Thanks for all the compliments, guys. Like any writer, I guess I always worry about whether my stuff is boring, or too obvious, or too convoluted, or just not any fun for other people, so hearing that people like it really helps my confidence level. So thanks again for that.
Also, Shovel: Yes! I would absolutely be interested in whatever Bounty Board submissions you can come up with. Or, really, anything at all you can come up with. I use the hell out of the stuff you wrote up earlier; it's high quality material. I'd love to see what else you've got.
Actually, that goes for everybody in this thread. The cool thing about Strasa, for me, is that it's a collaborative effort.
Well, Session 4 kind of fell through, unfortunately. We don't usually play 2 weekends in a row, but we thought maybe we could slip in one last night. My wife (Victoria's player) was once involved with a local roller derby team, and their first home bout was last night, so we invited some friends (Akkarin and Phaedra's players) to come watch it with us, and get some dinner. Anyway, the bout didn't end until like 9, so none of us even got home until 10 or so. And at that point, it's getting a little late to start D&D, as far as I'm concerned.
Anyways, I told everyone I'd make it up to them.
I've got some extra time now to work on what's going to happen in the Feywild. The end of my story originally just involved them heading through the Feygates, finding a sacred wellspring and doing battle against its guardians, being betrayed by Mal and figuring out how to handle that situation, etc. It was going to be an intentionally short session, but now I'll need to draw it out a bit for next time.
Any suggestions for encounters? New story ideas that can pop up while they're in the Feywild? Phaedra's family still lives in the Feywild, actually, so maybe they're encroaching upon ancient elvish land and stealing the water for the Mirror's a big taboo? At any rate, I'm open to any suggestions you guys have; I want this next session to be great.
I've got some extra time now to work on what's going to happen in the Feywild. The end of my story originally just involved them heading through the Feygates, finding a sacred wellspring and doing battle against its guardians, being betrayed by Mal and figuring out how to handle that situation, etc. It was going to be an intentionally short session, but now I'll need to draw it out a bit for next time.
Any suggestions for encounters? New story ideas that can pop up while they're in the Feywild? Phaedra's family still lives in the Feywild, actually, so maybe they're encroaching upon ancient elvish land and stealing the water for the Mirror's a big taboo? At any rate, I'm open to any suggestions you guys have; I want this next session to be great.
What kind of environment do you want the sacred wellspring to be in? I feel like I could come up with some better ideas if I know what you are imagining this place looking like.
I think it's a great idea that stealing the water is a big taboo, maybe something how the truth doesn't solve things, it's learning to accept how things are (you said your elves had a funky religion, maybe this could be part of it). Try to set them up so that they have to make the conscious decision to steal it, knowing it is taboo. The wellspring itself prevents the truth from being seen in it, since it bubbles up and doesn't lie still enough to cast an undistorted reflection before it finds its way into a nearby steam. Even so, it is mesmerizing and players who get close to it are dazed and it constantly compels players to approach it. Perhaps touching the waters causes the creation of phantasm of the character's worst fear, a truth they don't wish to acknowledge.
Maybe Mal doesn't know this, but the Abiding One has been quietly playing on his mind, hoping that the Aboreal Mirror will make it's way into Strasa where the Abiding One can use it to reveal it's 'truth'. Alternativel y Zessith or the lich wants it, and used contacts to play on Mal's greed. When the party returns from the feywild, they are immediately ambushed by one of the groups, groups that don't really know what they are doing there except trying to get the Mirror. Perhaps you could even make it a chase back to relative safety in Strasa.
Shovel, you've hit on pretty much exactly what I've been wanting to do with them. I had considered that the Abiding One might be the one who wants the Mirror, and it's the force behind Mal's desire to obtain it. That plot works well, I think, because the players don't see it coming: they already know Mal's a greedy, self-serving coward, so they don't think to look past all that, to see what's behind it. They think (correctly) that he's going to betray them and use the Mirror for his own purposes, but I don't think any of them have considered that the Abiding One might be involved.
I suppose my vision of the Feywild is fairly gritty, and dark, which goes along with the rest of the world. You know that scene in Fellowship of the Ring, where the party's moving through the forest, and they're all on-edge because they're afraid of the Elves? They know that Elvish scouts might be out there watching the whole time, and some are afraid of being bewitched by magical powers? I want the scene to be a lot like that. I want the players to be sweating out the fact that they're encroaching upon sacred Eladrin forests. I also want to play up how much more cunning and dangerous the creatures of the Feywild are: a pack of wolves is already a dangerous foe, but in the Feywild ... the wolves just understand things better; they think, and that makes them a hell of a lot more threatening.
The encounter at the wellspring was going to be pretty basic, but I've got time to flesh it out now. Mechanically, the stage was basically two combat areas seperated by a pool of water, which acts like Difficult Terrain. The grass in the area is knee-length, and it sways in the breeze. It's the "Grab Grass" described in the DMG1, which forces characters to make Strength checks to stand up from Prone. The leader of the enemies is an Eladrin Arcane Archer, who remains across the water and launches deadly attacks while his party engages the PCs. He's got an ability that knocks characters Prone in an area, so he'll use that liberally.
For companions, he's got two Elvish Scouts (who get two attacks, and deal extra damage against characters they have Combat Advantage against), maybe another Elvish Archer as artillery backup, and a Grey Wolf (who knocks Prone characters he has Combat Advantage against, and deals extra damage to Prone characters).
All in all, I think the encounter sounds rough. The PCs are going to be Prone pretty often, and they're going to have to make Strength checks to get up; not so hard for Virgil, but Phaedra, Victoria, and Akkarin may struggle. That's the way I do things, though; as a DM, I like to apply Status Effects. I read all these Guides and Class Handbooks that tell players how to build "unstoppable" characters, but they all seem like one-trick-ponies; what's to stop me from just Blinding that character repeatedly, or keeping him Prone, or Dazed? There are some powerful character concepts out there, but I think a lot of the time, they aren't "broken" -- the DM just doesn't know how to properly challenge his players, or counter player strategies, and things go downhill fast.
I like to reward players for building well-rounded characters, rather than just glass-cannons.
At any rate, I still do think the encounter's kind of rough, so I added in a Lifestone that rises up out of the water. I think that's what it's called; I'll have to check the DMG again. Players adjacent to it gain 5 hit points a round, anyway. It's out in the middle of the water, though, which is Difficult Terrain, so that's a challenge in and of itself.
I also need a way for Mal to be out of the picture. Like I said before, if he comes within eyesight of Victoria, the whole thing goes to hell, because her Passive Perception and Insight are through the roof; you just can't put anything past her. I was thinking maybe he meets the party at the Feygates, but doesn't go through? Maybe he gets picked off by Elvish scouts right after they pass into the Feywild? If the Elves dragged him off through the forest, the group would have to actually go save him at some point, if they wanted to bring him to justice. Or I suppose they could just leave him to rot -- whatever.
Sounds like a solid encounter, and a rightly tough one. I have a suggestion that you can use or totally disregard at your leisure. Use your encounter as the one for the guardians, but would the guardians want the party to even get to the sacred well? Would the elves even want to enter the sacred area and do combat in it? I propose changing the pool of water to a stream that winds it's way through the field of grass, but roughly divides the battlefield like your pond would. This area is right outside where the actual well is and the stream is the runoff of the well, but mixed with less magical waters as well, which means the party can't just scoop up the water and run. You could still have the lifestone and everything else in play but it just won't be directly at the well. In this fight I would probably not make it a fight to the death, and have the elves retreat when they are bloodied or the fight looks hopeless for them.
If you do this, you could throw in another combat like I described above at the well or a skill challenge associated with dealing with the power of the well, which I think could be pretty interesting. The well is magical and should have some natural mechanism that prevents people from harvesting it without some sort of trial, even beyond the guardians.
I think you need to have Mal in the picture, otherwise the whole thing becomes much more contrived, though I could see him meeting them but not going through. If he gets captured, then it becomes a rescue mission, because the party doesn't have a need for the well without him. Victoria's passive detection skills may be through the roof, but there are probably ways of dealing with that. Mal doesn't need to lie to decieve, and he's probably an accomplished bluffer in his own right, give him bonuses for more believable statements and he should be slimy enough to avoid revealing too much. Additionally, the Abiding One may have left an impression on him that makes him hard to read, a sort of psychic shield. One thing that's vital I think, is that he doesn't have all the components to make the mirror as soon as they get the water. He needs to get it back to Strasa to make it.
I will try to think up some more 'random' encounters for the feywild, but it sounds like you got a lot of awesome going for you already!
Thanks, Shovel. Your plan to make the Guardians attack prior to the Wellspring proper is great. I agree that Mal should be directly involved, as well; I'm hesitant to use him as a DM-NPC during combat, however, so I'll need to puzzle out a way to remove him from the Guardian fight. I'll sit down soon and draw him up properly, to see how slimy and manipulative I can build a Rogue; that should be interesting. Let me know if you think of anything else, man. These ideas are great.
I agree that Mal should be directly involved, as well; I'm hesitant to use him as a DM-NPC during combat, however, so I'll need to puzzle out a way to remove him from the Guardian fight. I'll sit down soon and draw him up properly, to see how slimy and manipulative I can build a Rogue; that should be interesting. Let me know if you think of anything else, man. These ideas are great.
I think you have already solved the hesitation to use him as a DM-NPC in combat:
they already know Mal's a greedy, self-serving coward
When the going gets tough, Mal gets hiding. It will probably even work to make the party despise him even more.
I've been trying to think about other stuff for the feywild, and it's been tricky to figure out what would engage the party and not completely kill them. I'm thinking plants. Some wood woads or perhaps some scaled down dryads, literally stepping out of trees around the party, should do plenty to remind them of the dangers of the feywild. Victoria might know something is up, and sense their presence but not be able to pinpoint where they will appear, until the 'spirits of the wood' actually manifest themselves.
Additionally you could have a skill challenge based around avoiding something particularly big and nasty (I particularly like the idea of a fey-bred Gray Render or a big displacer beast). Should they fail they end up being rescued by Eladrin or elves, who bring them in for questioning and try to guide them back to the feygate, costing them time and resources, as well as suffering a penalty when dealing with Elves (also included is a threat on their lives if they try to reach the well, should it come up[also the Elvish guardians are already on alert and strike from ambush the first round]). If they succeed they eventually get stopped by Phaedra's family, who still question them, but less intensely and offer a warning rather than a threat regarding the well (the Elven guardians initiate conversation and try to turn the party away before beginning a fight). Good luck!
Oh, man. Unbelievable. I just wrote out the entire session -took me about 20 minutes- and then the forum messed up and didn't post it. Uhhh ... yeah, I don't feel like doing it again right now, lol. I'll try to get around to posting it later.
Oh, man. Unbelievable. I just wrote out the entire session -took me about 20 minutes- and then the forum messed up and didn't post it. Uhhh ... yeah, I don't feel like doing it again right now, lol. I'll try to get around to posting it later.
Ah sorry to hear that. Definitely feel your pain. If I have a long post I've started composing it in notepad or something similar, just in case. Looking forward to hearing about the session once you get it up!
