Our group finished the play and they got through the seven courses of the Cornucopia in our last session. Next session, they will be exploring Aberian's Folly and will probably begin the Asmodean Knot.
Any tips for running it? I see that many people adjusted the shadow encounter. If you did, I'd love to hear how you adjusted the encounter and CR and how it worked out for your group.
I am also very curious how others described The Tower of Perpetuity: the stairs, the pits, the cues/clues provided to the players that they may need to jump to get off the endless stair. I would really appreciate some help here because, while the concept is neat, I'm afraid it could play very awkwardly.
Also, how did you play Sian? I have already introduced her, because I added a character-driven side adventure that involved stealing a painting with clues to the infernal engine's creation. Sian was the anonymous buyer but decided to kill the middleman, take his identity and then kill the party and take the painting without paying. It nearly worked. The poisoned players were able to escape with their lives by holding the painting hostage and fleeing, but they were followed. She eventually came through with the deal and paid for the painting, as initially planned. In the process, she left quite an impression on the party. In fact, some of the party members already suspect that she is the missing maid and they all admire and fear her. (I think our rogue also has a bit of a crush) I would hate to ruin all that delicious buildup by making the Knot encounter anticlimactic.
The shadows can indeed be brutal. There has been a suggestion to use a weak/young template on them so the Str drain isn't as brutal, you could also have the mirrors be visable to there doesn't have to be so much flailing around trying to find where they are coming from.
The crazy devil could be used as an info dump on the knot. Have him willing to parlay if let out and pop out if they agree.
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My advice? Check out the history of the Hellknights, especially about the White Plague. I think Undead Revisited might mention it as well.
The point is, Westcrown is supposedly infested with allips. Try those instead. Far less lethal. I can't remember all my other modifications at the moment, but that was the big one. Of course, I was building up to a resurgence of the cult of Sifkesh...
If I think of anything else, I'll try to post again. Hope this helps.
The Asmodean Knot is one of my favorite dungeons of the whole AP. Here's some stuff I am remembering from a few years back that worked for me:
-Runecurse: Absolutely love this mechanic as an active hazard which helps fuel the theme of infernal machinations and such. Even if it is quite deadly, I would keep it intact.
-Shadow Room: The upside is that the shadows aren't too intelligent and as the DM, you control the spawning rate. That said, I would describe the mirror's image as a reflection of the PCs where their shadows leap away and come to life through the mirror. Give them some sort of visual cue that the mirror is responsible for spawning the creatures. Otherwise, either reduce them to young shadows or do as I did, and use the room as a way to cut off the PCs from the outside, forcing them to do the dungeon in its entirety..
-Sian: The trick is to use her for hit and run tactics. I used her in the interconnected chambers with endless floor/ceiling loop effect, simply so she had plenty of means of escaping once she delivered a poisoned sneak attack. Consider having her do the same in any fight where she could reasonably backtrack behind the PCs. Remember to always give her an escape route.
-The Imp: I actually got my PCs to go through all the trials it suggests, but it was creative role-playing that won the day for me. I played him up as an invisible spirit, a lost ghost claimed by the Knot whose only hope of passing was to get brave heroes to undertake the trials it failed. It made it very funny when its true nature was discovered.
Most of the other fights are pretty straight-forward and the advice given in the module worked out well. Good luck!
Rakshaka, what was your adjusted spawn rate? Or did you just adjust mid-game to whatever you felt the party could handle? Also, did you wait to spawn shadows until the PCs found the mirrors in the secret room or did you spawn them as written, after they had spent 4 rounds in the Tower of Perpetuity (endless stairs)? How did your party find the secret room with the mirrors?
I really love the idea of having Sian do a hit and run in the Tower of Perpetuity. Though having both Sian AND shadows could get very intense, very quickly. How did your party handle it?
More importantly how quickly did they figure out that they need to jump over to the corridor to get out of the endless loop, especially under pressure of dual threats? If you have any advice to share on how you described and handled that specific area, I'd welcome it.
The imp RP idea is hysterical. My party would have a ball with that. Well played.
Kalindlara, allips are a neat idea for a substitute. The madness they exhibit and inspire seems like a good fit for the Asmodean Knot, between Doskivari's Rose Red-style obsessive building and Dargentu's tormented victims.
Manny, I was considering the quick Young template on the shadows. Did you try it? I've read some great advice here but I was hoping to find out how the changes panned out in actual play.
We have mat with hex grid on one side. Good idea.
jabberwocky wrote "One other thing: I ran the Abernian's Folly adventure like a heist."
I love it! My group eats that stuff up. I actually ran a side adventure for my bard and rogue PCs involving an art heist in Eirtain Oberigo's mansion during a party. I was planning a bit of Scooby Do-ing around Aberian's Folly to find the attic.
However, they already have some clues about the nature of the Knot. They heard rumors about the previous mayors at the Dusk Market. A dealer in exotic creatures used to supply Dargentu's imp, Livia, you see.
I most definitely plan to play up the terror of it. Great advice.
Shadows already had an ill-reputation from my playing group, so upon seeing just two spawn from an area, they went on 'red-flag/ full-defensive mode'. The PC's makeup included a Monk, which with Mage Armor cast on him gave him one of the best ACs in the game. The shadows needed 20s to hit him, so he basically drew all the shadows to him while the rest of the party fled deeper into the knot. They never did take out the shadow room, but everyone was fine with that. I used that room to drive the PCs deeper into the dungeon while also cutting them off from the outside world. The shadows spawned every two rounds, which after four such rounds was enough to raise alarm bells with my group. The other 3 PCs had a collective strength average of 10, so the danger was the shadows going after the weaker PCs. The biggest danger was a critical hit; a lucky one from one of them can kill a PC of any level instantly.
Rakshaka, I misunderstood you when you said you used her in the interconnected chambers with the endless floor/ceiling loop effect because the chambers connected to the shadow room have the same effect. I thought you meant you were having Sian use hit and run tactics on them while they were in the shadow room, which would be very deadly. I hadn't read through the entire dungeon yet, since I didn't expect our next session to progress that far. I realize now you meant B21 and not B3, B5a and B5b.