[Fires of Creation] Pre-Adventure? [Spoilers Ahoy!]

[Lord Fyre]

Would it be worthwhile to do a "Pre-Adventure" with the heroes between the time when the Tourch goes out and they are summoned to try to follow Khonnir Baine's party?

My idea is to do something a la "First Steps—Part I: In Service to Lore". I.e., have the heroes perform 3 or 4 minor quests for some of the key NPCs in town.

This would:

Get the heroes more acquainted with the important people in the town in an organic manner - as well as the town itself.

Allow the dropping in of rumors during the tasks, rather then simply handing them out.

Give the players a chance to become familiar with their fellow party members.

Give the PCs a leg up on experience and equipment, and since Hetuath is a killing machine, this would be a good thing.

[Sean_Powell]

IMHO it isn't necessary but it could be fun, especially as it results in characters knowing each other before Torch. Other than the 1 or 2 who know Kohnir and may therefore have met each other in the past it can some times be difficult to convince players that wandering into a deadly situation that not even the town guards will attempt without railroading them into the plot.

Also IMHO I don't think you necessarily need to give the players better equipment for dealing with Hetuath. It's not like he is DR10/magic only. He just happens to have a high damage output from dual wielding. A few bad rolls can end a character quickly. The only item that might be useful for Hetuath would be a holy-grenade that stuns him or causes him to loose actions. And odds are that players would used them against the earlier undead anyway.

[Lord Fyre]

Sean_Powell wrote:

IMHO it isn't necessary but it could be fun, especially as it results in characters knowing each other before Torch. Other than the 1 or 2 who know Kohnir and may therefore have met each other in the past it can some times be difficult to convince players that wandering into a deadly situation that not even the town guards will attempt without railroading them into the plot.

True. One concern I have with this option is that I don't want the heroes to become "too" attached to Torch.

Sean_Powell wrote:

Also IMHO I don't think you necessarily need to give the players better equipment for dealing with Hetuath. It's not like he is DR10/magic only. He just happens to have a high damage output from dual wielding. A few bad rolls can end a character quickly.

I was thinking giving them a minor protective device or two so they "hopefully" won't get too chewed up.

Sean_Powell wrote:

The only item that might be useful for Hetuath would be a holy-grenade that stuns him or causes him to loose actions. And odds are that players would used them against the earlier undead anyway.

Heh!