| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Dramatis Personae
1) Cole the Seer, Human Kellid Oracle of Life. Sixth son of a Sixth son believed to be cursed, dumped on the doorstep of the Pharasmin temple at Clover's Crossing before the fated night destroying the village and it's only survivor. He's haunted by that and sees "dead people". ;) Taken in by the professor for a time while they tried unsuccessfully to unravel his "mystery" and why he alone survived.
2 and 3) Halifax and Ash, Dhampir brothers. Haslifax is an Inquisitor (Kinslayer) of Pharasma that despises his nature. Ash is a (Hungry Ghost) Monk that embraces his nature and superiority. Both feared and reluctantly trained at Garvecharge, at the professor's request as well as Loren's (see PC #3) advocacy. Both exiled from Gravecharge as Ash's abilities started to manifest resulting in injuries to other students.
Halifax headed back to the professor not wanting to see his brother ever gain. It's been 20 years or so since they have seen eachother.
4) Loren, Middle-aged, semi retired Paladin of Pharasma, and former basic combat instructor at Gravecharge in Lepidstadt. A native of Clover's Crossing that trained acolytes at Gravecharge for three months or so a year. The destruction of his home town occured while he was serving at Gravecharge. Guilt follows him as well for the loss of his family. A good friend of the professor.
5) Razula, (an escaped) female elven witch of a forced coven in Irrisen. Marked and Hunted by one of the seven (See Irrisen for details). She abandoned the other two captives as well. Taken in by Niska Mvashti (RotR) for awhile until a greater Shadow was dispatched to kill her from Irrisen. Niska fought it off and decided to send her into hiding with her old friend Professor Lorrimor in Ustalav.
5) Corbina de'Stejar, female (sort of Human) Wizard (Universalist). No memories prior to teenage years when she was found in the woods near Hyannis (after escaping a certain asylum in Carrion Hill) by a traveling circus (The Crooked Kin). Placed into care with Horace Croon for awhile before "Uncle Horry" thought the professor could teach her more at Lepidstadt.
What I did...
1) Threw trust points out the window. I went with a more "Ravenlofty" approach to earn the townsfolk trust by the PCs actions instead. This earned our Monk a hefty discount when he had to repair one half of a broken Butterfly Sword (Gray Oozes are bastards to equipment) at Jorfa's Forge. She was grateful that the party minimized the damage to the town square where her forge was located.
I also changed the name of the town to Ravenhome. Ravengro was a terrible name IMHO.
2) Planned to run the Fiddler's Lament plug-in from Legendary Games (Necromancer staff) but decided against it at the last minute because it seemed too "busy".
This add-on is supposed to take place in a single night, and kind of felt like any average night encounters afterwards would be calmer. My players already noticed an escalation of encounters with Haunts, Undead, Stirges, Possessions, etc.
The add-on seemed more like a culmination with the Rebec Malevolante player as a BBEG. I did "Steal" Rufio as a Pharasmin acolyte/assistant to Father Grimburrow. My player's sort of adopted him.
3) Skipped the Burning Town Hall encounter, this would have either been too complicated tactically and taken too long, or way too quickly as beheaded are just too weak in general.
4) Omitted Father Charlatan completely (as well as his two lines in the skipping song) and ran with 4 main haunts/undead instead of 5. I put an Allip in his room instead as a party favor.
a) He didn't really fit with the other ultra-violent main antagonists.
b) His mechanics were overly complex and I didn't want to have one of my player's lose control of his character this early in the game, even temporarily.
5) Replaced any ectoplasmic encounters with Lesser Shadows from the Tome of Horrors/Fiddler's Lament plug-in.
6) Major: adjusted most of the encounters (if not all) to better challenge a six-character party.
7) Adjusted the Lopper in a cinematic sense. Gave him the creepy, high-speed tic-like gait instead of his floating/flying move.
What surprised me...
1) Kendra felt more like a footnote than a major NPC. After the will, the party was too busy with the investigations and planned encounters to have much interaction which went well regardless.
2) The party brought back some masterwork weapons and masterwork suits of studded leather as gifts for Rufio, the Sherrif, and his surviving deputies. One was killed by Gibs when two sat on watch detail as blood trails were tracked back to his house. One of the two posted deputies raced back to the town square to help with an off-camera "Restless dead" encounter distraction while the party was in Harrowstone. My players seemed to really like the NPCs.
3) Gurtis Vortch was a fantastically balanced encounter, possibly deadly to a 4 man-group.
4) The Mosswater Marauder was a fantastically weak encounter, a Let-down in it's purest form. He needed more HP as written and d4 damage per skull defeated instead of a d6.
What I would change...
1) In a melee heavy, non caster group, or a group like mine which was 50/50 Ranged/Caster to Melee/not alot of access to useful spells ratio. I'd drop a magical weapon or two earlier, BEFORE they enter Harrowstone.
Incorporeal creatures and Haunts = BAD to low level characters.
The Souls subdomain (Of Repose) was key here which our Inquisitor took. Without it my players would have likely crossed over into frustration mode as the magic weapons don't really roll in until well into entering the prison.
2) Reduce the amount of lesser restoration available so early. Between the wand and potions found, I would probably halve the number of charges in the wand. It's a tad overkill.
3) More Haunt Siphons (see #1 above). Haunts are mostly only susceptible to Positive energy.
a) Only our Paladin and Oracle could channel/LoH (yay!), Luckily we had them in our group. Other groups would be SOL. If your group is light on Positive Energy... add more Siphons!..... or die?
b) The same Paladin destroyed all the main antagonists items in the property room before they knew what they could do as they met Vesorianna after discovering them.
Alternatively, I'd have Vesorianna roam the main level instead of being anchored to doing permanent laundry, and have her meet the PCs before they find the property room.
4) Lock the west balcony entrance with a higher DC. My group rolled high enough to get in and that was their first foray into Harrowstone. Luckily, I removed the extra stirges from the mess hall during their encounter with the Piper of Illmarsh.
5) Have the Giant Stirge patrol the outside of the prison instead of tied to his location. My group had 6 characters, I added the fiendish template and buffed his HP. The group bypassed him completely.
6) The Splatter Man was a PITA encounter because all of the above and then some. On top of that I had to play him stupid because of his OP corruption touch (I'd have 3 dead melee folks if I played him right.
Additionally, having him attack and drop through a floor/wall/ceiling (even with the group getting AoOs), combined with him being incorporeal, the group being out of siphons, low on Touch of the Spirit World domain power, made this a super long, frustrating, cat and mouse game of epic proportions. I was actuually running out of spells for him.
Oh, his Summons were pathetic. Fiendish Dire Rats and a Fiendish Giant Spider later lasted less than a round. I recommend giving him back all his spells at least and reducing his touch to 3d4. Monks have d6 unarmed at this level, Splatty is no monk regardless of his level.
7) The Poltergeist encounter was creepy but weak AF. As they failed fear saves they ran straight for the exit. the slamming door haunt turned this into an "open door" nothing following them to the next time they opened the door to it being right there, oh shite moment (I was also playing up the dark/unlit prison thing)
Overall great weekend for all, and they loved the campaign. So I guess I did my job. :)
Hope this summary helps anyone planning to run it.