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This adventuring group had quite a run in within the catacombs. Wanted to share as well as see if any others had experienced anything similar in their encounters.
Shortly after entering the room Erylium appeared and cast Hold Person on the fighter while staying in flight above the runewell.
The PCs had a very difficult time even touching Erylium, but one lucky shot with an tanglefoot bag, and a failed fly check, brought her down into the runewell.
The PCs pounced, grappled, pinned, and ultimately rendered her helpless. All while she lay within the runewell.
The excitement hit when they Coup de grace'd and her blood poured into the runewell.
The runewell surged with life as countless sinspawn began to pour out. The PCs ran out of the catacombs and now face a sinspawn army threatening the very existence of Sandpoint.
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The setup sounds exactly like my group. They saw the unholy font and decided to start breaking it. That made a lot of noise, so Erylium made a sinspawn and sent it out to deal with the group. She's a frustrating encounter, since you need to deal with something that can go invisible, fly, cast spells and has DR. Most stories end with something along your lines - "we finally hit upon doing X, and that finally denied her mobility, so we won".
As for the runewell,, that shouldn't actually generate lots of sinspawn. The runewell only has enough charges to create two or three more before it's completely exhausted. It's only generated enough wrathful energy for that much, and once that fire is out, it can't be rekindled by any power the PCs can muster. That said, the idea that there's a ton of sinspawn clambering towards Sandpoint is an entertaining one!
While it might be against what's written, I'd totally go for it--Lil' E should count as a more potent source than the average Sandpoint citizen, right?
Ruyan.
So you're saying punish the party for killing the Quasit - which they're supposed to do.
No. You keep it to the number of Sithspawn that could created from the pool with the number of wrath points it could possess. If that's only two or three? Well, it'd be amusing to have the party summon the town guard for an "invasion of monsters" and have that invasion be three critters.
Though I will say, what with the "wrathful" aspect of their bites, even "just" three Sithspawn could be a nasty encounter for the town guard AND PCs of 3rd level.
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Did I say I was punishing them? No. This is a party of 6 PCs so the adventure has been scaled up. Within the catacombs they bypassed all the sinspawn and ended up going straight to the quasit.
I gave the runewell more than the 20 points as there has been much more bloodshed having added 50% more mooks during this adventure as well as the PCs finding additional encounters. They decided to go goblin hunting.
So 6 sinspawn from the catacombs that were avoided, plus an additional 6 pulled from the runewell. An army of 12 sinspawn was created and I don't believe this is by a stretch. The checks aren't hard, at least they don't appear to be for this group as no one succumbed to the bites nor the pool.
RuyanVe has a point as well when it comes to the attack on the city. There are quite a few NPCs that are more powerful than the PCs even.
I like to encourage the PCs to do as they wish and adjust the adventure to fit those choices.
In the end it doesn't matter. This group likes a challenge rather than a cake walk, which it would have been had I not scaled the adventure. The players are deeply involved and excited at this turn of events. Emails have been going back and forth ever since and the excitement level has significantly increased. This isn't PFS, so as long as the group is having fun we play the game as the conditions fall.
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I can see the confusion, my mistake. I guess I was explaining it as the PCs see it, they don't know how many are coming. Only that the runewell became violently active and sinspawn began rising out of the liquid.
They immediately turned tail and ran and almost got trapped by the sinspawn from the catacombs investigating the screams of the quasit. So to them there is an army of sinspawn below the city.
The good news, is if they come back into the catacombs after dealing with the sinspawn in the city they will find an inactive runewell; something they weren't expecting :)
I approve. My child has been sacrificed for the greater good.
I approve. My child has been sacrificed for the greatergoodevil.
Always at your service, ma'am.
Ruyan.
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They immediately turned tail and ran and almost got trapped by the sinspawn from the catacombs investigating the screams of the quasit. So to them there is an army of sinspawn below the city.
And it should be reported to them as such. Ask any ten people about a car accident, and you'll usually get ten different reports. Scare the crap outa people when they don't expect it, and their stories will grow by leaps and bounds.
You're players saw a well activated and sin spawn pour forth. They ran, and ran into more. It would make sense that they're report it as an invading army. Keep it that way. Let them learn what is really going on when they go to fight.
1. A little humility never hurt a PC.
2. If they play it right, they can be the Heroes of Sandpoint who drove off an ARMY of sinspawn!
3. Exageration is the name of the game. It was a six inch trout that turned into the forty pound baracuda!
I've played this on my PCs a few times. I step back, look at the situation, and then glaze over some details that they might not see if they were panicking. As they get higher level, it tapers off and finally stops, because they're seasoned. But as rookies, panick and knee-jerk reactions should be normal.