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There has been a lot of complaints about Racing to Ruin. I've tried to adapt this module to my players and change some things I thought could be improved. The purpose of this thread is to share my changes to the module.
First Eleder:
- I purposefully kept all of the NPCs alive to try to enhance the interaction with each of the factions.
- Pezock also got a ride off the Shiv and stayed with the PCs. They believed it was safest to keep a eye on him.
- None of my players had much Linguistics. I created a few Linguistics experts, one was connected to the Aspis, one to the Pathfinders and one connected to Irori. One of my PCs is an Irori Monk.
- As described in the module, the whole city was quickly full of rumours about the group that survived the Shiv and Saventh-Yhi.
- While away from their Inn (Sargava Club), Gelik, Ishirou and Sasha left them various messages. These are setups for the faction meetings.
- One of my PCs has a connection with the Pathfinders so figured that they would eventually choose them. In any case, I wanted each offer to be memorable.
- The next day, Sasha (looking distraught) invites them into a caravan. Inside they find Chivane, she knows about the PCs upcoming meeting with Dargan Etters and wants to be the first to make them an offer. During the conversation Sasha manages to make the PCs know that she is being coerced. During the discussion Pezock also has a fallen out with the Mantis when he learns that the Mantis knew that the ship that he was on had shipwrecked on the Shiv so long ago.
- The caravan drops them off in front of the Inn where they are suppose to meet Dargan Etters. A luxurious Inn in New Halliad. Dargan is very charming and all about luxury and wealth. I added a couple things during the meeting to antagonize 2 of the PCs.
- As they walk back from their lunch meeting, the PCs think they recognize Aerys and a redhead (could be Sasha) fighting off some pirates outside of a rowdy tavern. They join in the fight. Kassata (the redhead) tells them they are being spied upon by the Mantis and the Aspis. She has her own sources within the "luxurious Inn". Kassata gives them a more lucrative third offer. All of this happens in between punches during the fist fight (a nicely chaotic scene).
- Finally they go to a dinner meeting with the Pathfinders. It was a foregone conclusion that they were going to join the Pathfinders. I emphasized that Gelik immediately went to the Pathfinders with all of the information that he had on Saventh-Yhi when he landed in Eleder. They didn't care for Gelik before so that didn't help.
- The next morning, Sargava guardsmen bang on their door. They have orders to escort them for an interview with the General. I emphasized the military aspect of the General as much as possible. He tells them that after he "debriefed" Jask, he learned of Saventh-Yhi and offers them their fifth offer.
More on Eleder in the next post.
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Eleder Part 2:
- The day after they accepted the Pathfinder offer, I created an encounter at the Sargava Club. While they are eating downstairs 4 kids come inside and pick a fight with the PCs. This is a diversion, in the mean time 2 small-time thieves break into their rooms. What the thieves don't know is that Pezock is resting in one of the rooms. The PCs realize what is going on and rush upstairs. They find Pezock slashing one of the thieves and the other is escaping which leads to a chase scene. Some clues point to the Aspis or is it the Mantis...
- They hear from a source that Sasha may be in trouble. I created a small encounter where the PCs had to rescue Sasha from a warehouse. Because of this I had to change the Umagro hostage encounter. I surmised that they wouldn't have been motivated to rescue Gelik anyway. Sasha now joins their expedition.
- I added an encounter with a priestess of Pharasma who lives in Outerwall. She gives one of my PCs a vision. He is thrown back in time before Earthfall into Saventh-Yhi. He sees the city become progressively paranoid and gets to speak with other priests of Pharasma. Basically, I'm trying to add some flavor and a connection to the next modules.
- I didn't think that the freemen revolt would motivate my PCs so I changed Umagro from a male barbarian to a female Juju Oracle (renamed Umagra). The freemen are now mostly zombies. The hostages on top of the Whaling company are simply Sargava guards.
- At their warehouse, there is a fire but also some fake Juju dolls that are effective in scaring off any Zenj that joined their expedition. They suspect the Aspis. They now needed Nkechi to attract some new people for the expedition.
- I didn't change Nkechi's tests or the dream much.
- Once the PCs won Nkechi's trust, he help attract mostly Bonuwat people to join the expedition, the Zenj had left and joined other factions.
- This however delayed their expedition and now the Aspis had a 2-day head start. I did this to enhance the race aspect of the module.
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Some of the changes to the actual race are not my own, I picked them up from other threads on this forum. I don't necessarily remember the sources anymore.
- The PCs decided to keep Nkechi with them in the Trailblazing group. Nkechi really only wears a loin-cloth and travels light and has many quirks.
- One of the first encounters I picked up is from somewhere in the forums. To help further the bond between the PCs and Nkechi, I added a huge storm that approaches the PCs camp one evening. Nkechi strips down and start screaming that this is a sign from Gozreh. The electrical storm hits the PCS and whoever joined Nkechi is hit with bolts of lightning that gives them +4 enhancement to a random ability for 24 hours and 3d6 of damage.
- The storm was conveniently 1 day before the Fzumi Mines.
- Athyra eventually joins the expedition
- Also from the forums: I added a dead dinosaur infested by Botfly Swarm.
- I removed the Cockfight, I have an idea to re-tool it and place it near Kalabuto.
- As they near the Aspis expedition, I made the PCs walk nearby the "Village under Siege" near sundown. As they approach, they are unsure if this is the camp of their rival expedition and only the stealthiest PCs are sneak closer (effectively splitting the party). The Chemosit's "terrifying roar" affects everyone in 300 foot area and sets the stage for the battle to come. They arrive in the village as one of the Chemosit is eating the brain of the village witch.
The race continues in the next post.
Thanks for doing this!
I feel its very helpful and fun to read how other DM's are running the campaign.
Keep the updates comming please.
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I read a suggestion somewhere to combine some of the random encounters with the module encounters. Many of the upcoming encounters follow this pattern. First the Encounter with the Aspis:
The day after the village encounter, they catch up to the rival (Aspis) expedition camp. They first see vultures circling something at a nearby hill. Atop the hill they see the remains of some Zenj, there was an altercation in this spot. They suspect that the Aspis are gathering slaves.
From this vantage point, they also see at 1000+ feet away the rival expedition. This is a particularly hot day so the Aspis are sheltering near some jungle patch. Finally, grazing near the hill are some wildebeest.
First there is the small battle with the vultures (similar to the module). Eventually one of the PCs figures out that they can direct a stampede of wildebeest into the Aspis which they manage to do successfully.
In the meantime, their own expedition had gone through the Mines and was by now only 1 day behind the Aspis. The stampede is enough of a delay for their expedition to take the lead.
More Faction friction to come
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I shared a spreadsheet to track movement and random encounters in the race in a previous post. Here it is again:
-> Racing to Ruin Tracking Summary
I find it quite useful although in practice I have been modifying it on the fly. I have moved the random encounters around to combine them with module encounters or with some faction encounters. This particular link above is not my current game it is simply an example.
Also I added recently 2 rows that track XP throughout the Race. Since I pre-roll all the encounters, the XP progression can be laid out for the entire race. So I know exactly when they could potentially hit 6th level, 7th, etc. I ended up removing a few random encounters in order to slow down their progression.
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It's great to read your input and suggestions for how to improve this adventure, which is not very good. I do hope it's salvageable though.
Since this seems to be the most recent RtR thread, I hope you don't mind me doing a little analyzis of the encounters, my thoughts and ideas for how to improve them. Maybe you can give me some new ideas as well.
Eleder/Freeman's revolt - Much of this depends on how the PC's interacted with the fellow castaways at the Shiv. My players haven't been all that interested in interacting too much with the NPCs, so this will be a challenge. I'm also not sure how much secrecy the players will institute when they discover Yarzoth's journal, and how much I can plausibly explain to the players when suddenly the entire city is abuzz with their discoveries. We'll se how it turns out.
The Journey itself - Isn't it a faster route to go by boat to Kalabuto and then hire porters, pack animals and guards? Or all the way by boat, for that matter.
Tempest - Why does he need to join them? Is there a benefit for having him there? Does the trip go slower if he's not around? I don't necessarily disprove of rail-roads, but there must be consequences to the PC's action. I cannot see a consequence of failure here.
The Salt Mines - The caravan will save a day if the PC's clear the mines. Can a large caravans with wagons and pack animals really traverse this partly flooded mine?
Cockfight - The players have to watch a hawk fight an eagle, but can make some money on it. No matter if they win or lose, or give in to the bad guys or not, they have to fight them. No choice.
Village under siege - I like the encounter, but again, there is no choice. No matter what the PC's choose, they get attacked by the chemosits. I will not have the chemosit's attack if the characters avoid the village or refuse the witch's offer.
A feast of vultures - I thought that vultures were carrion eaters, but I may be wrong. I will instead try to have the carrion bird appear if someone (a PC or NPC) dies or falls unconscious. Makes more sense.
Gallows tree - I think I will have them encounter the gallows to get the feel it is meant to evoke "scars of a country at war", but I don't want them to fight any zombies. It just feels pointless and not plot advancing.
Kalabuto - Again, no matter how the character's treat Kibi (short of killing her), she somehow manages to alert her handlers. If the PC's manage to stay hidden from her no matter what, I will not have them be discovered by the rival faction. Or maybe I will have Cheiton betray them.
Lake of Vanishing Armies - This is actually rather good, because it gives the PCs a choice. Find the treasure and lose a day, or not.
Warriors of the Child-God - thematical, but not very challenging and is there to give XP mostly.
Hippo hunt - I don't have any rangers or druids in party currently, otherwise it could have been a good encounter for how to handle violent wildlife wihtout resorting to combat.
Bodies on the riverbank - not bad either, plot advancing and allows the characters to use the spirit fetish
Amghawe's tomb - Tweakable. I can perhaps add another treasure map at some point, giving the characters the choice between a detour for a treasure or not.
Eloko Headhunters - Another relatively simple encounter which follows four other combat encounters without not much in-between. There are several days between these combats, and it is unlikely it will be very challenging.
Spirit Dancers - on paper a fun encounter, but in reality, a dozen warning bells will ring for the players at this point. At this point, the concept of a totem spirit is known (through Tempest), so it might be possible to goad them into accepting a meal and companionship from three native women bathing nude in a river... maybe.
I don't want to do too much work (that is why I bought an adventure path), but I just cannot run this as written.
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Thanks Trellian for your comments. In general, the feeling I get in the forums is that the adventure path requires a good amount of work on the DM part. In particular, once you reach Saventh-Yhi. For Racing to Ruin module, one piece of advice I picked up from the forums was to try to enhance the feeling that this is a race. So far this has worked well. The adventure becomes about finding ways to get ahead or slow down other factions.
With this in mind here are a few thoughts that follow up on your comments:
- I modified the Freemen revolt. The antagonist is now a JuJu Oracle that demoralized their expedition Zenj members. They needed someone like Nkechi to turns things around.
- In my campaign, the PCs learn that Nkechi's presence gives the natives in the expedition extra morale and gives everyone a little speed boost.
- The Salt mines have to be passable in order to give a potential shortcut.
- I added the Wildebeest as an option to slow down the Aspis faction
- Why not travel on the river with barges? It would be against the current which looking at some of the rules I concluded it would be slower than the road to Kalabuto. That said there is a small stretch of river between Kalabuto and the Lake that the PCs could use to gain one more day.
- I also plan to transform some of the module encounters into more faction friction.
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Continuing with the Race:
I rolled a random encounter of 4 lions that I combined with the Ankhegs encounter of the module. First the PCs see the lions on the other side of the snaking mounds. The lions are not moving and simply wait using the mounds as cover. The lions are aware that this area is ruled by the Ankhegs.
The PCs decide to attack the lions and start crossing the mounds. That's when the Ankhegs are alerted and decide to attack the PCs. Eventually the lions enter the encounter hoping for an easy meal.
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Next is another random encounter: a stegosaurus which is pretty powerful for a 5th level party to deal with. I used this encounter to further some of the faction friction. An Aspis archer antagonizes the dinosaur and leads him, while on horseback, to the PC's camp. The mounted archer rides away and the stegosaurus crashes into the camp. The plan was for the archer to start shooting a couple of poison arrows into the party but he died within one round of reaching the camp.
Unfortunately, this now means I have to modify the hippo encounter from later on.
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Now they are getting close to Kalabuto. I already used zombies in Eleder so I had to scrap the Tree encounter. I decided to combine the Mzali Ranger and Cockfight encounter into one. Also, instead of the Mzali I decided to substitute as Mantis operatives. The PCs antagonized the Mantis back in Eleder so this is their revenge. The PCs are lured to a gambling table, something doesn't seem right, the gamblers around the table are all armed... Suddenly, arrows (human bane) start hitting the PCs' spellcasters. The gamblers position themselves for some sneak attacks.
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Some of the recent encounters are connected to the other factions trying to strike back and delay the PCs.
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Thanks Trellian for your comments. In general, the feeling I get in the forums is that the adventure path requires a good amount of work on the DM part.
Yeah, I get that too. I just wish I had read more on the forums before putting this one up as one of the four possible adventure paths, and then ordering the entire adventure path and a lot of additional material.. The thing is, I don't mind at all doing prep work, but I just don't have the time right now. Maybe 30 mins every week.
What I have been thinking about doing to emphasize faction strife is this:
- One of the PCs have expressed interest in joining the Pathfinders. Gelik will introduce him to Amvor Glaur. Check, the Pathfinders are in the race.
- Guess who will be saving the PCs from Smugglers Shiv? Kassata Lewyn. She will suspect something is up (she saw the lightning arc up from the island), and hopefully the PCs feel obligated by the rescue to let her in on the secret.
- I will use an idea from the forum that they need to go find someone to tell them where Tazion is, and then use the River of Darkness module. The entire crew is Aspis Consortium of course, so they will learn about it either through spies or on the trip. They will also offer the Protean ship as a faster way of getting there (I'll leave it up to the PCs to figure out that that isn't true).
- One of the PCs have rich parents from Eleder. When he comes home, he will tell them what they've found (unless he specifically says he doesn't). They will contact the government and ask for them to sponsor an expedition. Might cause some parents-son problem too.
- Not too sure about the Mantis Society though. I've tried have Sasha seduce the cleric of Sarenrae, but he doesn't want anything to do with her. Typically player paranoia (oooh, an NPC wants to do it, she must be a succubus!) Heh..
So I'm not sure how much of the revolt or Nkechi or the trip I'll keep. They'll get some XP during the River of Darkness, and I'll just give them XP for role-playing negotiations and what not to cover for the encounters I won't be running. I think that can work pretty well actually.
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I haven't updated my group's Race to Ruin in a little while. We play very infrequently. In general my PCs feedback about Racing to Ruin has been positive. All the way to Kalabuto, I emphasized the Race aspect of the adventure with a lot of Faction related encounters and that has worked well. After Kalabuto they ended up pulling away from the Aspis faction. Currently they are in the Jungle and encountering a lot of ... well jungle stuff. I am designing a lot of difficult terrain and they are enjoying those challenges.
Anyway, here goes:
- I changed some of the Kalabuto encounters. First they get to the gate and a city guard tells them that their horses have to be quarantined (some Diplomacy ensues). This is the Sargava Faction trying to interfere. Next they find that the Shrunken Head tavern is burned down. Turns out that Kibi messed up and wrongfully identified some other poor adventurers. They catch her lurking around and she leads the PCs to the rival group's lair in some creepy part of Kalabuto.
I added flavour to rival group. It is now composed of an Alchemist (he favours stink bombs) and 3x fighter/rogues with different abilities. It made for a very good combat.
- They figured out that they could use the Korir River down to the Lake to gain a day. They paid big money for their expedition also.
- In the Screaming Jungle they encountered the Shadow demon first. Since we don't play often they forgot about the Monkey Head. This was a very difficult encounter. Here they find the bodies of Mantis operatives that would have been involved in an earlier poison attempt at their expedition.
- Next came a series of random encounter including a Dire Tiger, a few Charau-ka and a bloodhaze swarm. The most memorable encounter was a combination of a flashflood and a Girallon. I am sure I read the flashflood idea somewhere else. I designed a portion of jungle that was particularly sensitive to a flood. A large area got overrun. First I had them make survival checks. Anybody who made got advance warning and could climb up a nearby tree (climb check). Anybody who climbed high enough was safe. The PCs who failed the survival or climb checks got the bullrush effect and subsequent swim checks. This was just a setup because after the wave and debris hit them, then came a Girallon who presumably failed to recognize the flashflood upstream and he fell in the middle of everyone. The PCs were spread out and had to regroup, one of them was swept away too far to do anything.
- I didn't change the Necromancer encounter much. It worked well.
They are now on day 36. There is not much left of the Screaming Jungle.
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Trellian, I'll take a stab at some of the problems you have with this, and how I explained them
Eleder/Freeman's revolt - Much of this depends on how the PC's interacted with the fellow castaways at the Shiv. My players haven't been all that interested in interacting too much with the NPCs, so this will be a challenge. I'm also not sure how much secrecy the players will institute when they discover Yarzoth's journal, and how much I can plausibly explain to the players when suddenly the entire city is abuzz with their discoveries. We'll se how it turns out. -- Since the PCs aren't experts on the language that Yarzoth wrote in, they had to hire a scribe from the city. Said scribe turned over information. Also, day after day after day, the same PCs come to the library to research. Small city, so this kind of thing gets noticed. Especially if they are non natives.
The Journey itself - Isn't it a faster route to go by boat to Kalabuto and then hire porters, pack animals and guards? Or all the way by boat, for that matter. --The river, like many rivers in a jungle/savannah type area are subject to drought/flood, so may not be navigable.
Tempest - Why does he need to join them? Is there a benefit for having him there? Does the trip go slower if he's not around? I don't necessarily disprove of rail-roads, but there must be consequences to the PC's action. I cannot see a consequence of failure here. -- Nkechi shaves off a couple of days, I believe. He also knows how to avoid native dangers, which I allowed the pcs to have a quicker travel time, since they didn't get stuck in natural slowdowns, etc.
The Salt Mines - The caravan will save a day if the PC's clear the mines. Can a large caravans with wagons and pack animals really traverse this partly flooded mine? The caravan, like many jungle treks wouldn't use wagons for the most part, there's simple no room for them if you have to hack your way through the brush. There is definitely room for pack animals and native porters to get through the mines.
Cockfight - The players have to watch a hawk fight an eagle, but can make some money on it. No matter if they win or lose, or give in to the bad guys or not, they have to fight them. No choice. -- My party just chose to keep travelling past this, as the nature lover in the group was offended by the display.
Village under siege - I like the encounter, but again, there is no choice. No matter what the PC's choose, they get attacked by the chemosits. I will not have the chemosit's attack if the characters avoid the village or refuse the witch's offer. -- Same thing I did. One of the people in my group was a Mwangi Oracle though, so she made the party help the witch :)
A feast of vultures - I thought that vultures were carrion eaters, but I may be wrong. I will instead try to have the carrion bird appear if someone (a PC or NPC) dies or falls unconscious. Makes more sense. -- Vultures are more like lazy eaters. They go after carrion because it's easy. They will attack if they get hungry enough.
Gallows tree - I think I will have them encounter the gallows to get the feel it is meant to evoke "scars of a country at war", but I don't want them to fight any zombies. It just feels pointless and not plot advancing. -- Again, my party saw the tree, saw the hanging corpses and gave it a very wide berth.
Kalabuto - Again, no matter how the character's treat Kibi (short of killing her), she somehow manages to alert her handlers. If the PC's manage to stay hidden from her no matter what, I will not have them be discovered by the rival faction. Or maybe I will have Cheiton betray them. -- I just played up Kibi as the poor girl trying to sell her goods. By the time she laid on the puppy dog eyes, the fighter in our group that has a soft spot for kids, bought all her wares.
Warriors of the Child-God - thematical, but not very challenging and is there to give XP mostly. -- Our Oracle's background was leaving a city of an "Undying child-god" so this was a gut wrencher for her.
Bodies on the riverbank - not bad either, plot advancing and allows the characters to use the spirit fetish -- My party almost forgot they had the fetish, but the oracle remembered just before the fighter got gacked.
Amghawe's tomb - Tweakable. I can perhaps add another treasure map at some point, giving the characters the choice between a detour for a treasure or not. -- Exactly what I did, and also tied in what he was doing, who he was doing it for into character backgrounds.
Eloko Headhunters - Another relatively simple encounter which follows four other combat encounters without not much in-between. There are several days between these combats, and it is unlikely it will be very challenging.
Spirit Dancers - on paper a fun encounter, but in reality, a dozen warning bells will ring for the players at this point. At this point, the concept of a totem spirit is known (through Tempest), so it might be possible to goad them into accepting a meal and companionship from three native women bathing nude in a river... maybe. -- This one was challenging, but I made the dancers much more believable, and didn't over play their charmed state. Eventually the party got savvy, but the fighter (the only male in the group) did get charmed by the Succubus.
I don't want to do too much work (that is why I bought an adventure path), but I just cannot run this as written.
Overall, what you've said works pretty well. REally what I did was explain some of why certain things should or shouldn't work, and added in personalizations where I could.
Thanks for the reply Kelarith!
It seems that most of these encounters worked for you, some because it fit thematically with some of your players, and some because you actually changed the outcome based on the players' actions. I wasn't implying it was impossible to figure a way out of the no-choice encounters, just that they were poorly designed to begin with.
We had our first session this past week, and we had a blast playing in Eleder. There was simply negotiations and research all session long. One of the players had an excellent point though, which I could barely counter point.
Namely, why couldn't they just use the information they had themselves to go into Saventh-Yhi and take all the treasures. Luckily, one of the characters had parents tied into the Sargava government, and the other wants to build a temple to Sarenrae there, so they negotiated a deal with Sargava. A fourth character wants to be a Pathfinder, so they also managed to strike a deal with them. Since Sargava wants money and the Pathfinders want archeological and historic findings, they reasoned that there was no good reason they couldn't both be part of the expedition. I couldn't either, so I let it happen.
They were also courted by the Red Mantis (Sasha had a romantic interlude with the cleric), but they blew them off. Red Mantis responded with kidnapping the sage who was helping the characters, and the party then struck a deal to bring Red Mantis back any Achekek relics they find. Sasha will be joining them to make sure they do so.
Since I couldn't really fit in the pirates that well, I am so far left with no rival faction. I plan to have Aspis offer an obscene amount of money up front next session to simply "buy" the findings. I suspect they will be tempted, but in the end decline. Then we have the rival faction.
I will run the revolt as normal, but cut Nekchi. I have already given out that XP for last session's negotiating.
It seems that I am moving away from the race aspect of this module though, but that is ok. I feel this is the weakest of the modules, and will be happy when we get to Saventh-Yhi.
One of the players had an excellent point though, which I could barely counter point.
Namely, why couldn't they just use the information they had themselves to go into Saventh-Yhi and take all the treasures.
The main counter points is that the expedition is useful for 2 things: (1) The logistics of selling items. Who is interested in buying a huge ancient Azlanti urn when you are in the Mwangi Expanse? The expedition will buy everything the PCs find and cart it off to Kalabuto or Eleder. (2) Providing access to minor magic (< 2500gp) and getting the PCs the more expensive items they want.
Prestige Points is another benefit of having a faction.
Since Sargava wants money and the Pathfinders want archeological and historic findings, they reasoned that there was no good reason they couldn't both be part of the expedition. I couldn't either, so I let it happen.
There are quite a few groups that have allied with 2 factions. You may want to consider creating some conflict between the 2 factions along the way.
Since I couldn't really fit in the pirates that well, I am so far left with no rival faction. I plan to have Aspis offer an obscene amount of money up front next session to simply "buy" the findings. I suspect they will be tempted, but in the end decline. Then we have the rival faction.
I think for when you get to Saventh-Yhi, you'll want an antogonist faction (or 2). Another option you may want to consider is have the Aspis quiet about their intentions and manage to leave before the PC faction. Maybe the Pirates are right behind. Then the race is on!
I hadn't thought of the logistics counter point, that was a good one.
I am putting the race back in the game though, with the revelation that the unknown Pirate faction are preparing for an expedition as well, having sneaked a peek at Yarzoths notes on the voyage to Eleder (they rescued the PCs off the Shiv), and then bribing a clerk at the Archives to know that they are going to Tazion.
The Red Mantis was behind the uprising, just to send a message to the characters not to screw them over for the artifacts. If they were willing to incite a riot just to warn them, think about what they're willing to do if double-crossed. The hostage was the father of one of the character (but he was saved), so I have managed to drive the fear of the Mantis into them.
I will still skip a whole bunch of encounters on the way though, but will keep those I found interesting - but removing the no consequence factor of some of them. LIke if they don't stop at the zenj village, they won't be attacked by the Chemosits.
Thanks for the advice!
Has somebody statted Cheiton? By the looks of it, he is involved in the combat against the enemy faction too.
I didn't get Cheiton involved in combat. I wanted him to remain alive so that he could help the PCs and their faction.
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The race can actually be pretty fun, if you keep reminders around that there is a race. Since the pirates are "sea bound" and possibly worshipers of gods of the sea, you could have them find Nkechi the Tempest and set up some rivalry there, if you let it slip that Nkechi can offer them guidance and possibly hasten the pace, so to speak. Then you either have the pirates mad at the pcs for stealing the guide, or the pcs behind the 8 ball in regards to having to really push the pace. Kalabuto at that point becomes more interesting, having pirates attack the PCs, making it clear that the rival group is on to them, or at least slowing them down.
Don't be too hasty in getting to Saventh though. That adventure takes a LOT, and by that I mean a LOOOOOOOOT of work for the GM if you want to keep it interesting. It can either be a ton of fun if you work up a lot of interesting discoveries, or a boring slog through the same old stuff. Personally, I had a lot of fun with giving out information to the pcs, setting up how the other factions would deal with Saventh etc.
One thing you could look into as far as the pathfinders and sargavan govt conflicting about is control. The Pathfinders want the finds, etc, but what if the Sargavans start talking about taxing their finds, etc, or otherwise bogging them down in red tape. Or demanding that any "useful" finds be claimed by the government, since they are the law. You could really create a lot of friction.
If the PCs reach Tazion first (as it assumes they do), activate the pillars of light and goes off to Saventh-Yhi.. how are the other factions able to replicate what they do? I doubt the PCs will leave the gemstones behind and repair the Azlanti idols. Do they all follow the PCs to Saventh-Yhi? I'm just looking for good reasons, as my players will certainly feel cheated if they win the race and still gets to compete with all the other factions in the ruined city itself.
As Sasha is with the PCs, the Red Mantis can scry. Pirates and Aspis have spies among the Pathfinders and Sargavans?
Keep in mind that the party is going to have to trailblaze through some pretty thick jungle to get where they're going. Which means a lot of cutting their way through thick foliage. That's bound to leave a pretty good trail. Also, if any of the other factions have druids or rangers with them, they can talk to the animals and figure out which way the party went. In my campaign, the PCs took the crystals, and in many other ways tried to delay anyone following, so I gave them a good 5 day headstart in exploring the city. As long as you kind of point out that they're leaving a pretty clear trail behind them, and give them an opportunity to do what they can to obscure it, they shouldn't feel cheated.
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Also remember that the PCs are trailblazing for a deep jungle expedition. Enough people and resources to set up a full base camp. That's about 100 people, porters and pack animals. The expedition once they leave Tazion is going to leave a path that even a blind goblin can follow through the jungle to Saventh-Yhi.
Let the PCs get to the city first and have first prime choice of camp, but there's little way for them to completely prevent the other factions from getting there as well. How much free time they have to get a head start on exploring is up to the PCs though.
Maplewood: Sorry if you feel I'm bogging down your thread with questions, I just don't feel like starting a new one every time :)
My group has gotten pretty large now, with 5 PCs and a trained gorilla, Sasha, Athyra and her dinosaur. I was thinking of the Chemosit encounter, which according to a Challenge Rating calculator I found, be Easy. Upgrading it to 3 Chemosit's will turn it Very Difficult though. Any experience with the Chemosit? They have the potential of deadly damage, but then again, the PC's have in effect 9 actions per round now..
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I had a large table as well (6 players) and didn't want the addition of NPCs (Nkechi and Athyra) to up the challenge too high either.
What I suggest is have Athyra drop back to serve as the guide for the main expedition while the PCs continue to be trailblazers a day or two ahead of them. That way you can still have her around once they make camp in Saventh-Yhi (she's a fun NPC to play) but her and Jagi don't slow down your combat (or force you to crank up the CRs too much).
Just what I did and it worked well. Did the same for Nkechi.
No worries trellian. All of the posts are relevant.
My group consists of 4 PCs + Nkechi. Athyra is with the main expedition. I briefly described my own chemosit encounter in one of the earlier posts in this thread.
In short, I tried to engineer a way for them to split the party and make the encounter a bigger challenge. It was night time and they thought that the village was the Aspis expedition camped for the night. The sneaky PCs approached the village first. When the PCs were close enough, I had one of the chemosit feasting on the witch, this gave the chemosit spell resistance. The other chemosit lets out a terrifying roar which affected everyone in 300foot radius and save or be shaken.
Also, you can consider moving one of the random encounters earlier that day so that it drains some of their resources
Ah.. the party has just talked to the witch, so I can't retcon that or the fact that Athyra is with them. I think I'll just take my chances. Maybe the third chemosit will be drawn to the village by the terrifying roar, entering the fray some rounds later.
I'm still having a little difficulty understanding how far behind the main expedition is, how they got to leave a message with the xpedition that the mines were safe and so on.
Ah.. the party has just talked to the witch, so I can't retcon that or the fact that Athyra is with them. I think I'll just take my chances. Maybe the third chemosit will be drawn to the village by the terrifying roar, entering the fray some rounds later.
A third chemosit arriving later is a fine adjustment for your group.
I'm still having a little difficulty understanding how far behind the main expedition is, how they got to leave a message with the xpedition that the mines were safe and so on.
I told my group that they had to figure out ways to communicate with the expedition. They can go back themselves, plan for messengers, leave signs or some magical means.
After about a 3 month pause we managed to gather to continue Racing to Ruin. I decided to accelerate the last portion of the trip. By now, they consolidated their lead in the Race and the adventure itself has been going on for quite some time. A boredom factor was setting in. So for the last leg I only had 2 encounters:
(1) The succubus encounter. This went fairly well. I changed the hut and made it into a small 2-story Inn along the river. This made for a strange sight. Nkechi pointed out that the ladies were spirit dancers as they approached. The monk in my group was interested in the offer to connect with his animal spirit. That said, all the players were suspicious of this odd group of women. For a time the Succubus' dominate and suggestion were working well but eventually Protection from Evil and a lot of damage from the barbarian turned the tide.
(2) I created an encounter with a group of Bekyar slavers as they neared the foothills north of the Bandu. This consisted of a cleric of Zura, a Summoner and some low level warriors. I optimized this group to create a challenge for my PCs.
The next stop is Tazion. I've been working on modifications for the Ziggurat similar to what was created by Dwtempest. In short, I like the idea of adding a bit more Serpentfolk and more traps. My next post will be on these changes.
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Hey Maplewood, et al -
I've really enjoyed reading this thread and I've stolen a lot of ideas from you and others on how to mod this adventure. I have decided to make a lot of changes to the "the Race Begins" portion of the adventure. My players chose a northern route (see this thread for the exact details). I have changed up the order of the encounters to reflect this alternate route.
1. The cockfight - PCs totally passed this by
2. Village under siege - after wrestling the Ijo following the stormbird encounter, I had the PCs made honorary members of the tribe. Then, I made the village plagued chemosits an Ijo village to set the hook. The PCs decided to hide in and around the village, rather than hide in a hut. They used one of PCs and a Sargavan guardsmen as bait.
3. Ankheg attack - will be run as normal. Just a classic wilderness encounter reminiscent of 1st edition.
4. Vultures - this is actually going to be a combo with the dinosaur/botfly encounter others developed. The PCs will notice the vultures, then hear the sound of a dying dinosaur (two of them have an affinity for dinosaurs). When they approach the dinosaur the Geiers will swoop down to contest for their meal. The fight agitates the botflies which burst from the dinosaur body and chaos ensues.
5. Factional Strife: Horse Thieves - a big part of the PCs advantage in the race is their route and mode of travel. They are riding on horses, riding dogs, and a megaloceros. One of the PCs has a side deal with Pathfinder society wherein he carries a wayfinder with a homing device/tracker in it (in return for possible membership and 750gp signing bonus). The rival faction agents will attempt to sneak into the PCs' camp at night after drinking their potions of invisibility, cut the tethers and hitches for the horses, mount four of them and ride off, and throw thunderstones to spook the remaining horses to bolt in all directions.
6. The PCs are planning to use a swan boat feather token to travel down the Dzimi River. They will encounter a flash flood from Heart of the Jungle. Afterwords, the river will be full of debris and some of it will actually be Fell Flotsam from River into Darkness.
7. Lake of Vanished Armies - now takes place at the confluence of the Dzimi and Little Vanji Rivers offshore from the remains of Darkreach.
8. Bodies on the River - since they will be in plains and not jungle, I am changing the Dire Ape to a Dire Boar (re-skinned as Dire Warthog) and the attack will have to take place on a cloudy day after sunset.
9. Fzumi Saltmines - are now at the headwaters of the Little Vanji and formerly owned by the family of one of the PCs. He was kidnapped by slavers as a child and has been looking for his parents ever since then. He learned of the location of their mine by making a side deal with the Red Mantis who dug up a copy of the mine's charter for them. The Blue Warrior is now the PC's father.
10. Amghawe's Tomb - This has been moved from a jungle clearing to the foothills of the Bandu. It will play out a bit like "Fog on the Barrow Downs." Walking among numerous burial mounds, monoliths, and henges in a dense fog, they comes around the side of a mound to find the fast troll zombie just standing there. Eventually Jigeke attacks while flying through the foggy air.
11. Spirit Dancers - this will occur right as the players cross the Ocota.
12. Eloko Bell - encounter before Tazion, in the southern reaches of the expanse.
I rolled an additional random encounter of 2d6 gnolls, but I am thinking of disregarding it.
Anyway, I'm really looking for critical feedback or possible trip-ups of pitfalls to watch out for. Your help is greatly appreciated!
Hey Maplewood, et al -
(...) rolled an additional random encounter of 2d6 gnolls, but I am thinking of disregarding it.Anyway, I'm really looking for critical feedback or possible trip-ups of pitfalls to watch out for. Your help is greatly appreciated!
A general comment: each encounter is spaced with several days in between. This means that the PCs can throw every resource they have at the encounter. So an encounter like the Ankheg can be pretty mundane if it is the only encounter of the day. So as suggested by other posts, I started combining encounters together. For example, I rolled a random encounter of lions which I combined with the Ankheg. Basically, the PCs were tracking the lions and come across the Ankhegs, eventually the lions join in.
OR I combined a flashflood with some Girallons. So your random gnolls could attack them later one evening after they encounter Anghawe's Tomb for example.
I like the idea of your PCs choosing the route. In my case most factions are choosing the suggested route. This does give the opportunity to create a lot of factional strife. My suggestion would be to add more faction interaction somehow.
As for specific encounters. I spent some time, trying to setup the spirit dancer encounter. Few encounters are diplomatic which means that after a while PCs become suspicious of anything. So I put some effort into making sure they wouldn't attack right away.
Eventually, I cut a few encounters to speed up the game along.
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My group is about to enter Tazion. I was inspired by others to make some changes to the Ziggurat. See here: DWTempest's Ziggurat. This link leads to a pdf document that is very detailed.
I like the idea of adding a few more serpentfolk and connecting the aqueducts to the Ziggurat. I also like the changes to the idols. That said, instead of the traps and puzzle described for area X2 "Savith's Test", I imagined something more religious. In this ritual, I try to foreshadow some of the items from the later modules: Ziggurat Ritual.
The ritual honors the 4 gods associated with the Ziggurat: Nurgal, Acavna, Desna and the alien gods of the Dark Tapestry. It would have been trivial for Savith and her companions to complete this ritual and enter X11 and then use the pillars of light. The ritual was designed to prevent enemies (mainly serpentfolk and many non-humans) or low-level people from accessing this powerful mapping tool. It may drain some of PC's resources but it wont be lethal.
Also, I customized the ritual for my PCs. Some players should easily pass the first 2 steps. One player is non-human so may end up being afflicted with an insanity.
Any comments are appreciated.
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Daaaang Maplewood, you rock. The Ziggurat Ritual is cool than the way I ran it. You're funny— I thought my group was slow as it takes us about 8-9 months per AP book, but you win.
Your RtR tracking sheet was very helpful. Thanks. I was hoping you had a campsite tracking sheet for City of Seven Spears, but maybe it's my turn.
I also had to cut most of the random encounters on this book because there were too many and too easy for the party. Eventually I planned out all the the random encounters between the regular encounters to maximize fun... for example the pigmy witch doctor dungeon in the valley of the t-rex which was the backstory nemesis of the party's pigmy scarred witch doctor. Muuuuhahaha! And having the party stalked by dire tigers.
Now, a few weeks into City of Seven Spears, I'm rewriting most of encounters and areas to make them more challenging and fun.
In our last session, my group explored most of Tazion and are currently battling the Charau-ka in the temple building. It is almost dusk. The charau-ka minions are dropping like flies. Raogru just made his appearance but we had to stop our game. Next round, the charau-ka will set the big tar pit on fire and Raogru will cast Deeper Darkness. This should even the odds.
I do plan to make a campsite tracking sheet for CoSS. I sketched out some of the likely campscores for the factions. I started on a sheet a month ago but I couldn't decide on all the content. Then I realized that my group wouldn't get to Saventh-Yhi until January... Still, I like to prepare things in advance so I'll probably finalize an initial version of the sheet in the next week or so.
M-wood, the back of the text in COSS has the scores for the different factions, which made sense for me. I just used a spreadsheet to mark scores for each day to determine what each of the factions did for the race to the discovery points. Once I could see if a faction was attacked, how many points they lost, when they were repaired etc, it kind of knitted a nice story on its own, and given when times were even made it feasible which factions were working together of against one another.
Thanks Maplewood. This has been a very helpful resource! I'm actually a bit saddened by the fact that my PCs are fast approaching the place you've last left off.
I'm glad the thread is useful. We did manage another session. My group finished the battle with the Charau-ka. It was now time to check out the Ziggurat.
I admit, I am having trouble picturing some of the layout of the Ziggurat. First the structure is described sunken into the soil with the lower tier only partially uncovered. Area X3 is described as a sunken courtyard; there are stairs that presumably lead down into the courtyard. My problem is that if the first tier is only partially visible then the courtyard would have to completely buried. Especially after 10,000 years.
Anyway, as mentioned a few posts above, I wanted to add more Serpentfolk in Tazion. So, I imagined instead that when Issilar arrived in Tazion, they located the sunken courtyard and with the help of the Charau-ka they dug out and cleaned it.
When the PCs arrived, I described the first tier as being half buried in sediment, so the stone doors around the Ziggurat are blocked. They noticed that someone has hacked away at the vegetation around the main stone steps. On the north side, they notice that the courtyard is completely cleaned with big pile of soil and rocks nearby with shovels and picks. Basically, someone has been doing some archaeological work. Eventually they go inside, get surprised by the degenerate serpentfolk and then Issilar enters the battle. The session ended after they defeated the serpentfolk.
So basically, the next session, they will find the gems that Issilar gathered and maybe some notes. They will investigate the idols and eventually activate the Pillars.
On a whole I didn't change much in Tazion. I added the degenerate serpentfolk. I swapped some of the magic items. Mostly cosmetic stuff. The only big thing is the "ritual" to activate the Pillars.
My group finally finished Racing to Ruin. As a reminder, I decided to use an alternate means to access the Pillars of Light room. A Ritual connected to all of the gods from the Ziggurat. There should be a link in one of the previous posts
This last session started with the PCs exploring the Ziggurat. They rolled well on their religion checks and identified most of the associated gods for each room (they missed the Moon/battle god). They toyed with the idols and one PC got cursed. They then found the gems and some of Issilar's loot and some notes that he left behind. At this point , they figure out that there was a gem associated with each idol and associated with each room. They placed the gems in the idols and a door opened that led them to the Ritual.
In the end, they entered the Pillars of Light room with one of the PCs getting some insanity which led to some tense role play between the players.
Eventually, they activated the Pillars and were able to locate Saventh-Yhi. In my version, the idols didn't give my PCs any special knowledge of how to operate the Pillars. Instead I created within PowerPoint a sketch of the Pillars to the North which I defined as the one that is used to operate the image (the others are used to form the image). This sketch had only a few controls that they could fiddle with. These controls are similar to what you would find in a microscope or stereoscope, they are:
- a Lever to go from Coarse Detail Map(Mwangi Jungle, Bandu Hills, etc) to Fine Detail Map(the city itself)
- A wheel for zooming (in/out) when in Coarse mode and one when in Fine mode.
- A joystick-like rod that you could use to point a beam at a particular spot on the Coarse map.
So when they activated the Pillars, a map of the Mwangi Expanse appears with 2 red dots (one for Tazion and one for Saventh-Yhi). After some trial and error they figured out the function of each of the controls and eventually placed the pointer to Saventh-Yhi and activated the "Fine Detail" mode. This part worked very well and was a nice change of pace.
Now they are in the process of trying to cover some of their tracks and they will soon rejoin their Expedition. The next session will be them entering the City of Seven Spears.