Runeforge and the Portlal

[joep]

Runeforge and the Portlal:

So the party has defeated the White Dragon I didn't plan it to happen, The Barbarian critted the Dragon, but then the Dragon did a Full Attack and killed the Barbarian.

Unfortunately the Ranger then critted him twice and since it was his Quarry with was auto confirmed.

We stayed in rounds and the cleric then used Breath of Life to bring back the Barbarian.

So now the party gather the Dragons Hoard and went back to the Dwarven Citadel they came from.

So I made the keys disappear after 24 hours and the Cleric did divination to ask what happened and they know that they keys returned to the statues.

So I've been reading up for the next session knowing they will again retrieve the keys and then open the portal.

This party is very smart and resourceful.
So my questions are:

If they tie a rope to themselves and one person goes through the portal. Does the rope remain taut? Or does it drop?

Can the person on the other side, turn around and return?
Or is it one way?

Can the person who goes first communicate with party? Say through magic spells like Message, or even Sending.

[joep]

joep wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

So how did other GM's handle the Portal to Runeforge?

[John Whyte]

Okay with your communication question:

Communication:

I decided that the portal was a swirly mess of water and message wouldn't work. As runeforge was in another plane I was going to have message have a 5% miss chance.
In the end the party plunged through anyway.

Portal:

I thought the theory for opening the portal sucked and had my players have to cast an opposed spell (from an opposition school) on each statue. When this was done a bright line of fire would go from the statue that it was cast on to the statue of the spell's school. This would mean that after the necessary 7 castings there would in fact be a seven pointed star made out of fiery lines on the ground, with the portal being created at the center. Which I thought was way cooler and reinforced the seven pointed star thing.

This worked, sort of. My players saw the statues, instantly deduced the schools of each and started by casting a spell from the associated skill on the statue of that skill.

Then the more inventive suggestions started coming but it did take them a while to figure it out. Longer than one player liked.

The other reason for changing this was in case the party doesn't have a spell of a particular school (Necromancy I'm looking at you here). No so much of a problem with a wizard but my party was a good sorcerer, and a cleric of life. Found out that they had Napsack which was Necromancy. But it seemed like a dick move forcing a quick trip back to a town to get a spell of the right school.

[joep]

John Whyte wrote:

Okay with your communication question:

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

Portal:

Spoiler:

I like that idea of the statues emitting a bright line of fire. I don't need to worry about the spells. The party has them all. They already acquired the keys from the statues by the lake and then killed the ancient white dragon.

They lost there main fighter in this fight but luckily he died, then ranger got 2 critical hits, (rolled 2 20's) on the Dragon and he made Dragon favored Enemy, and Quarry, so Dragon died. Cleric did Breath of Life and saved Barbarian.

They gathered the treasure and went to Dwarven Citadel to upgrade some items and sell things.

I made the keys disappear after 24 hours and they figured out they will need to recast spells to re-retrieve them.

Did you make the portal a one-way? Once they step through you can't return back. I know it said the portal remains active for about 1 hour but didn't say whether it they could go through and return within that hour.

[John Whyte]

I made an access rune on the other side that turned the portal on and off.

Spoiler:

I thought it was idiotic that you had to leave through the Dungeon of wrath. I was like these runelords hate each other wtf would the put the exit and power it brings in 1 domain.

[gustavo iglesias]

Yes I thought that too.

Spoiler:

I think it's related to the fact that in the first version of the AP, Athroxis was the "hardest" NPC and was "at the end" of the dungeon (in the description, at least).

If the portal should be in a single wing of the dungeon, it should be Sloth, because it's conjuration magic. But it's not really a big issue, and it's easy to apply a good dosis of handwavium and change it to some other place

[joep]

John Whyte wrote:

I made an access rune on the other side that turned the portal on and off. ** spoiler omitted **

Wrath:

I agree that it's strange that the portal is in this section of the dungeon. What if the party goes to this section first and activates the portal and return to Rimeskull.

Will the keys be retrievable again from the statues?

I'm thinking that after they forge their 1st runeforge weapon that this Sihedron Circle becomes activate near where they teleported in. And is triggered by the same effect.

I plan to take the clues about forging the weapons and put a section into each Dungeon.

Yes, they can figure it out without all pieces. But this way it requires them to explore a majority of them.