This week's encounter seemed overly complicated and unnecessarily punitive. I had to make some serious adjustments to make things more balanced. I dumped the combat all together and focused on strong role-playing and skill checks. It still took 90 minutes. No one took excessive damage (from the spiders) or lost too many surges (from the patrols).
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Some background: My table has the same players, week-to-week, and they're playing "hard mode," with some "morally dubious" characters. Or, in some cases, outright evil. For example: in the extended rest between chapters 1 and 2, one of the PCs burned Tharinel to death. Which was fine-- I dislike DMPCs. At my table, "dead is dead," so when a PC or NPC dies, they are gone, out of the story. This campaign is something of a bloodbath.
Half the party is working with the drow. They have acquired specialized poisons that they will use against the rest of the party at the right moment.
There is exactly 1 character who is good-aligned (an avenger), and 1 character who is neutral. The rest are evil, no matter what their character sheets say.
One of them is actually in flashback mode. We don't know how it happens, but somewhere between now and 5th level, she turns from an elven princess bard into a male goblin warlock, with the infernal pact.
Behind the scenes, an infernal prince has been manipulating the bard and two NPC allies into helping him stop Lolth from rising to power. Elminster's voice? Actually a demon.
In session 7, the party bard convinced the goblins to work on their side, mainly because one of the goblins was an old friend of the bard's (a goblin warlock who was her "tie to the previous season"-- this warlock was the player's character last season). In session 8, the warlock saved the bard's life at an opportune moment and probably prevented a TPK. In session 9, the warlock was knocked down into the spider pit and nearly eaten.
So, they have a companion character with them who I hadn't decided what to do with.
Cue last night's adventure:
Taking an idea from one of the DM threads on the forum, I had the party encounter a drow merchant who sold them some gear, and then bargained with them for the heart of a goblin arcanist. After haggling a bit, the bard went out, called in her friend, and said "Okay?" The merchant nodded and told the goblin "oh, come into the back room-- your friends have paid for us to heal you up." Goblin disappears, the PCs hear a blood-curdling scream, then silence. They all look around at each other, realizing they've just traded a sentient ally for loot.
Oh, yeah. My DM heart is just singing.
They finish their business and hole up in a nearby empty building. After their extended rest, they waken to the sound of kobolds fleeing, their stuff ransacked. I let them pick what the kobolds stole-- and then the PCs took chase.
I liked the idea of them being robbed and hunting/chasing the kobolds down. It's much more motivating than "go follow the blood trail to the maguffin." Originally, the goblin was going to be seen chasing after them, so the PCs would think he was in on it (he wasn't), but they killed him too soon. Alas.
They endure the first patrol, which I'd rewritten into a group of smaller kobolds, laying traps and other wise messing with them. I had rewritten the Wandering Damage part of the encounter to have kobolds and traps as well as drow patrols, and each type of patrol option had a set of skills the PCs could use to avoid or reduce the amount of damage.
For the spiders, I had a table of options beyond hit point damage, so the PCs could be "slowed, save at the end of your next rest" or "weakened, save at the end of your next rest." They had the option, then, of taking a short rest (and triggering more patrols and spiders) and saving, or carrying the status effects into the tactical encounter. I also had each player roll their own to-hit, to speed things up, and they could all make one skill check, like acrobatics, nature, heal, or endurance, to reduce or avoid the hit.
Instead of Tharinel, the PCs came upon a now-retired PC (a blackguard from chapter 1-- retired because he was too evil to be playable) who was caught in the traps. He had a message for the bard ("your friend is full of betrayal") from his "conscience" (Elminster's voice). Instead of questioning him, they set him on fire.
Eventually, they came to the tactical encounter. I used the Skull Skull Stone trap, a Gravity Well, two kobold slingers on platforms with cover, and 8 kobold minions. I changed the Skull Stone to a slide 2, so whenever it hit, the kobolds would slide their enemy into the gravity well. Some brutal synergy, really, but this group is well built for 3-D combat, with lots of pushes and slides, and one PC who has a natural climb speed.
The PCs played around with these traps a bit, one of them trying to use the gravity well to teleport to the other side of the well (didn't work), and another one used the defender's challenge (the one where they swap places?) to switch places with the cat-girl who was hanging on the side of the wall and had just been hit with a glue sling. So, they switch places, and since he doesn't have a climb speed, he falls, fails his saving throw (to catch the platform), and lands on the ground. Taking damage, falling prone, and immobilized by the glue sling.
An immobilized barbarian who is out of melee range is ineffective you say? Not so. He picked up rocks (improvised ranged weapon) and threw them at the slinger, rolling high on his d4s and killing him in 2 shots (slinger was already close to bloodied).
At the end, the party got a short rest and their gear back, and then they came to the torture chamber, and I finally read the box text and returned to the module as written.
I have introduced a new trait to the party, called "Friendslayer." The players do not know, but everyone except the two absent this week and those working for the drow now have this trait, for killing both the goblin warlock and the former party member. One already had it for killing Tharinel.
Those with the Friendslayer trait can use the pools of blood to summon demons to work for them in the next encounter, at a +4 to the arcana check to summon. As with the NPCs, if they drop to 0 hit points while the demon is present, they will disappear into the Abyss. The bard will be spit back out in goblin warlock form. Anyone else might be gone for good.
I just have to make sure to kill the bard after she calls a demon. I can't imagine it will be hard....
Gods, I wish I had a DM like mortaine. Instead I've got the biggest jerk of all the people that come to encounters where I play. I'm the only one at the table that's made all the sessions (if I didn't enjoy playing with the other players at the table I would have skipped this one since my kids were out of town at the grandparents), so I had the only lvl3 character. 2 others were lvl2 and we had 2 new players last night that were lvl1. You'd think the damage would be pulled back a little for lower level pc's. Not one bit.
What really pissed several of us off was when I (halfelf sentinel) used beast empathy knack and diplomacy to try and calm the spiders so they would stop biting the stuff out of us. I rolled well and had a 29 after modifiers. "if anything they are more agitated by you." WTF! I realize this is supposed to be an environmental hazard and drain us, but we had 2 bloodied characters after the second go. I was the least hurt by it with an 18 fortitude and 47 hp, but really... really? Probably wouldn't have mattered what I rolled. He was going to hit the party with every spider possible.
Of course this was after he said returning players who missed last session don't get benefits of the extended rest...
Like I said, the only thing keeping me returning is the other players, they are a bunch of great people to play with.
Ouch. As written, chapter 3 is supposed to start with an extended rest, even if the party members were absent last session. Talk to the coordinator, or just tell your fellow players to stealthily benefit from the rest (but still take the surge damage from this session).
Spoiler-tagging in case some shops are still a week behind:
As written, there is no mitigation for the patrols or the spiders. None. There are no skill checks to avoid any of it. Seriously-- it did not matter what you rolled. This session of the module is written with "roll a d20, take healing surges. Roll to hit, take damage." There is nothing in the module to prevent any of it-- all you can do is in the second half, you can take more time (trigger patrols and spiders) and try to reduce the alert level for the next encounter.
I hated that mechanic so much that, not only did I rewrite the encounter, I also posted in the DM Only thread so other DMs would be warned in advance.
The PCs infiltrated the city, but had escaped a patrol at the gate so the city was on the look out for them. They ran into a few small patrols and were harrassed by some spider swarms. Eventually, they made their way to a group of holding cells after overhearing some guards talking about an elf (Tharinel).
Stairs lead down into the area, three groups pairs of doors each pair connected to a rusty lever. The first set opened, as Gas Spores spilled out into the hallway. The spores bumped and jostled filling the area, and tension built. Fortunately, the spores weren't hostile, so they bobbed around the area as the players explored the other doors.
The second set was opened as a player used a gas spore as a shield. One room was empty and the other had a pair of captured goblin traders. The PCs heard them talking and decided to gas the place, as they shoved in a spore and Magic Missle'd it. The spore exploded the goblins screamed and coughed, heading for the door. The poor goblins were attacked, diplomacized, and intimidated. Bruised, beaten, gassed and frozen, they agreed to follow the players.
The third lever was thrown opening one door, while the other remained jammed. The PCs rescued the elf and readied for the escape. The jammed door was being used a slave food storage and contained a strange metal contraption, conical with a dome with a crystal tipped wand near the top and a plunger and a scrying device possitioned near the middle covered in rusted chains. (I was probably channeling a bit too much Barrier Peaks at this point) Complex plans involving daleks, and herding goblins and gas spores through the city were discussed and eventually discarded.
More patrols and swarms were encountered. The escape went well. The PCs overheard a patrol complaining about missing out on the torture theatre shows while they they had to pull guard duty. The PCs, having not found Khara assumed the theatre was the next place to look so they head off in that direction.
The PCs infiltrated the city, but had escaped a patrol at the gate so the city was on the look out for them. They ran into a few small patrols and were harrassed by some spider swarms. Eventually, they made their way to a group of holding cells after overhearing some guards talking about an elf (Tharinel).
Stairs lead down into the area, three groups pairs of doors each pair connected to a rusty lever. The first set opened, as Gas Spores spilled out into the hallway. The spores bumped and jostled filling the area, and tension built. Fortunately, the spores weren't hostile, so they bobbed around the area as the players explored the other doors.
The second set was opened as a player used a gas spore as a shield. One room was empty and the other had a pair of captured goblin traders. The PCs heard them talking and decided to gas the place, as they shoved in a spore and Magic Missle'd it. The spore exploded the goblins screamed and coughed, heading for the door. The poor goblins were attacked, diplomacized, and intimidated. Bruised, beaten, gassed and frozen, they agreed to follow the players.
The third lever was thrown opening one door, while the other remained jammed. The PCs rescued the elf and readied for the escape. The jammed door was being used a slave food storage and contained a strange metal contraption, conical with a dome with a crystal tipped wand near the top and a plunger and a scrying device possitioned near the middle covered in rusted chains. (I was probably channeling a bit too much Barrier Peaks at this point) Complex plans involving daleks, and herding goblins and gas spores through the city were discussed and eventually discarded.
More patrols and swarms were encountered. The escape went well. The PCs overheard a patrol complaining about missing out on the torture theatre shows while they they had to pull guard duty. The PCs, having not found Khara assumed the theatre was the next place to look so they head off in that direction.
Ooh. I like a lot of that. And it will definitely fit with my campaign as one of the archers in the last encounter escaped (it was going so well for the PCs that he just bolted). I can use that to explain why the drow are searching for them. Together with the stuff from Mortaine and Cave2626, I think I can make this encounter work.
After reading some of the suggestions in the DM thread on the community page I took a moment to discuss them with our other DM who was able to run our early session this week (allowing me to actually play YAY).
He ran it almost as written but allowed us to make group stealth checks in attempts to avoid patrols (worked once, failed once) and our party rescued the elf and defeated the nearby patrol.
When I ran it in the later session I also gave the party the chance to avoid patrols using stealth checks, or even to ambush them instead. They chose to avoid. They also came across a travelling duergar trader and purchased a pair of potions (one of Healing, the other capable of restoring d4 surges), when they finally came across the injured elf they administered the healing potion – however it proved to be a corrosive poison and the hapless fey gurgled green froth and expired.
As they attempted to hide from the patrol one of them got bit by a spider, I allowed him a save with half his stealth as a bonus to remain quiet, but a roll of 1 meant that he squealed like a little girl and the drow came to investigate. The party didnt struggle to deal with the scouts.
They then came across a fleeing kobold slave, after giving him a ration he told them of the slave pits nearby and they let him run away.
I dont know if its the good weather or just because here in the UK its the beginning of the holiday season, but our numbers have dwindled to the point that next week might be down to one combined session too.
"Well that encounter was easy....er, guys, why is the DM grinning?" (party members last words)
Sounds like a really good night of improvised role-playing, Vobeskhan!
Thanks Mortaine - it was one of the best evenings we've had this season. Made all the better by reading the DM only thread before hand for some great tips.
Only down side is that our other DM's shifts mean that he's not available for the rest of the season so my kobold may be once again relegated to the back up folder.
Has anyone had any confirmation regarding the chance to continue characters through the next season? This is something my players are really interested in doing.
"Well that encounter was easy....er, guys, why is the DM grinning?" (party members last words)
Sounds like a really good night of improvised role-playing, Vobeskhan!
Thanks Mortaine - it was one of the best evenings we've had this season. Made all the better by reading the DM only thread before hand for some great tips.
Only down side is that our other DM's shifts mean that he's not available for the rest of the season so my kobold may be once again relegated to the back up folder.
Has anyone had any confirmation regarding the chance to continue characters through the next season? This is something my players are really interested in doing.
I haven't seen anything official, but either way, I'm planning to do it. In fact, since thise story arc is three seasons long, ideally, I'd like to take my players through 10th level.
After reading some of the suggestions in the DM thread on the community page I took a moment to discuss them with our other DM who was able to run our early session this week (allowing me to actually play YAY).
He ran it almost as written but allowed us to make group stealth checks in attempts to avoid patrols (worked once, failed once) and our party rescued the elf and defeated the nearby patrol.
When I ran it in the later session I also gave the party the chance to avoid patrols using stealth checks, or even to ambush them instead. They chose to avoid. They also came across a travelling duergar trader and purchased a pair of potions (one of Healing, the other capable of restoring d4 surges), when they finally came across the injured elf they administered the healing potion – however it proved to be a corrosive poison and the hapless fey gurgled green froth and expired.
As they attempted to hide from the patrol one of them got bit by a spider, I allowed him a save with half his stealth as a bonus to remain quiet, but a roll of 1 meant that he squealed like a little girl and the drow came to investigate. The party didnt struggle to deal with the scouts.
They then came across a fleeing kobold slave, after giving him a ration he told them of the slave pits nearby and they let him run away.
I dont know if its the good weather or just because here in the UK its the beginning of the holiday season, but our numbers have dwindled to the point that next week might be down to one combined session too.