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After playing with a traditional D&D party, I helped my group make a party that was more Primal, more nature-orientated, to see how they did with such a Nature-heavy adventure. I also informed them of the broad strokes of the adventure beforehand, so they could make relevant builds.
Goblin Barbarian (Cat Totem) Nomad
Elf Ranger (Crossbow) Hunter
Goblin Sorcerer (Red Dragon Bloodline) Goblin Renegade
Halfling Druid (Storm Order) Scout
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Party decided they didn't know each other before mission, since they all had loner backgrounds. They took the commission given to them, and since the Ranger was the only party member that used a weapon, I gave him the +1 weapon, even though the notes suggested not making it a ranged weapon. The party turned down the camels when the Sorcerer told them he could cast Phantom Steed... for 3 people. After checking with me that the Elf Ranger could go all day on foot, they headed off for the tomb.
When I asked the Druid to make a Survival check on the journey, she asked if she could cast Guidance on herself first. I said no, because I recalled that rolls that represent a long time period couldn't benefit from things like that spell. Wouldn't you know it? She missed succeeding by one! So we went through the rules to see if it was true, and noticed that those rules were in the "Downtime" section and not in Exploration. It did say what I thought it said, but Downtime was made to be of a vague length (hours to days to weeks), whereas Exploration could be seconds, minutes, or one day. Since the module was vague in what the PC was doing in-game when the player rolled, I retroactively allowed the Guidance. On the second day, she used Lucky Halfling to succeed.
The party arrived at the base of the mountain in 3 days' time. Their marching order was Ranger, Sorcerer, and Druid, with the Barbarian slipping in and out of the brush, stealthing like a cat. The Ranger was seeking, the Sorcerer was detecting magic, and the Druid covered their tracks.
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When the party ran into the first encounter, most people sensed there was something hiding behind one bush, but no-one noticed the big hyena behind the other one! Because the Barbarian was Sneaking, and the map suggestion only had a few places one could Hide behind, I placed her behind one of the trees behind the Druid, far away from the hyenas. That left the Ranger to take the brunt of the hyena's attacks. He had to burn a Hero Point to get back to positive HP after two rounds of being the sole recipient of Pack Attacking hyenas. Eventually, the casters and the Barbarian helped mop up the hyenas, but not before both the Ranger and Sorcerer got dragged away after being knocked prone. The hyenadon escaped with 1 HP, because the Ranger was in no shape to fire on it.
It took the Barbarian a long time just to get into melee because of the difficult terrain. The Ranger told the Barbarian she had to stay with the party from now on! Remembering how much difficult terrain was on the ground meant I had to count carefully to judge how far someone could actually move.
After the battle, the Druid used up all of her Heal spells from her Minor Staff of Healing, but still couldn't bring him to full HP. She wanted to make an Overload Resonance check to keep using it, but I told her that this only worked when a PC used up their resonance, not when a magical item had all its magic charges used up. She said she would keep her Druid Heals in reserve in case someone needed it badly.
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Before they started marching, the Ranger wanted to use his Survey Wildlife feat, and rolled well. However, he was hoping to know a bit about monsters, but the feat suggested that at his capability, he could only learn about herbivores and unthreatening creatures.
The party mixed up their exploration roles. The Sorcerer became the Seeker, so the Ranger and Barbarian could investigate their surroundings with Nature and Desert Lore, respectively. The Barbarian recalled information about the Gnoll tribe in the area. The Ranger didn't get anything important, and since he wasn't Seeking, the Sorcerer didn't notice the quicksand until the Barbarian was stuck in it!
As a weird feature of Exploration rolls vs. Initiative, the Ranger rolled a higher Perception than the Quicksand, but I ruled that he couldn't warn the Barbarian in time; if he was Seeking, then he could have. I also only asked the Sorcerer to roll a Perception check to notice the Ankheg mound (which he failed), so they were surprised by it as well.
I misread the placement of the Ankheg: I thought that the bug was waiting in the quicksand itself like a shark! Beating everyone else on Initiative, it rose out of the quicksand right in front of the sinking Barbarian and unleashed its acid on the first 3 party members. Oddly, the Barbarian critically succeeded on her saving throw, the Ranger made his saving throw, and the Sorcerer failed his saving throw (PCs doing worse the further back they were from the bug). I had to check the rules to see if critical saves or failures affected persistent damage. At the time, I ruled that saving against the Ankheg halved the persistent damage, but now I think I'm wrong.
I had a hard time finding the rules for being "submerged" and "suffocating". After a few minutes searching, I went into "Rose Street Revenge" because I remember there was quicksand in that adventure. It gave me some advice, as well as references in the main rulebooks to adjudicate drowning.
The Druid rolled well for Athletics to pull the Barbarian out of the quicksand, who joined in the walloping of the Ankheg. The Ranger fired at it from range, but didn't use Hunt Target; unfortunately, the Ankheg retreated underneath the quicksand, which meant the Ranger couldn't use Hunt Target, missing out on bonuses that would have helped him detect the beast. Lesson learned!
This time, the party would not let the beast get away. The Sorcerer heightened his Summon Monster spell to get an Earth Mephit to go down there and finish it. I informed him that the Earth Mephit may have problems in quicksand, since it's not solid earth, and it has darkvision instead of tremorsense. The Sorcerer guessed where the Ankheg was, and told the Mephit to burrow underneath the quicksand and strike it from beneath. He guessed right, the Mephit won initiative with its Stealth, and the Ankheg was dead. The Sensed rules helped adjudicate this interaction well.
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The party decided to camp there for the night, reasoning that threats would stay away from an Ankheg nest. The Druid use up her remaining heal spells, leaving the Ranger and Sorcerer with a few unhealed HP after resting that night.
The next day, the party came across the Gnoll camp, and saw that it was fairly unprotected. Because I wasn't sure how clear their environment was to them, I made it clear that they could bypass this part of the river by taking a longer route around, and avoid the camp. Each person was unsure what to do here: they didn't want to get caught by these gnolls tracking them later, and there might be vital information (and treasure) down there. OTOH, it wasn't necessary for them to fight, and my description of "2 gnolls and 3 tents" made them nervous about where "the third Gnoll" was.
They asked me if they could roll to know what to do here, sort of a meta-narrative hint on what was the best thing to do. I told them to roll their respective Lore for Recall Knowledge for relevant advice. Good rolls on Criminal Lore, Hunting Lore, and Scouting Lore told them that starting fights for no good reason in an ambiguous situation wasn't a good thing to do. They took the long way around.
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I wasn't clear on how the module determined how it got the "8 miles a day" average for movement. Looking at movement and the effect of difficult terrain, I decided that their choice to avoid the camp wouldn't stop the party from reaching their destination at the end of the day. After doing poorly at climbing the mountainside, I tacked on another few hours, and checked the rules to see when/if they got fatigued if they spent more than 8 hours travelling. The only advice I got was what happened when PCs took Extended Rests: because it said they had to take them once every 24 hours, I ruled that they could keep going after nightfall, as long as they rested before morning, and rested their full hours into the later morning.
(The Druid once again wanted to use Guidance and the Lucky Halfling feat when climbing, but I ruled that these checks definitely involved several actions altogether, so a bonus or re-roll couldn't be used here. Every single PC failed to climb safely.)
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The party proceeded up the narrowing pathway alongside the mountain. They came across the dead Gnolls, and the Druid critically failed identifying the quills in them, believing them to be Giant Bee stingers. Very soon, they discovered what it was. Every PC beat the Manticore in Initiative, seeing it flying towards them. The party was in for a big surprise when I sprayed down quills from 40 feet away, outside of everyone's range except for the Ranger! It entered a pattern of strafing them from a safe distance.
The Ranger employed Hunt Target and tried to knock the Manticore out of the sky with his Sleep Arrow. It made its save. So he followed up with more and more arrows.
The Sorcerer cast Invisibility on himself and cast Summon Monster (Quasit) to poison the beast (I ruled that commanding summons didn't act as a hostile action for the Sorcerer). The Manticore saved against the poison and killed the Quasit with one swat of its paw.
The Barbarian, with no ranged attacks, resorted to moving person-to-person and feeding them their elixirs and potions of healing.
The Druid kept using a 3-action Heal on the party. Her healing was so impressive that, by the time the Manticore was running out of quills, the party was fairly healthy. I rolled a Perception check for it to see if it recognized how deadly the party was if it had to land and fight in melee. It succeeded, and flew away to look for easier prey.
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The party didn't know why the Manticore flew away after strafing them so effortlessly (no-one knew about how many quills it had or how long it took to regrow it). They just assumed it was playing a game of cat and mouse, and would be back to finish them off later. The walk up the last part of the trail was very tense, like castaways floating in shark-infested waters! As night fell, the Sorcerer reluctantly pulled out his Everburning Torch to help the non-Goblins see.
Reaching the secret entrance, the Ranger (back to Seeking) heard the Gnolls who escaped the Manticore were already there. The Sorcerer hid the torch and attempted to spook them by mimicking the Manticore's call. Although the Druid failed to properly assist him with mimicking it, the call was good enough to get the Gnolls to raise their bows into the night, looking away from the approaching party.
The Gnolls were quickly put down, the spellcasters eager to use their spells on them. Zakfah, left alone with 3 HP left, fell on his knees and begged for mercy. The Sorcerer and Ranger decided that he might be worth having around, and attempted to Coerce him into joining them. The Sorcerer rolled a Critical Success, which meant that Zakfah would work for them (in a non-dangerous fashion) for one day, and not betray them afterwards! I was surprised at the efficacy of this, and the party was delighted to have a Gnoll Hireling. The party opened the door and decided to rest inside the first safe room inside.
Part 2 coming soon...
PART 2
Coming back to the table, I realized I fast-forwarded past a trap on the door to the Tomb. Before the players rested up, I told them that their Coerced Gnoll Zakfah knew about the door (his gnolls were the ones leaving the damage), and the party noticed the trap. The players asked me if this trap reset after being triggered or not, and I wasn't sure. I read the Bestiary and saw that some traps reset, but Eldritch Latch Rune did not. Telling them "No Reset", the Sorcerer summoned an imp to trigger the trap, after I told him the summoned monster would need manual dexterity to lift it.
Once entering, I realized that there was no "Block Text" for what the hallways of the Tomb looked like. Quickly flipping through other descriptions, I told them it looked "Egyptian". The party rested there to start Day 6.
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Party exploration set-up, from front to back:
Zakfah: Search
Sorcerer: Detect Magic
Barbarian: Investigate (Arcana) untrained
Ranger: Investigate (Occultism)
Druid: Defend
The party did very well on their rolls (results of at least 20 on Perception, Arcana, and Occult), so I told the Ranger he understood the purpose of the elemental rooms, the Barbarian knew that the rooms had active magic in it, and Zakfah could sense something in each room. After the Ranger poked his head in to check for obvious threats, the party decided to move past them. They considered leaving Zakfah behind to watch for trouble, but I reminded them that he is coerced, but will avoid hostile situations, so they didn't want to risk it.
They walked by the "Orrery" in C4, observed it to see if it was dangerous, and began opening to the door to C5, only to find it was locked. Finding that there were no other exits (failing their perception check in C7), they went back to the Orrery. I re-read the Block Text to them, and they asked me where they could "disable it", assuming it was a trap. I told them that the pipe with the dials could be disabled, if they wanted to take it apart, but the emblems could be manipulated without taking them apart.
The Ranger decided to use his Thievery on the emblems, and managed to sabotage the Earth, Fire, and Water emblems (missing the Air emblem by 1). When nothing immediately happened, the Ranger tried adjusting the dials, and I told him that they seemed easier to move around. The players got the hint, and all joined in fiddling with it. I explained what kind of checks they could make, how long each attempt would take, and that they could all do it at the same time.
The group solved the puzzle in 6 hours. The Barbarian got a lucky critical success in the first hour, and the Druid solved two other emblems in the first 3 hours. The last 3 hours had the party trying to aid the Druid in solving the Fire emblem. The aid action never stopped or helped the primary actor, but the party felt good about it, even though I set the Aid DC to 20.
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I determined that the door to C5 swung outwards, blocking the party's exits (since opening inwards would block off the mummies). I described what the party saw, and had the mummies come immediately to life. The party noted the floating masked man, but thought he was Tular Seft. If I hadn't had placed his floating body further back in the room, he would have been hit by the Sorcerer's Burning Hands (10 feet high, 15 foot cone).
The party demolished the mummies. The Mummies got two critical failures on the Sorcerer's saving throws (and not by a natural one). One Burning Hands killed a Mummy outright; the other one lived or died based on whether or not weakness was applied before doubling damage or after. (I checked the rules for critical hits, and ruled that the weakness was doubled). The Druid's most difficult decision was whether the Mummies had a worse Touch AC or Fortitude (which mode of Heal to use on them). The Barbarian and Ranger didn't do too much, but did mop up the last HPs from the mummies. Only the Sorcerer got hit by the mummies, and even though the curse affected his Charisma, he thought that it wasn't that much of a penalty.
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When Zakfah (who I said had cowered in the corner) returned, I told them he saw waves around the floating man. Trying to pull him down confirmed that there was some magic going on. After searching for pockets, the Sorcerer tried to Identify the magic on his mask, so I told them the mask was siphoning magic off of him to the room around him, so the party assumed he wasn't a threat and removed the mask.
The Sorcerer spoke Ancient Osirani, so Mabar and him caught each other up on what happened to the other. When shown where Tular was, the Sorcerer Requested Mabar to retrieve it for them, since he was an expert in Tular's magic. Rolling low for the Diplomacy check, I told him that Mabar was weary of being trapped by Tular's magic again, so the Ranger proceeded through the secret door.
Knowing about the trapped mirror, I allowed the Ranger to make a Perception check to sense the danger before looking at the mirror. Beating the trap's Stealth, I told him that his eyes saw the rune-strewn frame of the mirror, realized that it might be a cursed mirror, and averted his eyes. Informing the rest of the party, the Sorcerer and Druid came into the room (eyes closed) to Detect Magic and Read Aura on it. I let them get that information, but told them that if they wanted to Identify the Magic, it would be an Occult check, and if they kept their eyes closed, it would be a higher DC. The Ranger decided to just turn it around to face the wall.
The Barbarian, having a great Stength bonus and no weapon to hold, declared she would carry all the loot out of the room (minus the mirror). She managed to get nearly everything out without becoming encumbered, giving one of the heavy books to the Ranger.
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Deciding to rest for the night, the party dismissed Zakfah, but he decided to stay with them, guessing that the Manticore was still out there. The players asked me if they had to worry about the Manticore coming back, and I said "Maybe." The Sorcerer asked Mabar if he wanted to come back to the Esoteric Order, and help protect other people from the beings that ruined his friend. He rolled a Natural 20 on his Request check, and I agreed that it would be something Mabar would want to do. The Druid asked to remove the Sorcerer's curse, but I told her that her prepared spells couldn't do it, and that she couldn't cast Remove Curse until Level 7. She wasn't pleased: she had been continually preparing spells like Restoration to use it.
The next day, the Druid prepared a different set of spells. She cast a series of Sigils on the ground from C6 to C3, hoping that the Night Heralds would investigate the lava room. She also prepared Acid Arrow to hit the Manticore. Before they left, the Ranger placed the Mirror on the wall of C5 opposite the door, closing the door behind him without looking at the mirror (another surprise for the Night Heralds).
The party did indeed encounter the Manticore, but they were ready for it. The Druid spooked it by casting Acid Arrow in the first round, and Gust of Wind (from the wand) in the second round. The Manticore flew away after its near-death experience. I told them that they had encountered (and killed) most of the Apex Predators in the region, and didn't have to worry about any more encounters. The Sorcerer's use of Feather Fall helped the party get down the mountain. As they approached the Gnoll camp, the Sorcerer asked Zakfrah if he'd liked to join him, but he just sneered at them and went back to his people.
As the party prepared Phantom Steeds for the slow characters and left Pale Mountain, I told them that the Night Heralds were just arriving to Tular Seft's tomb, and congratulated them on beating the adventure.
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My thoughts: Being the first levelled-up adventure I ran, I had to re-check a lot of things. The Druid's Tempest Surge power was supposed to be heightened according to spell level, not character level (only mattered in two cases). I was pleased that the adventure offered the group options other than fighting: they certainly exercised them! I also liked the flexibility in building the outdoors encounter, but felt that some of the descriptions for encounters weren't clear if they didn't show a map, or didn't exactly match the map given.
I'm very pleased that the PCs were able to use the Diplomacy and Intimidate skill on Zakfah and Mabar. Those were pleasant surprises that I think enhanced the campaign, and gave non-casters something similar to Charm Person.
Here's how the PCs did, listed from those who I think did the best to the underperformers.
Sorcerer: The MVP of the adventure. Just the heightenable Summon Monster spell gave him so much versatility. The Arcane Evolution feat also gave him a lot of options, and would probably be great in an on-going campaign where scrolls can be found or bought. He was responsible for getting the Gnoll and Janni on the party's side as well. I didn't think that the PC with the high Charisma would have done well in a scenario in the wilds facing animals and undead, but he used his spells quite well.
Druid: She was very useful for her healing spells, and having the best skills for wilderness travel made her the lead in the most important roles. I think she would have been happier with a different array of prepared spells. She assumed that the adventure would be tough, so she prepared all her level 2 spells like Restoration and Restore Senses. She spent most of combat casting cantrips and raising her shield. When she started preparing a mix of offensive and defensive spells, she had more to do.
She liked being able to use Tempest Surge and the Minor Staff of Healing. I think if she had another adventure to use with this character, she'd choose spells that would be more fun for her to play with.
Ranger: The Ranger was the party's Rogue, sneaking and searching for traps. He did a lot of things outside of combat, but felt underwhelming in combat. Despite having a magic crossbow, he constantly rolled low, and felt underwhelming compared to other PCs. He liked the options the Ranger feats gave him, and as he became more familiar, got into the rhythm of which feats to use (Favored Aim, Running Reload, Hunt Target, etc.). He also liked that the Treasure list had a bunch of magical arrows to choose from, so that he could have a "Green Arrow" bag of tricks.
Barbarian: She enjoyed playing the Barbarian, but I don't think she did much in the adventure. With her slow speed and need to activate her Rage, she often had to spend the first round of combat getting herself into range of attacking someone. When she was next to someone, she did a lot of damage, and helped the party clean up encounters. And when she couldn't attack anything, she did other useful things, although the only class ability that she used when doing this was Moment of Clarity. She liked roleplaying being a goblin pretending to be a cat, and was lucky enough with her rolls to make up for other things.