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RotRL, Anniversary Edition. This post contains spoilers for RotRL Chapter one.
Ok. Well my Pc's failed to get a crossed the bridge on their first attempt to enter thistle top. The druid had already warned ripnugget via his animal messenger. I change the tactics slightly, The bugbear and a few goblins blocked the other side of the bridge. As the pc's attempted to move over it, they sent everyone except the tank first.
So Big B filled them with arrows until the kitsune wizard was dead, the ratfolk played dead beneath two corpses, the human fighter charge B and after dancing for a few rounds B crit him with his flail and outright killed him. I said a goblin dog knocked the wizard off the bridge and he 'survived' the fall but i rolled randomly twice on the pirate scare chart, he got a beneficial scar and lost a finger.
Nualia sent B out to kill people in the farmlands near sandpoint. He burned down a few farms, mainly a attempt to delay the pc's from returning with reinforcements. This did not to much really as they correctly picked the right farm to investigate and routed him. He ran away atop a boar mount I gave him, seemed appropriate for a bugbear. He didn't use it except to escape them at the farm. And I gave them several perception checks to hear him leaving the barn he was sniping from, but the only party member nearby ( he was 10 feet away, outside the barn and kept rolling 2's and 5's vs the bugbears stealthed movement ) he failed every one of them.
So... Anyway back to Thistletop. The group gets over the bridge with B harassing them while a Yeth hound attacks them from the air.
They killed the Yeth hound after stunning him with color spray and a few attacks. They also caused the bridge to fall, thus making travel a crossed the bridge on just the rope ( that's how i did it anyway ) it was slow going and they used up a lot of their healing resources just getting there. B ran inside and has continued to h arras the pc's as they attempted to enter the Trophy Room. Firing a few shots before retreating again to ripnuggets location.
The next session my players entered the Trophy hall, then headed towards the courtyard where the horse is. All the remaining goblins have been gathered around their King; 4 goblin commandos, 1 goblin dog, 1 goblin warchanter and B. B was supposed to harass them during the fight, until he saw it going poorly and then running to the 3rd level to inform tsuto and Lyrie and orik of the current going on's. since the compound is on alert, the enemies are ready and in their alerted positions. They completely bypassed the encounter with Ripnugget. Going down to the war room.
Tsuto and Lyrie are waiting in the secret door room, adjacent to the war room. They already have the crate pressed against the door and will only open it for the signal, spoken in goblin. The pc's dont know it and it was only recently even created considering the Pc's tactics.
They make perception checks and realize someone is in the room behind the closed door. They then sent the fighter into the door to get it open. He jarred it with a Str check of 18 or so? i said he half succeeded and slightly moved the crate, enough to let Lyrie or tusuto see him if they were on the northern side of the small room.
Which Lyrie is, considering they pushed the crate to have that view point when the door opens. Lyrie damaged the fighter with a scorching ray. 22 points of dmg! I changed her spells since they are expecting a attack within the next few days though they were not expecting it to be so soon. After the pc's made it evident that they were getting into the room, via chopping the door down slowly Tsuto and Lyrie left through the secret door.
The party spotted the Secret door easily enough and headed strait down into level 3. They took their time going down the stairs as Lyrie cast darkness on the stair well as they fled, attempting to slow the pc's down with darkness they cant see through... and it worked! I kept them in initiative until Lyrie and Tsuto had 2 turns each, and then we re rolled once they opened the door to the trapped hallway with the two statues.
Also as they entered the courtyard and began trying to calm down Shadowmere, I had The goblins roll perception to notice the horses noise. They failed but I also rolled a d20 and got 17, so i gave them 17 rounds of 'combat' or rather 17 rounds of anything involving dice rolling until Big B goes looking for them with the 4 commando's and the warchanter. Leaving Ripnugget to guard his throne. ( mounted combat feat is kinda wasted in the cramped areas of level 3. )
Anyway.. Long story short, lol. The party was reduced to negative hit points with 3 of them being stable. I had them all be stabilized and imprisoned.. I also had Nualia try to force the Nethys Cleric wizard to open the portal of greed. He refused, and after a little torture she sacrificed him to Lahmatsu.
Nualia is planning on having Lyrie read over the Kitsunes book on thassalonian stuff to see if it will help her get to Big M. And this is were I am. I was originally going to go with, they stripp you of all gear, take it and after a few days the entire place is empty. They forget about the pcs after Big M is free'd and Nualia has the goblins repair the bridge and they leave to go to magnimar.
I'm really unsure here as to how to proceed. Nualia is said to return to Magnimar but i could make her go anywhere. I really want to make her and Bruthzumas into recurring villains. Tsuto, i figure will be killed by Big B eventually as he wants Nualia.
The pc's Also never killed gogmurt, he fled into the briars and didn't return to see if nualia could actually defeat them. I was thinking of having him go work for the giants.
So basically.. How should i handle the Pc's now captured and bound in their cells.
eat them. they are juicy and chewy.
End adventure and play Skull and Shackles?
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I mean should I start over at the beginning of thistletop?
I was thinking of having Nualia open Big M's prison, take him and some of the npcs with her for later bonus encounters. Having Shelu go with the new pc who has been sent by Aldern from Magnimar looking for his obsession.
They will find the pc's being played with by the goblins. King ripnugget remains, and is having a celebration with a few drunken goblins.
Well if you want to redo a mostly empty Thistletop have the goblins drunk/passed out for the most part, and have soem means for the new PCs to be able to head to Magnimar.
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Well they wont go to Magnimar yet, they have to go back to sandpoint for the next part. I'm going to throw in a few Side quests. Feast of Ravenmoor, to give them a more powerful feeling after having 4 character deaths thus far. Changing it to Ameiko sending the pc's to collect payment for a old shipment that her fathers clerks somehow missed. she needs the money to get new workers for the glassworks.
Then Dawn of the Scarlet Sun and Rise of the Goblin Guild.
They will find evidence of Nualias presence in magnimar where she will fight them for the first time, but now as a half fiend. I had changed her to a anti paladin, but she and her 2 remaining yeth hounds didn't even get involved with the fight. So i might change her back to her normal stat block and give her 2 levels in divine scion or something. Whatever combination makes her cr appropriate for that area of the AP.
Also i think she will convert Bruthzumas into a Lahmatsu worshiper and he will get a even more interesting upgrade.. not sure what class or prestige class would work best for that idea though.
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... All the remaining goblins have been gathered around their King; 4 goblin commandos, 1 goblin dog, 1 goblin warchanter and Bruthazmus...
Yeah - it sounds like you may have been making things too hard for the players!
Assuming your party was 4 PCs and they were level 2 or level 3 as the module has them planned for, this is tipping the scales towards a TPK.
An epic difficulty encounter is APL+3.
The vanilla throne room fight is already fairly strong. Being a CR6 encounter, it should be difficult enough for a typical 3rd level party who has spent some resources getting in, and still needs to plan to have some to descend down and square off against Nualia.
Adding another commando, another goblin dog and Bruthazmus into that single fight would mean almost any party would suffer multiple permanent casualties if not a TPK, unless you're pulling punches (fudging dice rolls in favor the PCs), are are reducing HP or other things on the bad guys to make them easier.
Most of the Runelords encounters I've seen are fairly strong, and my general tendency would be to to keep them as written for a four-member party, so they have the satisfaction of completing Thistletop in a single run without resting, versus making it require two or three trips to tackle as the CR of the fights becomes too deadly.