Entering Hall of Harsh Reflections

[hjs102]

Hey guys! So about to start this module and was wondering if people could help on some stuff. Running this adventure path using Pathfinder.

1. Is there any way to deworm the potions? Had a hilarious moment where the negative wisdom arcanist force fed the unconcious war priest a wormed cure potion. Now that they are aware of the threat, they are looking at if they can keep the potions but get out the worms. I am not wanting to just give them auto success, but I feel they should have a chance to do this.

2. Treaty negotiation. They are excited to try and roleplay this out, so I was planning on creating some stuff for it. Has anyone got any advice on what I could do?

3. Any info that I should drop to foreshadow later parts of the path? The warpriest got a comment from the Greyhawk librarian about Bucknard/Balakarde being the last to research Kyuss.

[calagnar]

1:

Encounter at Blackwall Keep wrote:

Ilthane intended to keep a remove disease spell in the ring in case of accidental worm infestation, but never got around to it.

Vulnerability to Remove Disease (Ex): A remove disease spell (or any other similar effect) automatically destroys a Kyuss spawnling.

2: It's best to have a out line of what they want. However any thing is on the table if you have a player with a high Diplomacy.

3: I started dropping hints about he Champions Belt at the end of Three Faces of Evil. Do not foreshadow Halls of Harsh Reflection. It will spoil the surprise. The hole thing about Halls is the players aren't suppose to know any thing is wrong right up to when they find their ally. I'm using a combination of Champions Belt, and the store line to get my players to go to Greyhawk with out saying any thing about Halls of Harsh Reflection. The look on their faces was priceless the first time I ran this. When they figured out the rogue was not their rogue.

[Kobold Catgirl]

1. Barring spellcasting, you could require a Sleight of Hand check to remove the worm without breaking the potion. If they fail by less than five, the potion is ruined. If they fail by more than that, it's ruined and they get a worm in their hand.

2. I found this really challenging in my game, but because it was a PbP, I had some time to research and work out the basics. Here's how I ran things. I also let them get a rundown on the three most relevant Oligarchs up here. The PCs failed their Diplomacy check pretty narrowly (I put it at DC 25). I tried to bait them into mentioning that the lizardfolk were being misled by a dragon who killed all their babies, but they didn't think to bring it up, so the Mayor continued to regard the attack on the Keep as completely senseless. If the PCs had brought it up, that would have tipped the scales. Pun unintended.

Ultimately, no treaty was signed, but the Captain-General agreed to leave the lizardfolk be as long as he was in command—a partial success, and enough to reassure the party that they'd accomplished something.

3. On the prior note, I tried having Etin Derecs be secretly taking bribes from Raknian to help him smuggle his stuff into the city. Nobody really bit the worm, and Derecs was later assassinated by Okoral, Raknian's assassin friend.

Aside from that, there wasn't much I did, aside from having the Champion's Games get really hyped up.

[hjs102]

Thanks Kobold! I may use that sleight of hand and a similar roleplay encounter to what you provided! My PCs have known about the Champions Games and expect to compete, but I like how your diplomacy thing mentioned trouble up in Redhand. Also, one PC was upset that her mithril buckler did not do anything special vs the worms (knowledge check says the touch of silver kills them) so I was debating saying any mithril armor or shields would count towards touch AC vs touch attacks to place a worm (since they need to put it on a non mithril spot)

[Kobold Catgirl]

That seems reasonable. They're almost at the point where spawns of Kyuss don't mean much as adversaries, anyways. Soon they'll have worse fare to worry about.