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I don't know if I succeeded, but I tried to keep things moving all through the puzzle. Mark down time for everything they do. Point out that the clock is groaning, maybe have the portals get a little smaller, etc. Keep them aware of time running out around them all through the puzzle and it shouldn't be too much of a pace break.
I mean, this is *literally* a ticking clock scenario.
You really think that repeatedly telling players "You're not banging your head against the wall fast enough" will make the wall hurt their heads less?
I have to agree with Fromper. I played up the passing of time during The Disappeared and all it did was frustrate the players and make them perform worse. Highlight that time is passing but remind the players that out of character they have as much time as the game slot allows.
Venture-Captain, Ohio—Columbus
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Regarding the puzzle, what I didn't get when playing this scenario was that the marked portals on each floor were not random destinations. I was left with the impression that all portals had random outputs without a really high Will save. That left me with no desire to figure out what the correct order was.
I only realized it after reading the comments here. (After playing, of course.). I'm not sure I would have caught that just reading the scenario.
I will not even discuss the invisible flying murder machines. I am aware that my GM went "easy" on us.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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I will not even discuss the invisible flying murder machines. I am aware that my GM went "easy" on us.The tactics have them go easy on you, also their greater invisibility has a very short duration.
Until the party looks like they're winning. So the party is punished for being quick and efficient.
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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I'm prepping to run this in two weeks for an audience I don't want to let down. I think I understand most of it. If you know what you're looking for, it's sort of there.
1) "Alternate" means doing blue-red-blue-red etc.
2) "Proceed in order" mean start with the lowest number, then the next and so forth.
= To both alternate and proceed in order you have to use the stairs to actually do that.
The colours on the lines are also a hint about using the portals of the correct colour.
However, my question is this: is there any way for the PCs to know which portals go up and down, without trying the portals? Are they supposed to try each portal on each floor until they've found the vertical ones on that floor?
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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If you follow her tactics and use her buffs in the order they specify, you don't get a chance to bane until like round three.
I'm looking for this but not seeing it. All I see is that she animates an object at the beginning of combat.
What else is she supposed to do before engaging on banefest?
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Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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It's been a while lets see what I can remember
Round 1: "Henbane prefers to avoid confrontation by frightening potential foes into seeing matters from her perspective."
This means (as far as any of us have been able to figure out) Activate Aura of Confusion (standard). Since her tree pals are fragile and she is not doing anything teamworky, she should probably use her swift to activate her judgements.
Round 2: "If combat seems becomes unavoidable, she uses her animate wood ability to create allies out of the surrounding tower and uses her wooden allies for her teamwork feats. She combines spells and archery to hamper her foes and pick them off one at a time."
This could either be cast entangle or hold person, and activate bane, (but not get to use it this round) or spawn tree friends (swift) and start attacking (in which case no bane.) Would probably depend on the outcome of the aura of confusion.
Round 3: (continue tactics)
This round she either banes, or summons tree friends, whichever she didn't do in round 2. And full attacks with bane.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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I suppose you could read it that way, but it looks like you're reading a lot into that.
Another nasty combo she has is Blistering Invective followed the next round by Aura of Confusion. With her +27 Intimidate the odds are that PCs will all still be shaken. That seems to fit her tactics as well.
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I personally feel like Blistering Invective might not be the best tactical decision. You might make it easier to get the confusion to stick, but you are also basically handing the party a round of actions. She's not particularly hard to hit at all for people built for melee/ranged combat, and every archer I know uses cold iron arrows as their default (no reason to buy normal arrows), so her DR won't help. It's also another round that people have an opportunity to disarm/sunder her bow or grapple her.
The first priority of any monster trying to maximize its chance of survival is to even-out the action economy imbalance, especially if it's a sole BBEG versus a full party.
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What I did:
Round 1: Blistering Invective ("It is time for you to leave, fool mortals!") and summoning allies as swift
Round 2: Activate judgment, full attack the most obvious target(dead in one go)
Round 3: Activate bane, shoot someone else
Round 4: Heal, summon, etc.
She's actually a bit easier to run non-optimally on high tier, since aura of confusion is a wortwhile turn-waster but doesn't necessarily drop anyone, unlike 8d6+4d8+10(or more). Well, I guess you could wade into melee or spend rounds to buff.
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It's going to be a b%&h to choose my sacrificial offering once I finally get to play this. I remember running Rebel's Ransom way back when, turning two characters to dust in the process, and then wringing my mitts over what to pick once the scenario was on offer next Ropecon. Ended up not metagaming and boy did we take a beating.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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It's going to be a b%&h to choose my sacrificial offering once I finally get to play this. I remember running Rebel's Ransom way back when, turning two characters to dust in the process, and then wringing my mitts over what to pick once the scenario was on offer next Ropecon. Ended up not metagaming and boy did we take a beating.
Between the earlier faerie assault and Henbane waiting in the room, this scenario is looking like the demon lovechild of the Sanos Abduction and My Enemy's Enemy.
That said, I rather enjoyed running the first of those, twice so far, with no casualties but players sufficiently nervous about it.
And I just noticed one of our VLs has signed up for my table as a level 70 bard, so I guess it's gonna be high tier :P
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Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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It's going to be a b%&h to choose my sacrificial offering once I finally get to play this. I remember running Rebel's Ransom way back when, turning two characters to dust in the process, and then wringing my mitts over what to pick once the scenario was on offer next Ropecon. Ended up not metagaming and boy did we take a beating.Between the earlier faerie assault and Henbane waiting in the room, this scenario is looking like the demon lovechild of the Sanos Abduction and My Enemy's Enemy.
That said, I rather enjoyed running the first of those, twice so far, with no casualties but players sufficiently nervous about it.
And I just noticed one of our VLs has signed up for my table as a level 70 bard, so I guess it's gonna be high tier :P
Level 70? Did he sign up his WoW character to play?
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Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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Gah, that ran sooo long.
Awesomely, one of the players was an Oracle worshiper of Shyka. He is planning on buying a house in Uringen.
The player has since reminded me that he is *not* buying a house in Uringen. He is buying a time share.
Sigh.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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Random -
What does an Embeth Hound LOOK like?
It turns out the Guide to the River Kingdoms has the following to say:
The Travelers breed a particularly skilled variety of hunting
dogs, called Embeth hounds, capable of tracking throughout
the dense marshes and tangled forest. Hunters claim Embeth
hounds can track a grig across a frozen marsh. These large
dogs weigh around 100 pounds and have short, dense coats
composed of mottled patches of white, black, and gray. Their
eyes are usually light in color, and having two different-colored
eyes is common. Fond of water, fiercely loyal, and skilled at
tracking in difficult areas, these dogs provide a great boon to
this group of rangers.
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Having read this scenario (but not run it due to a scheduling thing) and player it. I thought the combats were tough but doable but the puzzle was odd.
3 - Portals/Puzzle: Several other GMs and I spent hours, days actually, looking at this. The only conclusion I've reached is that the clues that the PCs find during their investigation and the Player Handout both line up to a certain puzzle...but the actual solution presented in the scenario is something wholly different and has no connection to anything else present. I wonder if something got changed part-way through the process that left us with clues for one puzzle but the answers from a different one. I'm going to take time to review my notes on this part and probably do a scenario review and elaborate further on this one.
Says it well, it feels like the puzzle had a different solution than is offered by the end product scenario. Even some hints in the text the 'd4', 'd6', 'd8', 'd10', 'd12', 'd20' (or whatever they actually were), and the portals giving slow and haste make it seem like a math puzzle, but it isn't in the end.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Hmm,
Wonder if I can shift skill points around on an regular riding dog to simulate the Embeth hound. The PC my GM credit went on has two halfling slaves, so making a hunter who bonded with his masters trophy hound and joined the society.... *makes note to play with Hero Lab when I get home*
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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Having read this scenario (but not run it due to a scheduling thing) and player it. I thought the combats were tough but doable but the puzzle was odd.
Says it well, it feels like the puzzle had a different solution than is offered by the end product scenario. Even some hints in the text the 'd4', 'd6', 'd8', 'd10', 'd12', 'd20' (or whatever they actually were), and the portals giving slow and haste make it seem like a math puzzle, but it isn't in the end.3 - Portals/Puzzle: Several other GMs and I spent hours, days actually, looking at this. The only conclusion I've reached is that the clues that the PCs find during their investigation and the Player Handout both line up to a certain puzzle...but the actual solution presented in the scenario is something wholly different and has no connection to anything else present. I wonder if something got changed part-way through the process that left us with clues for one puzzle but the answers from a different one. I'm going to take time to review my notes on this part and probably do a scenario review and elaborate further on this one.
Someone mentioned it before, but I think it goes like this: the tally marks should be read on both lines of the horizontal line. So they're sequences of 4, 6, 6, 8, 8, 12; they do correspond to the symbols discovered. However, the tally system looks like 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 6 which is not as helpful. If there had been an odd number in there somewhere it might've been more obvious.
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Someone mentioned it before, but I think it goes like this: the tally marks should be read on both lines of the horizontal line. So they're sequences of 4, 6, 6, 8, 8, 12; they do correspond to the symbols discovered. However, the tally system looks like 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 6 which is not as helpful. If there had been an odd number in there somewhere it might've been more obvious.
Oh I totally understand the horizontal slash doubling the total, just couldn't remember exactly which dice were referenced (or if it was all of them) by the scenario without referring to my copy which wasn't with me at work.
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Hmm,
Wonder if I can shift skill points around on an regular riding dog to simulate the Embeth hound. The PC my GM credit went on has two halfling slaves, so making a hunter who bonded with his masters trophy hound and joined the society.... *makes note to play with Hero Lab when I get home*
Either way, slavery is fiercely illegal in the River Kingdoms, so you might want to go with one of the dog breeds from Knights of the Inner Sea instead; I think there's rules for them in there too.
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Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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Oh I totally understand the horizontal slash doubling the total, just couldn't remember exactly which dice were referenced (or if it was all of them) by the scenario without referring to my copy which wasn't with me at work.
Someone mentioned it before, but I think it goes like this: the tally marks should be read on both lines of the horizontal line. So they're sequences of 4, 6, 6, 8, 8, 12; they do correspond to the symbols discovered. However, the tally system looks like 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 6 which is not as helpful. If there had been an odd number in there somewhere it might've been more obvious.
4, 6, 8, 12, 20. The are the 5 platonic solids. They just happen to correspond to D&D dice, because the D&D dice are the 5 platonic solids plus the (non-platonic) d10.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Dog Tangent
Lani has the information brokerage vanity, so in my mind, the two slaves handle rumor mongering in Absalom while he's out Pathfinding. Since the dog wouldn't do much except die quickly in 7th level games, I figure he leaves it at home. So if one of the halflings bonds with it... new PC concept. :-)
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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4, 6, 8, 12, 20. The are the 5 platonic solids. They just happen to correspond to D&D dice, because the D&D dice are the 5 platonic solids plus the (non-platonic) d10.Oh I totally understand the horizontal slash doubling the total, just couldn't remember exactly which dice were referenced (or if it was all of them) by the scenario without referring to my copy which wasn't with me at work.
Someone mentioned it before, but I think it goes like this: the tally marks should be read on both lines of the horizontal line. So they're sequences of 4, 6, 6, 8, 8, 12; they do correspond to the symbols discovered. However, the tally system looks like 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 6 which is not as helpful. If there had been an odd number in there somewhere it might've been more obvious.
Yes, no icky blood-sucking non-platonic D10 here.
