I'm supposed to be running this in a few weeks and am really having a hard time wrapping my mind around this module.
I realize as GM that I can change anything I want to better fit my game, but I also feel that these modules should be able to be run as written, and I am having problems figuring out a way to run this that makes sense.
For Chapter 1:
First, I don't get why Branda & Verus wouldn't just go to visit Dern themselves. I mean one of their best friends is in an invalids home, and they send some strangers to check on him? They certainly seem willing to hop on horses into the dangerous forest, so I see no reason for them to send strangers to Hopes Hollow.
Second, the Hopes Hollow portion seems hard to run, the whole situation seems pretty unrealistic. I mean if my parent was in the home, and I wasn't allowed to visit, I would go to the authorities right away and have them check it out.
For Chapter2:
A lot of the quests for the forest don't really give out their reward unless the PCs report back to the town, but since it seems that the PCs should be focused on rescuing the NPCs, I cant see them delaying just to get some extra gold.
As far as the forest itself, it seems to be about 30x50 miles, or 1500 square miles, which is huge. And again as long as the Pcs are on the path, they wont stray 2+ miles into the woods to scour 100s of square miles to maybe find some unusual creatures.
And, if they take the road along the river, they basically miss out on the majority of the encounters to be proper level when they get to the house.
Honestly most of the chapter 2 quests would be great for exploration on the way back from the House, instead of the way there.
In J5, the calibans supposedly use their 'unsettling scream' to warn other camps and the house itself. But on the map, all the camps and House are around 7-10 miles apart, and their scream isn't that loud.
I think if they included a few different small maps for these encounters, that would've been great.
Chapter 3:
To be honest I haven't read all through this yet. It seems to be pretty cool. My only complaint is that the end-boss is fairly ho-hum. Most Paizo bad guys have some sort of class-levels added, or something unique, but this one is just straight out of the book. I wish the stat-block had a 'tactics' section like most paizo products seem to have.
anyhow, I am looking for some advice on how run this as written while keeping it all making sense.
I suppose I will end up having to do quite a bit of alterations on the first 2 chapters, which is disappointing. But I'll take advice on that front as well.
I just finished running Dragons Demand, and have run Fangwood Keep, and am currently running book-4 of Runelords, and all those products have been quite excellent and easy to run. This is the first module that has me struggling. Maybe this type of module just isn't my cup of tea, or I need more GM seasoning to pull this one off.
I had to railroad the PC's into some of the quests, otherwise they would go straight to the manor and miss a lot of xp on their way there.
Some haunts just "happened" to be there when they walked through some area.
And yes, i had to chance their reason for not going after Dern, Igneous leg was wounded and he couldnt travel (nobody asked about horses or carriage though) to check him out, that and i kept speaking about flinn during the conversation so they would look worried more about flinn than about dern.
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I plan on combining Dragon's Demand and Tears at Bitter Manor.
I am thinking of meeting the old adventureres in Belhaim (as inhabitants of this town), being to old (or injured, good idea) to travel Cassomir to check things out.
They might be friends with the PCs already.
Have to think this out a bit more...
2. Make the path through the forest subject to some natural features which
'railroad' the characters in certain directions, as the road/path winds
around. e.g. a river, canyons, cliffs etc.
Thus, whilst you are railroading them in a certain direction...& potentially
past encounters, it will feel natural due to the terrain... This will also
have the effect of increasing the size of the amount of forest they have to
traverse, because it's no longer 1500sqm.
Oh no, there is no need for that.
The two lacridaemons have an aura that gives -5 survival each, there is no save for that. At first i didnt get the point of the two demons there, but then i checked their SLA and the GM doesnt need to make the PC's fight them, they just follow the PC's around to make them get lost, and if attacked, they can teleport away and come back invisible.
That way, with -10 on all survival checks, you can rail-road the PC's into some encounters easily.
The DC to avoid getting lost is 15, with that aura it goes up to 25. If you also add a fog in the forest (i did, my campaign is actually in ravenloft), the DC increases by 3 points, if they happen to be travelling by night (they should, they want to rescue the old couple), increase the DC by 3 (moonlight) or 6 (new moon).
They will easily get lost with a DC in the 30s, even with a map.
I will not let my players kill these two guys until they are ready to enter the manor, that will make things interesting (unless they play really clever and hunt down them), but a lot of the combats will get harder with a hold person or snare poping out of nowhere, people fatigated because they couldnt sleep well, and they can even summon a third or fourth lacridemon (50% chance each) to fight the PC's.
Is there an explanation for the nonchalance of the nurses at Mother's Care?
"The human nurses passively work through their days and pay little attention to what's happening around them. Beyond observing that the center seems to have lowered its standards for care, they can tell the PCs little."
It would make sense if they were under a Dominate Person, but none of the villains who would possibly be responsible seem to have that available to them.
I can't wrap my head around why people who have devoted their lives to caring for others would ignore the things that are going on there - no doctors, no cleaning staff, no cooks... and they just adminster medicine and keep their heads down? Certainly makes no sense if these are the same nurses from before it changed management.
If newly hired, who are these people to agree to work there with things the way they are? Thugs with no actual ranks in heal?
I'm going to run them as having been dominated. That explains why they don't help fight when things hit the fan, as well as why they shrug off the horrors and direct questions toward the staff.
Is there an explanation for the nonchalance of the nurses at Mother's Care?
"The human nurses passively work through their days and pay little attention to what's happening around them. Beyond observing that the center seems to have lowered its standards for care, they can tell the PCs little."
It would make sense if they were under a Dominate Person, but none of the villains who would possibly be responsible seem to have that available to them.
I can't wrap my head around why people who have devoted their lives to caring for others would ignore the things that are going on there - no doctors, no cleaning staff, no cooks... and they just adminster medicine and keep their heads down? Certainly makes no sense if these are the same nurses from before it changed management.
If newly hired, who are these people to agree to work there with things the way they are? Thugs with no actual ranks in heal?
I'm going to run them as having been dominated. That explains why they don't help fight when things hit the fan, as well as why they shrug off the horrors and direct questions toward the staff.
Oh having known people in the nursing field, I can totally buy that from the staff, especially if underpaid and overworked...
The only thing i would change is to make anobaith show up before the final battle to trick the PC's a couple of times, not in her real form of course.
But a week after they killed her, they didnt even remember her name anymore. They do remember the "battle with that demon", because they had some epic luck on dimensional anchorage and dispel magic, so they remember the monster, but not the npc.
As the OP, I just never bothered to run this one.
In the end, it seemed like it wouldn't fit my groups style, and I frankly didn't want to spend time trying to make the story work.
There's a ton of other great content from paizo out there that doesn't need as much adjustments as this one, so we ended up starting Mummys mask instead and are loving it.
RPG Superstar 2013
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You folks are always welcome to send me messages here or on Facebook. I'd be happy to help with ideas that with help bridge the game for your table or find a way to improve a bit that just didn't quite get there.
A couple of bits from this thread (and be patient with me on minute details, it's been a while since I write it):
Hope's Hollow is utterly broken. There's no going to the authorities. In fact the previous leadership is dead and now everyone hates and suspects one another. The nurses don't care because they suffer the same miasma as everyone else. Everything sucks. Nothing is fair. This job is doomed. They personify the jaded nonchalance that should permeate Hope's Hollow and Cassomir.
The use of the lacridaemons to slow the party is right on. The text says the harry the PCs and they should be able make their life difficult until the PCs pull a pretty boss move, or the game starts to drag and its time for the next encounter.
In the adventure's beginning, the two members of the Watch are infirm and old and happy to send the PCs to look in on Dern. But when Flinn sends the missive to let them know where he is, it's an emergency. They care for their friend, can't reach the PCs, and behave rashly.
Hopefully that explains some of the thinking or helps move the game forward. I wish I'd sen this thread before just now.
Please let me know if you want to talk about the game!