Glassworks suggestions? About to face the Tsuto.

[jhilahd]

So my group just finished the top-side of the Glassworks.
For grins, I thought "I'll use all 8 of the goblins", and figured I'd have them split off after a bit. Do a little hit and run kinda thing for them.

The players were going to have none of that.

They got initiative, and my two front line guys charged to trap the goblins in. Yes, AOO's were accounted for.

The fight lasted about 3 rounds, roughly.
So... they searched the rest of the top side rooms and are preparing to face Tsuto(if he is there) below.

So... should I add a few more goblins just for fun and for fodder?
I thought I might add 2-3, and have them trap the stairs down, or one of the first rooms, just to be a pain.

The party is lightly injured. Really. One fighter is unconscious, the other five players are fine.

They can take Tsuto, easily.
Which is to say, should I let them? Or should I make it a struggle worth remembering?

Thoughts, suggestions.

And for grins, here are the players(they all just hit 2nd level).
Human Alchemist
Half-elf Druid (wolf companion)
Human Justicar
Gnome Illusionist
Human Fighter
Half-Orc Fighter

Thanks!

[Kalshane]

With 6 players I would definitely either add more goblins or boost Tsuto or both. For my game (also involving 6 players) I bumped him up to a Monk 3/Rogue 2, maxed out his HP and made him a Zen Archer. He gave the party a hard time for a few rounds, tumbling and around, being able to fire his bow in melee (due to his free Point Blank Mastery as a 3rd level Zen Archer) but still AoO them with unarmed attacks if they tried to get cute. I also bumped his bow up to a longbow since zen archer gave him proficiency.

I also used his additional wealth from the level up for a potion of Cat's Grace (drunk before the fight) and some cold iron and silver arrows. (The latter simply as treasure and to give the PCs some cold iron for use against Erylium later.)

[jhilahd]

Ooooh good idea. I'll think I will bump him up a bit, and toss in a handful of goblins. Not enough to kill them, but enough to annoy them.

I had thought about planting some cheap traps. Like dropping vials of oil on misc. players, and then have them get charged by goblins wielding torches.

[Mudfoot]

Definitely add lots more goblins, and make their traps kinda stupid, so they hinder the goblins as much as the PCs, while Tsuto dances all around them being a pain.

In general, with 6 PCs I'd expect to add 50% more mooks and bump the solos a bit too; max hp, for a start. But it somewhat depends on how optimised the PCs are.

[Story Archer]

jhilahd wrote:

So my group just finished the top-side of the Glassworks.

For grins, I thought "I'll use all 8 of the goblins", and figured I'd have them split off after a bit. Do a little hit and run kinda thing for them.

The players were going to have none of that.

They got initiative, and my two front line guys charged to trap the goblins in. Yes, AOO's were accounted for.

The fight lasted about 3 rounds, roughly.
So... they searched the rest of the top side rooms and are preparing to face Tsuto(if he is there) below.

So... should I add a few more goblins just for fun and for fodder?
I thought I might add 2-3, and have them trap the stairs down, or one of the first rooms, just to be a pain.

The party is lightly injured. Really. One fighter is unconscious, the other five players are fine.

They can take Tsuto, easily.
Which is to say, should I let them? Or should I make it a struggle worth remembering?

Thoughts, suggestions.

And for grins, here are the players(they all just hit 2nd level).
Human Alchemist
Half-elf Druid (wolf companion)
Human Justicar
Gnome Illusionist
Human Fighter
Half-Orc Fighter

Thanks!

In the festival raid and in the glassworks, though I only had four players, I was very free with the goblins. I had about a dozen 'goblin encounters' during the raid written up ranging from 2 to 6 goblins in each - 2 had cornered Shayliss, 6 were trying to burn down Goblinsquash Stables while Daviren Hosk fought them off and so on. I used them as an excuse to introduce a handful of NPC's and proceeded with the intention that whenever it looked like it was getting tough for the PC's, I'd just stop and go directly to the final encounter.

Kind of the same thing for the Glassworks - I started off with 8 in the main chamber and added a couple of waves of 4 more to bring in as needed in order to make sure the PC's were suitably challenged. The final wave turned and fled back down to Tsuto, effectively leading them to him... and as GM I reserve the right to run in another wave of four whenever and from wherever I deemed it appropriate - after all, the PC's have no way of knowing how many goblins there are, do they?

Have Tsuto face them in one of the hallways (I had it happen just outside of Ameiko's cell) to limit how many people they can bring to bear against him at any given time. In our campaign, he managed to escape after a timely stun, leaving goblin fodder behind him to run interference.

[Jason Rice]

Yeah. When I ran this, my players actually had a harder time with the goblins than Tsuto. They killed Tsuto in 1 round.

The reason it was so easy for my group was the terrain. Tsuto is trapped. He had to go through the PCs to go anywhere, whereas the goblins could move around and use the terrain.

If you want a suggestion, I would move Tsuto to another location. One with more room. Let him run and regroup if things are not going well.

[jhilahd]

Yeah... I added a Bugbear npc, a lil brother to Bruthamus. I also added 6 goblins.

I had placed Tsuto and Rimmathus(Bugbear) in a more centered room, and flanked with goblins in the additional rooms. The party ignored the rooms. Really. No one kicked in any doors, until they came to Tsuto arguing with the Bugbear.

The party kicks the door in and the fight begins. One round later the goblins join in.

The fight was pretty even until our Half-Orc fighter intimidated the goblins with threats. Demoralized they fled down the corridor toward the beach. Tsuto managed to start an escape, but got tripped by our druid's wolf, then entangled by said druid. Then knocked out by our other fighter, all the while the Bugbear kept the others at bay.

He eventually died.sigh...

Tsuto gets kidnapped, and the goblins who fled have now thrown a couple of makeshift traps in the halls leading to the "Cavern".

Tsuto was intimidated by the Justicar and the Half-Orc, both rolled stupid crits during their interrogation, go figure. So he panicked and started spilling answers, sobbing like a child.

So we'll be picking up part deux tomorrow night as the party decides what to do next. They have a slight idea of what is underneath the Glassworks,and are thinking of exploring. But they are also getting the itch to confront Nualia.

So the fun is just getting started.