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In the Old Sycamore Section it gives the The Sacred Statue quest and goes on to say that Tartuk will reward the PCs and let them out of the caverns without a hitch.
Reward: Delivering the statue to Tartuk wins the PCs safe passage out of the kobold lair as well as a shiny 500 gp topaz and (if the PCs ask for it) Svetlana’s wedding ring from the shaman.
This gets contradicted in the Tartuk's quarters section a few pages later. It explains that Tartuk will order the kobolds to attack the PCs. It then says that Tartuk will just try to sneak out and not fight, and that the kobolds will fight on as long as tartuk is alive. For a creature that can cast invisibility, I don't think it will be that hard for Tartuk to get out of dodge. So do the kobolds give up after round 1 when Tartuk goes invisibile?
if the PCs successfully return the statue, he’ll order the Sootscale kobolds to attack the PCs at once for daring to defile Old Sharptooth with their soft, scaleless fingers. The kobolds follow this order, fighting to the last as long as Tartuk lives—but if the PCs defeat the sorcerer, the remaining kobolds (Chief Sootscale included) flee the region. Tartuk, of course, hopes the PCs simply kill off the rest of the tribe and spends the battle not helping but trying to sneak away, leaving the tribe to its fate.
And then we get to Tartuk's stat block and his morale section. This seems to also disagree with the proceeding text. This says he fights to the death, "almost as if on some level he seeks it."
Morale Tartuk fights to the death, almost as if on some level he seeks it.
So, what is Tartuk supposed to do? (obviously I can make him do whatever, but in that case, which is the most "fun" based on your experiences?)
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In my game the PCs delivered the 'holy' statue to the chief and he smashed it on the floor, there was a moment of confusion from the PCs and silence from the kobolds... then Tartuk stepped out to see what the fuss was, saw the statue, started to yell at the chief that he would pay and was interrupted by the chief screaming "KEEEEEEEELLLL!" and pointing at him... a wave of kobolds obscured him. The party were really getting worried and in fact were scared they would be next, when the fight stopped (pretty quickly) the chief sort of explained to them that Tartuk had been an evil kobold who enslaved them against their will with the power of the statue, for freeing them from it he offered them a boon (they asked for an alliance, which is still going strong in the game).
As written there is some confusion, but if you wanted to play it as-is, technically the first response (reward) is achieved if the PCs get the statue before talking to tartuk, thus forcing him to think on his feet. The second (treachery) is only if they talk to him first, thus giving him time to formulate a plan. You could adjust the morale by simply including the words "if cornered".
I've never even heard of a game where the PCs delivered the statue to tartuk though: it's almost assumed that it will be delivered to the chief instead. If the PCs do give it to tartuk, I would probably have Tartuk reward them with the topaz and let them go with promises of peace, only to have the kobolds become an increasingly annoying menace under Tartuk's rule during RRR.
As written there is some confusion, but if you wanted to play it as-is, technically the first response (reward) is achieved if the PCs get the statue before talking to tartuk, thus forcing him to think on his feet. The second (treachery) is only if they talk to him first, thus giving him time to formulate a plan. You could adjust the morale by simply including the words "if cornered".
I've never even heard of a game where the PCs delivered the statue to tartuk though: it's almost assumed that it will be delivered to the chief instead. If the PCs do give it to tartuk, I would probably have Tartuk reward them with the topaz and let them go with promises of peace, only to have the kobolds become an increasingly annoying menace under Tartuk's rule during RRR.
Pretty much how it went for me as well.
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Thanks for the responses guys.
@ Blakmane, that makes perfect sense the way you explain it.
I'm worried that my group won't get to Mikmek in the Sycamore, or if they do, they won't even bother trying to talk to him for me to introduce the, "Death to tartuk!" line.
They have been pretty much kill first with most things so far, and the party has no social skill characters anyway.
I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't get the statue to Tartuk after he gave them the quest. I'll probably do it as written and have Tartuk betray the PCs once they hand it in, and then he'll attempt to escape.
Some things to note: most PCs will cast detect magic on the statue to find it has no magic they then might try identify to gain a bonus on appraise at which point you can tell them anything you want.
Maybe this is a gnomish statue "trusted" to gnomish children as a rite of passage they have to keep the statue safe for a year to demonstrate they are responsible, then smash it a year and a day later to represent that a gnome cannot truly be tamed because of their fey heritage.
Also if you want a less boring tartuk there's a summoner statted version on these boards that I recycled and enjoyed the use of greatly.
I am hoping Tartuk gets away to mess with the PC's another day...he certainly would be aware of the Bandits, possibly the Boggards - he could go either way - or he might strike out on his own biding his time until the moment is right...
GET SMASHED
I've seen the suggestion of making Tartuk a summoner with Old Sharptooth as his Eidolon in a few different posts. It seems like a cool change, but something that's not clear to me is what to do about the stolen statue quest.
Do you simply remove the statue from the game completely? There's still Mikmek in the mites' lair to be rescued, but without the statue to return, he has little reason to lead these dangerous big people back to the Sootscale Caverns. Also, without the statue to be smashed by Chief Sootscale there's no device by which the kobolds can be turned against Tartuk if the players are clever/lucky/talky.
It seems that if you make this change, the chances of getting the "allied kobold tribe" outcome is much lower than in the module as written. The PCs would need to decide to take out Tartuk while trying to remain friendly with the other kobolds, but since the kobolds are all scared of Tartuk and Old Sharptooth, it seems unlikely any of them would talk open mutiny with the players to enlist their help.
I suppose you could focus on the "Death to Tartuk!" sentiment from Mikmek - far from Tartuk's hearing in the Mite lair and grateful to his rescuers, he might be more forthcoming about the situation back home, and enlist them - but that makes Mikmek the architect of the kobolds' release, rather than Chief Sootscale.
How have people who have made the change run it?
My PCs are going to meet the Mites and Kobolds (with Tartuk as Summoner) next session.
They have captured one kobold, N'glek, in the Raddish Patch encounter to question him (the rogue speaks draconic), so he told them about the purple shaman with the Old Sharptooth god on his side, the chief Sootscale, and that the entire tribe is in war with Mites because they stole the Sacred Idol of Old Sharptooth (the statue), so the winged god is very hungry.
The summoner PC asked if this god and the shaman had a rune, and then they released N'glek and promise him that the boar-tiger god (the pc's eidolon) is going to free the tribe form this winged god.
What they don't know is that N'glek was captured and tortured by Tartuk, because of his preaching about the coming Boar-tiger god with the others members of the tribe.
N'glek was sacrificed to Old Sharptooth and his scales turned yellow.
Chief Sootscale was so scared that he send out his best warriors (the group of Mikmek) to recover the statue.
The party are now marching to the Old Sycamore where they will meet Mikmek and fight the mites. So they will need Mikmek's help to enter the Kobolds'lair, to deliver the statue to the Chief, because of Tartuk vigilance.
Okay, the contradiction might look a bit sloppy, but it's actually a good thing. The GM gets to go with whichever seems like a better idea at the time.
In my campaign, the PCs encountered the kobolds before they encountered the mites. I played it up as an internal political conflict between Sootscale and Tartuk. I play Soostcale as a somewhat cunning politician. When the PCs came along, Sootscale cleared his chambers, and negotiated with the PCs to do a bit of a dog and pony show. As far as the other kobolds were concerned, the PCs were the servants of Chief Sootscale, sent to dispatch Tartuk once and for all.I've seen the suggestion of making Tartuk a summoner with Old Sharptooth as his Eidolon in a few different posts. It seems like a cool change, but something that's not clear to me is what to do about the stolen statue quest.
Do you simply remove the statue from the game completely? There's still Mikmek in the mites' lair to be rescued, but without the statue to return, he has little reason to lead these dangerous big people back to the Sootscale Caverns. Also, without the statue to be smashed by Chief Sootscale there's no device by which the kobolds can be turned against Tartuk if the players are clever/lucky/talky.
This is basically what happened in my game as well. There was one kobold who was Tartuk's crony, but he bombed his stealth check to sneak the PCs past Sootscale's throne room to Tartuk's lab, and the Chief commandeered the "bigfolks" to go look into the Mite/Sharptooth situation for him before Tartuk could personally get involved.
There was one kobold who was Tartuk's crony, but he bombed his stealth check to sneak the PCs past Sootscale's throne room to Tartuk's lab, and the Chief commandeered the "bigfolks" to go look into the Mite/Sharptooth situation for him before Tartuk could personally get involved.
So if there was a Mite/Sharptooth situation, does that mean that you did have a statue the mites had stolen, as well as the Eidolon that was (presumably) still by Tartuk's side?
That's what I'd do. Have him keep the Eidolon unsummoned or otherwise hidden away, call it up during big ritual events. Have an emergency Summon Eidolon spell for when he doesn't have the time to pull it out with the full ritual (which he would normally disguise as part of the religious ceremonies surrounding the idol).
Wow, I really do like the idea of making Tartuk a summoner. That would be a great twist to the entire scenario. Looks like I might have to pick the Mite/Kobold situation up out of Kingmaker and drop it into a homebrew I'm putting together so that I'm able to use that concept for a new party.
Yeah, I could definitely see where that would be a fun little part of a session and cause some major confusion.