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PC 1: *identify check* "Look, dragon turtles! You know they can capsize ships, right"
PC 2: "Bah, this ship is far bigger than them."
PC 3: *experienced character knows that you don't tempt fate, and drinks her potion of touch of the sea*
The first dragon turtle didn't capsize the ship. The second one did. I was almost as surprised as the (other four) players.
High-tier five-player game: sensei monk, alchemist/gunslinger, Shelynite paladin, tengu skald, and pregen Ezren. The first fight was absolutely the toughest. Fatalities were only avoided thanks to first aid gloves. The nagas' spells could not significantly threaten a high-tier party even when focused, and releasing the undines made swift work of their mirror images. The three elementals made the players sweat, but negotiations were easy and combat was avoided. Then it was time to enter the school, where the reach paladin skewered a bunch of undead.
Party composition matters a lot.
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I note the following on page 7, regarding the silt and particulates the dragon turtle has turned up: "Underwater goggles, a goz mask, or a similar item prevents the blinded condition and the penalty to Perception checks, but these items do not negate the concealment."
Note however that the first line of the goz mask item reads: "A goz mask allows you to see through fog, smoke, and other
obscuring vapors as if they did not exist (this ability functions
underwater as well, allowing the wearer to see through
thick silt and other aquatic precipitates)."
Thus a wearer of a goz mask should be completely unaffected by the hazard, including concealment.
This also applies to the hazard in encounter C5.
The scenario also makes mention of underwater goggles, from Aquatic Adventures. This is in reference to a section on page 46 of that book which discusses Perception checks underwater (not covered in the Core rules), stating that there is a minimum -2 penalty on Perception checks underwater, or worse if the water is murky, and that maximum viewing distance is 4d8x10 feet in clear water, 1d8x10 feet in murky water.
It also states that surface creatures suffer an additional -4 penalty on Perception checks to see underwater unless they wear underwater goggles or similar eye protection. You might consider factoring in these Perception penalties and limitations of vision when running underwater encounters.
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I got to play through with my mermaid! And had Kate as my GM! The potion of CSW was very useful.
The turtle flipped our boat! Then managed to get the rock, and started running away. It tried to run away, but I managed to keep pace well enough to finish it off. The naga poison gave some trouble to the wizard and one of our rogues, but otherwise that fight went ok. I talked our way passed the elementals, then started exploring. The rogues went ahead and triggered the next fight, so I was a bit late to the party, and then couldn't do much against the DR. The boss I could help with, but he went down a bit too quickly.
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So, I'm prepping this one for tomorrow, and I wanted to point something out because attention isn't brought to it in the book. The boss monk has a Sharktooth amulet, which does let him deal full damage and have no penalties to hitting underwater. However he doesn't have an ability to gain a swim speed/freedom of movement, so . . . he seems like pretty easy picking if going up against a party who is prepared. Especially given that he doesn't enter battle until two rounds in, where a combat heavy team would have killed off the riff raff by then.
Just seems like an anticlimax fight, is all I'm saying. Love the lore though.
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Contributor
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I note the following on page 7, regarding the silt and particulates the dragon turtle has turned up: "Underwater goggles, a goz mask, or a similar item prevents the blinded condition and the penalty to Perception checks, but these items do not negate the concealment."
Note however that the first line of the goz mask item reads: "A goz mask allows you to see through fog, smoke, and other
obscuring vapors as if they did not exist (this ability functions
underwater as well, allowing the wearer to see through
thick silt and other aquatic precipitates)."Thus a wearer of a goz mask should be completely unaffected by the hazard, including concealment.
This also applies to the hazard in encounter C5.
I agree with your assessment, Damien. I think I had written that sentence to be about the underwater goggles only and then added the goz mask later without noticing the bit about concealment. I have no more authority than any other non-developer at this point to do anything about it, but I do agree that the goz mask's whole jam is letting you see through this kind of hazard.
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Contributor
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So, I'm prepping this one for tomorrow, and I wanted to point something out because attention isn't brought to it in the book. The boss monk has a Sharktooth amulet, which does let him deal full damage and have no penalties to hitting underwater. However he doesn't have an ability to gain a swim speed/freedom of movement, so . . . he seems like pretty easy picking if going up against a party who is prepared. Especially given that he doesn't enter battle until two rounds in, where a combat heavy team would have killed off the riff raff by then.
Just seems like an anticlimax fight, is all I'm saying. Love the lore though.
You are correct that he doesn't have a Swim speed. He's pretty hard to spot behind the riser, so he usually gets to attack one PC flat-footed. I've found that he can usually get to someone in a single half-movement walking along the bottom (as someone moved to the far side of the arena to get a flank), and I have him use his stunning fist then. If that works and the party finds out about his Steal Breath ability, that should add some tension!
Well-prepared parties have an advantage there, for sure. I think it's a tougher battle at low Subtier where resources like freedom of movement are more limited, so you could encourage your players to bring Level 5 and 6 PCs if that's what you're looking for.
And I'm glad you liked the story!
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Ran this one yesterday. Sadly the PCs were not very engaged in the story. They forgot what they were looking for halfway through, and convinced the undine to continue their martial arts study as an afterthought. I was sad ‘cuse I was into the story way more than them.
Party was 3 ppl and a pregen Kyra (in mid tier, so played down with no adjust)
They failed to ask the venture captain for aid, and didn’t buy any underwater breathing potions, or really any provisions. We had a aquatic Elf PC ship captain (mostly swashbuckler), a scythe wielding slayer, and an investigator (psychic detective).
The dragon turtle didn’t capsize the ship, as the aquatic elf jumped in after the first capsize attempt to save the ship and murdered it with the help of the slayer.
The investigator cast air bubble on everyone who couldn’t breathe underwater (after much grumbling) and she had a scroll of ‘Free Swim’ which is a GREAT 3rd level spell. Kyra cast freedom of movement on herself and the slayer drank the potion of slipstream from the dragon turtle encounter. So everyone could breathe and move, though it was sheer luck that everyone could go, because the ONLY prep they did was have Kyra swap out A single fourth level spell for freedom of movement.
Water naga used suggestion a bunch in the slayer to try and get him to steal the orb, so the party cast hold person on him. That was fun. Two Undines fell from exhaustion during the fight; but the investigator was on top of it with her redonkulus knowledge-Engineering check.
No one could speak aquatic, but they befriended the undines, so that worked out.
Final fight was fun, as Kyra channeled to kill all the riffraff in two rounds. Big bad downed (but did not kill) the slayer after reducing his wisdom to 3(!) and healing a bunch, but Kyra channeled and the swashbuckler finished him off.
Note for the writer, the Aquatic elf PC had the ship vanity boon, meaning he sailed his OWN ship (as per the ship vanity rules), so the treasure from the dragon turtle didn’t quite work, and his ship had a full crew (as per ship vanity rules) so that went kinda wonky with how the session was supposed to go, as he could just hand off the wheel to his helmsman (which he did when he jumped in after the dragon turtle.). Just some wonkyness from the scenario.
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Contributor
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Note for the writer, the Aquatic elf PC had the ship vanity boon, meaning he sailed his OWN ship (as per the ship vanity rules), so the treasure from the dragon turtle didn’t quite work, and his ship had a full crew (as per ship vanity rules) so that went kinda wonky with how the session was supposed to go, as he could just hand off the wheel to his helmsman (which he did when he jumped in after the dragon turtle.). Just some wonkyness from the scenario.
Yeah, I will be dealing with that myself in a play-by-post game starting soon! i just plan to have the treasure show up in another spot; this definitely seems like the kind of creative solution that shouldn't cost anyone treasure. And if people are well-prepared for a sea-faring scenario, that should definitely get rewarded!
Thanks for the rundown of how your game went!
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Contributor
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I'm guessing you mean Remendi? (Melipdra is the VC who gives you the assignment.) Failing that diplomacy check shouldn't hurt the group quite that badly. The naga battle is a little harder, since you don't have directions to the monastery and have to follow the direction the key is pulling, and you don't get the gifts from the undines (which is about 1/4 of the treasure, not 2/3). Getting information from the undines is one of the secondary success conditions, but that's a three-out-of-five situation, so failing that one check doesn't prevent getting the secondary prestige point.
Did the group lose the key in the dragon turtle battle? If you lost the key and failed the Survival check to remember which way you were going, you would be stuck if Remendi won't give you directions, but that's a pileup of several bad outcomes, not just one failed roll, though I realize that might not be apparent as a player.