or the Reality Siphon itself.
Nazhena is also locked out of the Reality Siphon and is using her minions to find and kill the Dawn Pipers. They managed to kill the fire element piper(scenery element that the PCs can find) on her way in, but she's now camping out and waiting for her minions...who are unfortunately lost and/or fighting with the Green Mother's other minions who were sent to support the Dawn Pipers. There are several Mirror Men in her search parties, and eventually one of them comes across the PCs, and stealthily follows them, relating all of the PCs' accomplishments and status to Nazhena.
Destroying the Reality Siphon returns the Endless Forest back to a rapidly growing copse with the Hut in the centre, still without bramble walls. If the PCs haven't found Nazhena's camp and killed her there (there are tracks leading from the north side of the siphon to and from her camp during her initial investigation of the barrier), she will rush to the clearing, meeting up with any of her remaining minions to try and head the PCs off.
Annnnndd *yoink* for my campaign. :)
Hoping this hasn't been asked on this thread before, though it's possible I missed something in this 500+ post thread. Has anyone compiled a calendar or timeline for the party's travels to Whitethrone? Some events and locations mention the time and place they're supposed to occur, but others don't have that information. I will probably put together a timeline myself, but I thought I would ask here to see if anyone has already done the work for me.
Hoping this hasn't been asked on this thread before, though it's possible I missed something in this 500+ post thread. Has anyone compiled a calendar or timeline for the party's travels to Whitethrone? Some events and locations mention the time and place they're supposed to occur, but others don't have that information. I will probably put together a timeline myself, but I thought I would ask here to see if anyone has already done the work for me.
I don't remember if this is based off of the book or not, but my calculations based on travel time and timing of events worked out like this:
Day 1: Event 1
Day 2: Event 2?
Day 3: (Late afternoon) A. The Wood-Wife's Plight
Day 4: (Evening) Event 3
Day 5: B. Pocket of Summer
Day 6: C. Haunted Village
Day 7: D. Elsprin
Day 8: Event 4
Day 9: E. Troll Bridge
Day 9: F. Fishcamps
I don't remember if this is based off of the book or not, but my calculations based on travel time and timing of events worked out like this:
Day 1: Event 1
Day 2: Event 2?
Day 3: (Late afternoon) A. The Wood-Wife's Plight
Day 4: (Evening) Event 3
Day 5: B. Pocket of Summer
Day 6: C. Haunted Village
Day 7: D. Elsprin
Day 8: Event 4
Day 9: E. Troll Bridge
Day 9: F. Fishcamps
Thank you!