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In the last session, the party finished off the trip through Roslar's Tomb and made it into the Bastion of Light.
The only problem was that they took damage from the sarcophagus trap, fought the Venedaemons, the Living Walls and the Rot Grub Swarm before entering the cathedral of the Bastion WITHOUT RESTING or even healing. So they were in no fit state to fight the welcoming party. We're two rounds in and they've decided to run away and return later.
So: what should I have waiting for them? Now that the cult is aware of the secret way in, they should do something to secure themselves from attack from that direction. I'm thinking traps, alarms and a much larger contingent of cultists. Not to mention a greater level of alertness from the other denizens of the Bastion.
When my guys got into the Bastion, after the initial fight, they also wanted to retreat. I made it pretty clear to them that this was a no-go: they were out of food, and the Whispering Way could just shut the passage, leaving them in the apocalypse of RC, where they were going to starve to death if they were lucky. So they pushed on.
My take:you can either let them get back into the Bastion, but it's boosted up OR do something like have Valthazar & co. chase them into the village.
I had a fight in the village where I had our PCs fight one of the PCs' bullies, who were transformed into 2 Unrisen. To up the action, I kept adding zombies to the edge of the map, moving them slowly towards the PCs [leaving one less dangerous escape route]. It got TENSE, but eventually, the undead bullies were put down and the PCs managed to escape.
Maybe have the showdown happen in the village square? Maybe set the village on fire, throw some zombies around, and put the Whispering Way's assets into the burning streets of the town?
If you go w/ the Bastion, maybe they find a friendly ghost in the village who can tell them [something] that will help them get back inside?
If you go w/ the Bastion, maybe they find a friendly ghost in the village who can tell them [something] that will help them get back inside?
I think I will go with the main action being in the Bastion. I'll close off the secret passage, maybe super-traps and alarms the scout doesn't think he can disarm. But I'll use your 'friendly ghost' idea and have the town spirit they encountered in the cemetery impress on them the urgency of the situation and offer to dimension door them on a one-way trip into the cathedral.
I'll beef up the welcoming party though.
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If you go w/ the Bastion, maybe they find a friendly ghost in the village who can tell them [something] that will help them get back inside?I think I will go with the main action being in the Bastion. I'll close off the secret passage, maybe super-traps and alarms the scout doesn't think he can disarm. But I'll use your 'friendly ghost' idea and have the town spirit they encountered in the cemetery impress on them the urgency of the situation and offer to dimension door them on a one-way trip into the cathedral.
I'll beef up the welcoming party though.
one thing you might do is RELEASE THE BEAR.
such an awesome piece of art and a great monster, but most parties are just going to skip it.
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In the last session, the party finished off the trip through Roslar's Tomb and made it into the Bastion of Light.
The only problem was that they took damage from the sarcophagus trap, fought the Venedaemons, the Living Walls and the Rot Grub Swarm before entering the cathedral of the Bastion WITHOUT RESTING or even healing. So they were in no fit state to fight the welcoming party. We're two rounds in and they've decided to run away and return later.
So: what should I have waiting for them? Now that the cult is aware of the secret way in, they should do something to secure themselves from attack from that direction. I'm thinking traps, alarms and a much larger contingent of cultists. Not to mention a greater level of alertness from the other denizens of the Bastion.
Any good lackey should be reporting to their boss. The wight leading the welcome party resents being pulled off their research, so could see it as a way to get off guard duty. The report goes up the chain, and Val finds out that there are people running around looking exactly like his strange juju zombies that aren't acting quite right. He'll likely send a capture party, but also leave open the secret passage and instead set up an ambush, cuz they're obviously gonna try to come back. He wants to understand what happened, after all
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one thing you might do is RELEASE THE BEAR.
I love the idea of releasing the bear into the tunnels, like "it'll clear out whatever's down there for sure and we won't have to worry any more about it!" And when the bear doesn't come back, it'll certainly put the cult on edge, but it'll buy the party some time to recover. In the meantime, having that giant bear just skulking around the tunnels trying to find the intruders? Terrifying. More so if they don't actually fight it right away, like if they're too badly hurt and need to hide. Being in the tunnels with The Bear is a horrific experience.
My team finally finished off this module last weekend. They're looking forward to finally getting back to civilisation, doing some shopping, etc.
One criticism of the module: the boss fight was pretty lame. Valthazar wasn't much of an opponent, particularly with the PC's obols protecting them against his necrospells, and his henchzombies were next to useless. The party trapped most of them with Black Tentacles and picked them off one by one as they escaped being grappled. Valthazar dimension doored out and then had to fight on his own. He went down pretty rapidly.
He DID scare the party with his two save-or-die spells, Suffocation and Phantasmal Killer, but both party members saved (although the Suffocation one was close), and he got off a Bestow Curse on someone else. But even if all those had worked, he'd still have gone down easily.
I had planned on having Arazni raise any PCs who were killed, but it wasn't necessary.
Next week: off to Vigil.
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My team finally finished off this module last weekend. They're looking forward to finally getting back to civilisation, doing some shopping, etc.
One criticism of the module: the boss fight was pretty lame. Valthazar wasn't much of an opponent, particularly with the PC's obols protecting them against his necrospells, and his henchzombies were next to useless. The party trapped most of them with Black Tentacles and picked them off one by one as they escaped being grappled. Valthazar dimension doored out and then had to fight on his own. He went down pretty rapidly.
He DID scare the party with his two save-or-die spells, Suffocation and Phantasmal Killer, but both party members saved (although the Suffocation one was close), and he got off a Bestow Curse on someone else. But even if all those had worked, he'd still have gone down easily.
I had planned on having Arazni raise any PCs who were killed, but it wasn't necessary.
Next week: off to Vigil.
I had a player who wanted to change PCs at this time (next time, I told him, read the player's handbook, and when it suggests not running a gunslinger or an alchemist, don't run a gunslinger/alchemist). He wanted the PC dead, not walking off somewhere while the apocalypse happens.
I figured out that the best way to kill him was to use phantasmal killer. But I was like... ergh... that Will save is TOUGH... so I boosted Valthazar's familiar, so it could cast greater evil eye. Valthazar (whose parents had been murdered by said PC) cast phantasmal killer, and *boom*, it's a three player party.
Valthazar and the familiar escaped, to be found in Book 4, but yeah, he needs buffing. Those zombies aren't doing anything other than soaking up HP - can't hit anything - and the porcupine thing isn't enough on its own. I did have the advantage that my guys were ON THE EDGE, having not rested through the [abridged] tomb or the first level of the cathedral. I made maximum use of the cultists' cloaks, sending waves of low level undead at them to keep them off balance - they were quaking at facing CR 1 zombies at this point, terrified that something else was coming after Valthazar had skeedaddled, and down one PC.
If you aren't planning for Valthazar to come back, he's just SAWFT. The porcupine thing should be in the room with him at the very least, and he should have something ready to hit the PCs from behind - maybe the cultists, maybe something else. Any melee character gets next to him, and he's just nothing salad.
This is good to know, actually - fairly sure my party will be fighting him next session. I buffed the zombies a little bit to customize them more to each PC but it's more flavour than practical tbh. Buffing the familiar is a good shout though! If the nekomatas survive I might throw them into the mix (and maybe have them be particularly aloof and unreliable so as not to overbuff. Plus I like the idea of sassy cats being like "mmmmm nah i don't fancy it thanks").
At the moment I'm faced with the fact that my nekomatas have bitten 2 different NPCs and scarpered, and I'm unsure how best to utilise this. A bit of context on the party make-up - I run for 2 of my friends, and I throw in a couple of DMPCs for party balance, plot hooks, and potentially adorable Bioware-style romance options. In this game, my DMPCs are a cleric of Sarenrae and a Swashbuckler who used to be part of the Whispering Way before they defected. Said Swashbuckler also killed Valthazar's boyfriend (their brother) so V has some serious grief with them in a "not killing you right away" sort of way. I kind of want to swing it that the Nekomatas track the party back into the tunnels with their scent ability, stealth-drop the Swashbuckler and then replace them. (I'm not gonna take the cleric (who the kitties also bit) because the poor wizard got blinded by the WW Devotees and he needs his eyes back tomorrow). So when the party awake the next day, they think the Swashbuckler is still with them but betrays them in the VQ fight.
At the very least, they might get a kitty fight in the night before the nekomatas scarper again.
Thankfully deathwatch only has a 30ft range - my PCs actually don't have the glasses on because they've forgotten about them, but they do have a Paladin that Detects Evil on every square inch of Golarion he comes across. I had Arazni stand (very notably) at least 65ft away at all times. She does, however, reveal she's an undead anyway - a bid to be truthful in order to encourage some level of trust (though she doesn't reveal she's a lich since, you know, kind of a different, even more evil can of rotgrubs).