Echoing the barghest thread with some Book 2 spoilers...
My party just attempted the assault on the mine the first time. And "attempted" is definitely the word.
At first they were smart. The sneakiest party member snuck in at night - lucked out on which side she decided to approach from and found Hezle. Negotiated a truce, got some information, retreated back to plan an assault with the party. They lured the vrock away and murdered it quite effectively, then decided to approach from the direction of the vrock's nest since Hezle told them no one goes there.
And then everything went wrong. Upon seeing the full layout of the mine (it had been night before) they decided to be clever, and have the rogue snipe the people in the pit from the rim while the fighty types moved to block off the ramp so no one could escape.
Unfortunately, the fighty types did not do very well on stealth and were quickly spotted by the butchers at the bonfire. Even more unfortunately, the party forgot that charau-ka can climb, and so were not nearly as trapped in a killbox as they thought.
End result was the first time I have ever seen my players actually run away; they managed to kill a lot of the weaker enemies but were quickly pushed back by the butchers (which, I have to say, are really dangerous - their ability to rage, move, and still attack twice while healing and buffing themselves AND inflicting bleed made them a nasty nasty threat). All three of the front liners almost died during the rout and were only saved because of copious healing being on hand. And only some lucky and very dedicated sniping from the rogue stopped one of the butchers from releasing the mkole-mbembe, which certainly would have finished them off.
Everyone escaped alive, but they were beaten so badly that they decided to retreat all the way to Breachill to rest and recover.
Anyone else had a rough time with this encounter?
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My group just ran this part yesterday. Invisible goblin bard sneaks in at night to talk to Hezle (guessed building based on layout) -- put on a cloak once he was in the building so he was a 'ghost'. Pest form wizard sneaks over to unleash the eel-asaurus-rex. Realizes that he can't in his pest form. Sorcerer, fighter, and thief are all lurking around the eastern edge looking for a way in to the pit to try a dispel magic on the totem with screening in case of baddies.
Pest shape wizards decides, his best plan is to un-pest shape, open the cage and try to stealth away. Invisible goblin has been talking to Hezle and convinces her to leave, rejoin her tribe, and wait for the party gear huntergate to live in their basement with the other kobolds already there -- in exchange for promising to save Kyrion (without asking anything about who/what Kyrion is). Goblin hears the commotion outside, watches Hezle leave, loots the room, hides in the woods.
Did some rolls, the Vrock and the dinosaur start fighting. The Naunet's react angrily to 'their' pillar being depowered. The Sorc/Fighter/Thief trio lead them away from the camp, almost being dropped in the process, before finishing the naunets off.
All in all should have been a TPK if I had everything join in, just was happy with the groups attempts at non-traditional/willing to split the party somewhat. Ruled that the sick/sleeping workers didn't want to get involved in the vrock/dino fight, and the party was stealthy enough to not be as obvious as that battle royale going on.
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My group's gnome druid has the ability to speak to animals, so she stealthed up to the Mokele Mbembe's cage invisible and diplomacized it. The group reconvened after she unlocked the cage and asked it to wait a moment and then rolled up.
The mokele mbembe basically solo'd the entire camp. The group cast buff spells and heals on it as it tail whipped and stomped on boggard after charau-ka leaving the group to fight Hezle (they did not find the kobold miners). The party sorcerer lured a chunk of the enemies away and then cast fireball on the group before our druid followed up with wind wall and then entangle. They mopped up what survived easily.
Basically trivialized if it weren't for the two vrocks diving the vulnerable squishies in the backline and doing serious damage, but our warpriest and champion dealt with them quickly. I'd say even with the mokele's help the party came dangerously close to at least 1 player death.
I'm prepping this section to run in my monthly game and it looks pretty brutal. Group is going to be coming into it at 6th level (They basically followed the north bank of the river during the exploration component).
I plan on dropping a lot of hints about this being a dangerous fight, but looking at the vrock by itself, I'm a little worried about a straight up TPK if they engage it in battle. Average party ACs are 24-25 with to hit bonuses of +14/+15.
I anticipate a lot of crits by the vrock and a lot of misses by the party....
What???? 2 Vrocks?
6 players.
That assault was brutal. Had my group's first deaths. Both the wizard and the rogue died as the rest of the group fled. They managed to kill the Vrock before fleeing, so another assault should go easier.
The group's biggest problem right now is that the rogue had the portal key back home and they couldn't get to the body without risking more death. Now they have to plan a new assault before they get reinforcements or can use the key.
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That assault was brutal. Had my group's first deaths. Both the wizard and the rogue died as the rest of the group fled. They managed to kill the Vrock before fleeing, so another assault should go easier.
The group's biggest problem right now is that the rogue had the portal key back home and they couldn't get to the body without risking more death. Now they have to plan a new assault before they get reinforcements or can use the key.
If they fought The Vrock, they shouldn't have fought anything else at the same time. Was that not the case?
They fought the Vrock with the cultist standing around watching scared. The moment the Vrock fell and two of them were dead and the rest looked like they would fall over, they started charging. The rest of the group didn't feel like waiting around or wasting time to get out of there. The healer was down and they were out of potions.
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My players scouted the whole perimeter of the mine (terrain stalker is a helluva drug) and waited long enough to watch a shift change, and were sufficiently convinced they weren't ready to take it on. They heard the rumor about the kobolds though and are going to try and track them down to learn more.
Gotta decide what the DC for tracking the kobolds from the mine to A3. I could use the expert DC, but I'm tempted to use the kobold's crappy sickened survival DC instead, to show that they didn't do a good job of covering their tracks. Plus, it puts the DC into "don't bother to roll for it" territory, and given how many checks it would take to track them across that many days travel, that seems worth doing just to keep it moving.
Our group hit the mine last week and yesterday and it will end in disaster and probably will be the end of our PF2 adventures. Honestly I don't know who to blame but everything in our current campaign seems so much out of touch. Some adventure design related issues, some system related issues, some bad GM decisions (probably still made in good faith) leading to bad player decisions, leading to TPK (probable), flight (possible) or capture.
We stumbled over the Vrokk but managed to beat it in our first attempt to scout the mine. Then we stumbled over some spiders in our second attempt to scout the mine. We did fall back and regrouped and having failed to scout anything of value twice made a plan to set the dinosaur on the cultists but of course this did not work either, the alarm was raised and we are currently fighting the whole camp including Hezle.
Mine have actually routed the mine pretty effectively. First visit was just scouting. Terrain Stalker is crazy good here. Second visit was after the kobolds. They lured the vrock away, killed it, and then used its body as a skin suit to walk into the camp. (Would have been easier to just use Invisibility, but this was more entertaining and they rolled well on Deception.) They talked to Hezle and her to leave. They stealthily killed the sabosan in its sleep.
Then they attacked the south side of the camp in earnest. The charua-ka warrriors fell quickly, mostly from a single lightning bolt. Most of the boggards were dead by the time the butchers arrived. The butchers did some damage, putting a PC in the red and an animal companion (Harriet the Lion) unconscious. But that really just left the enemies in the mine themselves, and as written they stay to defend the dragon pillars when the alarm is raised.
The dinosaur presented a bit of a concern, as it broke out round the last butcher fell. Mainly because the party wanted to save it rather than let it get killed fighting the cultists. But they managed to lure it away and use Wild Empathy, so it left peacefully enough.
At this point the group has already pulled back and opted to camp and hit them the next day. The sorcerer used Hallucinatory Terrain to make the walls of the mine look dangerous so the Charua-ka would take the ramp instead of climb out. The melee folks stood at the top of the ramp and threw javelins, while the sorcerer and ranged took up a sniping position on top of the bunks. Very few charua-ka made it to the top of the ramp and those that dead were quickly dispatched by the 3 melee characters.
When we ended last session, I had one of the boggards realize the fight was lost and leap into pool below, sacrificing himself but rousing the Naunets. They emerged and attacked the party and we ended on that cliff hanger. I expect they will be the toughest part of the fight but they will still get handled.
The most important factors were the Ranger using Terrain Stalker to scout the mine so well and the sorcerer having dispel magic as a signature spell. Actually, those factors have made most of the book pretty easy. The mine might be the first time they have to fight enemies head on.
How does Terrain Stalker affect things with Scent though?
Scent would see through it without Foil Senses or appropriate precautions. But scent also has a really short range, and I've yet to see a case the ranger had to get that close to an NPC while scouting.