| Zapp |
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Herein I'll summarize my experiences with the various Extinction Curse chapters (referred to by party level)
Level 1: Since Nemmia lurks in the midst of their camp, all or nearly all encounters will take place the very same night the heroes pull off their first circus show. This makes the chapter exceedingly deadly. Be prepared to at least hold off Nemmia for a couple of hours, assuming the Medicine skill can at least patch up the heroes before the final showdown.
Level 2: Much much easier, since the heroes can space out their explorations over several days. Caution: if they don't discover the Lindell Barn fairly soon (and they have no reason to hurry at least initially) you will as the GM have to decide whether the kidnapped family has died of thirst.
Level 3: Taking on the entire Hermitage in a single day is a very tall order, especially with the overpowered Corrupted Retainers. You need to anticipate the heroes withdrawing or hiding to rest for a day. The module has very little advice on how the Corrupted Priests react to a partial invasion, and no advice on potential reinforcements. It is written as if the heroes will free Harlock in a single swoop, but I don't see that happening given the formidable opposition.
Level 4: Again much much easier, since nearly every foe is lower level than the heroes. Also, the monsters aren't given random power-ups. Cavnakash does have the potential for spectacular bursts of damage, but he's only one mob, and since he's clearly the "end level boss", expect heroes to make mincemeat of him going all out. At least the writers makes it clear they expect the heroes to spend the night inside the Tower, given that they have provided a safe room for them to rest in. Still, they didn't need more than the one rest, so I'll probably reuse the "environmental effects" table somewhere else - I only got to roll on it twice.
| Zapp |
Level 5: With a pacing reminiscent of chapter 2, you can (and probably should) beef up many encounters, if you want the time pressure to have any meaning.
That is: as written, I can't see how heroes will need a full week to clear out the map, much less two weeks. All three of my melee heroes now sport Striking runes. And being level 5, the adventure has left the lowest levels.
Having a chapter of mostly only Moderate encounters isn't wrong. But if you want time to pass at the circus camp, you need to consider that the heroes will clear out everything in a single go. If you had planned for social interaction as the work to clear out the field proceeds, or even had planned for the wolf encounters to occur as instructed, you probably want this chapter to unfold over many days, not just one or two.
Even if heroes spend time on Promoting the Circus, two weeks simply is so generous as to not be a constraint at all. In fact, you should probably expect the heroes to be ready to proceed to chapter 6 before having their Show, and you must then decide whether to level them up now or later...
One simple idea is to have a pair of Bone Croupiers (unused monsters from part 1) visit the camp while under construction. If they win, everything's fine (maybe they can plunder the circus profits to represent robbing NPCs?). If they lose however... The idea is the heroes can't take the end of their "adventure day" for granted. (Whether these inveterate gamblers are sent by Misstress Dusklight or just happen to visit is for you to decide)