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Bonjour!
Just thought I'd show off our complete decor for the Thistletop locale, using:
- Dwarven Forge dungeon walls for the Thistletop keep itself
- Homemade cliffs from spare blocks of polystyrene left over from a kitchen project, a knife, spraypaint & flocking
- A very cool natural bridge, to replace the rope bridge (that I didn't have time to make)
- two bags of model railroading lichen for the hedge maze
- A few homemade forest decors, built on old CDs.
A harpy's eye view towards land.
The battle with Gogmurt and a couple pet spiders
The goblin throne room, just before 4 2nd-level PCs burst in
Very Nice!
It looks very nice indeed!
What a shock our last adventure was!!!
After the 4 2nd-level PCs mopped up a roomfull of goblins (with a few bards, goblin dogs, goblin chief mounted on a giant chameleon and even a bugbear) I thought "wow, they're on a roll, Nualia is going to fold, big time!" Especially since they'd crested over to 3rd level now.
Was I ever wrong!
A couple of goblins got away, so the folks down below were forewarned of the PCs' attack. Nualia got ready for them in the 1st-level temple room, with a couple goblins, Tsuto and one of her Yeth hounds. It was the Yeth hound that did it. I thought a DC12 fear attack, that can't be so awful.
First round, the PCs engage the goblins & Tsuto, killing 3 of the 4 gobs. Second round, Nualia comes out from behind the statue, points at the Paladin and screams "Take that one alive!" The Yeth hound bounds out from behind Nualia and howls.
3 of the 4 PCs (Barbarian, Fighter & Wizard) fail their saves and go running away on their next turn.
The 3 who ran away actually survived. Random flight sent the wizard back up the way they'd come, the Barbarian out through the Tentamort lair and, before it could react, out the cave mouth diving into the sea below, and the fighter into the depths of the Tentamort lair, where, after a few rounds cowering in the dark he had to face it - alone. A few good strikes, and the tentamort retreated, but the Fighter wasn't about to face Nualia & co alone.
The worst part is, after regrouping and deciding they needed more backup, they headed back to town, got a new character to join them (the paladin's player had quickly prepared another character). What do they do? Stumble into Malfshnekor's prison and get the new character killed before retreating again.
Agh! Yes, we avoided two close TPKs, but one guy lost two characters in an hour and a half. <facepalms>
So here's my question: Nualia captured a female paladin, then skipped town with her minions and the captive in tow while everyone was back in town. What would Nualia do?
I figured she'd torture the lady paladin until she managed to turn her, slap the Mark of Lamashtu on her belly and get her knocked up with more monstrous progeny.
But that would be too, too cruel for the paladin character.
So, help me find a way for the paladin to get away, without it looking too much like a DM-fiat get-out-of-jail-free card.
Agree with you both on Nulia's likely course of action and that it's not something you want to pull on a player without very real consideration.
Have Shalelu show up to pull off a rescue, maybe sneaking into the paladins cell,while Nualia is sleeping. Then they get to fight their way out through some goblins. Shalelu should make the rescue possible, but only possible. It works better if the paladin has a part to play when it happens.
First off, Nualia is not leaving. She wants to be a Succubus and plans to release Malfeshnekor and burn Sandpoint as a sacrifice to make it happen. She is categorically insane and believes she's been given a direct mission by the Goddess for whom she is a 4th level cleric. No way she's giving up now.
A couple options pending what's going on -
1) She lies in wait on the mainland outside of Thistletop and offers the paladin in trade for access to Malfeshnekor. She has no intention of honoring any bargain but it lets the pc''s mount a desperate rescue attempt.
2) She plans to sacrifice the paladin to Lamashtu. If she doesn't have access to Thistletop, she needs a temple to Lamashtu. Is there another one in the area she can use? Why, yes, there's one in the Cathedral of Wrath. She and her crew break in there and start preparations for the ceremony. Only Orik never signed up for anything like that so he sneaks off and warns the pc's or the sheriff. Desperate rescue attempt ensues. The sacrifice has to be done at midnight or some other time of night and that gives the pc's a few hours to save the day.
I know I am late to the party, but that looks phenomenal, great job!
Question, where did you get the ‘land’ pieces? Not the trees so much, but where Thistletop actually sits on. The bridge, etc?
Thanks for the bump! This looks spectacular. Always impressed with GMs that go above and beyond like this.
Question, where did you get the ‘land’ pieces? Not the trees so much, but where Thistletop actually sits on. The bridge, etc?
From Wheldrake's post: "Homemade cliffs from spare blocks of polystyrene left over from a kitchen project, a knife, spraypaint & flocking "
From Wheldrake's post: "Homemade cliffs from spare blocks of polystyrene left over from a kitchen project, a knife, spraypaint & flocking "Question, where did you get the ‘land’ pieces? Not the trees so much, but where Thistletop actually sits on. The bridge, etc?
Wow, maybe next time I should actually read the post. I usually do, but I will admit I just clicked the links this time. Sorry about that (to Wheldrake).
Thanks!
Hey, just picked up on this.
Yes, the "land peices" were surprisingly easy to make. The only tricky bit is that the spray paint's chemistry actually eats into the polystyrene, especially the bits that were cut away. This ended up with an irregular surface that wasn't too shabby for simulating rough stone, but whenever I get round to making up more, I'll try to lay down a layer of non-reactive "primer" of some sort before doing the spraypaint bonanza.
For the bridge, I wanted to do a real suspension bridge, but ran out of time. Was figuring on using string and little bits of wood, perhaps balsa strips. In the end, the rock arch bridge looks really good and I just added some goblin traps over the span, to approximate the trapped aspect of the suspension bridge from the AP.
Regarding cutting up the polystyrene blocks: it's really messy, so do it somewhere you don't care about all the little fiddly bits falling all over, and clinging to your hands through static electricity and such. Used one of those hobby knives where you can slide out the blade to any length with the thumb button. I saw a video about somebody using a hot wire cutter, but lacking such a device, the knife was actually quite effective.
Now my only real problem is volume. We usually play at a friend's place, so I have to load up tons of boxes in my car, each gaming session. All for a good cause, though.
They make a wire styrofoam cutter specifically for this. It runs on a pair of "D" batteries, and looks like a cheese cutter. Prevents all the mess, and gives a large ammount of control.
Now my only real problem is volume. We usually play at a friend's place, so I have to load up tons of boxes in my car, each gaming session. All for a good cause, though.
I'm very familiar with this 'problem'. We play at a friend's house as well, so I lay out my scenery before the game and only take the required pieces. I can imagine that transporting such a huge amount of material can get tricky.