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1 year ago ::
Feb 03, 2012 - 2:09AM
#1
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This thread is for discussion of SPEC4-1 Cerulean Dreams, which premiered at DDXP.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 05, 2012 - 1:02PM
#2
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- Head of Insanity Division
Date Joined:
Jul 23, 2004
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I played this one twice -- first on friday morning with my character that had stayed behind back at GenCon and again on sunday when another game failed to produce a table. I enjoyed it both times. In fact, the table and DM were different enough each time that the whole module felt different. I didn't feel like I was replaying all that much. Good story, fun encounters, nice puzzle, etc. Nothing bad to say, really. Especially liked freeing the one special prisoner - look forward to seeing how that shows up again later.  Cheers. -VIC
Looking for work in IT or Logistics? Willing to relocate to western Michigan? Send me a PM.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 13, 2012 - 8:11PM
#3
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Played AL 10 at DDXP. Fighter, Cleric, Sorcerer, and two essentials characters about which I didn't get many details. Spoiler:
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My fighter was a Xxiphu prisoner at the start of the module. I witnessed the introductory meeting for the other PCs but how they joined me in the prison was really skipped. A good jail break then proceeded.
First combat had an interesting mix of monsters although the "polyps" were nearly impossible for us to get rid of after they latched onto someone.
Traveling through the living aberrant citadel was very cool, great descriptions.
Second combat had a great room to challenge the PCs into using non-walk movement options. I don't remember the webbing being overly limiting. The sharks were pretty vicious, grabbed the sorceress and chomped down hard. I was expecting a skill challenge to free the knight and was surprised that leaving him chained was the railroad track. Fortunately I crit'd the ritualist with a push power when I went first and knocked her away from him.
Again travelling through the city was great, i recall passive insight warning some PCs that they could close their eyes to avoid something bad. Choosing to have open or closed eyes while moving through the tubes gave PCs different effects. I also thought the different powers/memories of PCs who sacrificed to save Midnight versus PCs who entered the city to rescue us were handled well. Choices made in this and a previous module having small but significant effects on story and gameplay was great.
Third encounter was where it fell apart. Monsters beat us in initiative and bottlenecked the three paths to the control panels. The open spaces flanking the central path were determined to be solid and blocking. I don't know if it was primary attack daze secondary attack dominate or minor action daze standard action dominate a dazed target but it was used every round. Cleric never got to take a turn of his own and almost every round had a second PC dominated as well. No more than 2 of us interacted with a control panel. I think the other guy made 1 skill check unsuccessfully and my last turn before time was called was to double crawl and try to near-crit the minor to get the hard DC, fail. Time called at end of 4 hours: 2 PCs currently dominated, 5 bloodied, no control panel successes out of two attempts, all monsters still alive. I say skill checks because we knew entering the encounter we had not enough time to try a memory puzzle.
It's my understanding the module specifically tells GMs to not prevent PCs from interacting with the control panels and I don't know where the insane amount of daze and dominate originated. The above description was in spite of all 5 PCs who had the special one-time only prevent daze/dominate plus backlash damage powers using them in the first two rounds.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 21, 2012 - 4:24PM
#4
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Greetings. I am the author of SPEC4-1, and I'm here to post a few words about the intent of the adventure. If you plan to DM it, please read what's in the spoiler block. Spoiler:
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This is a difficult adventure. It's a SPEC. It's built with about 30% more than the normal XP budget, and the rewards for the PCs are correspondingly higher. However, my intent was never to frustrate people nor to create encounters that are so difficult they end in a TPK. If that was the result, I apologize.
Specifically in regards to Encounter 9 The Dreaming Vaults -- the intent of this encounter is for the PCs to be able to interact with the puzzles. I didn't go to the trouble of creating those puzzles just for them to sit around un-used.
DMs, please heed the advice throughout the encounter, particularly the Troubleshooting section on page 39, which contains ways to make it easier. Also, please note the following:
* Only 1 aboleth remnant and 1 aboleth opener should be present on round 1. The others arrive on round 2. This could have been made more clear in the text, so it's easy to miss.
* Please don't bottleneck the PCs away from the control panels. Then my beautiful puzzles will never get any love.
* The PCs get a benefit for each control panel they solve. See page 38, right-hand column.
* The entire party takes no damage from the Dream Manifestation on any round in which even a single PCs gets even one success at a control panel. Thus, it is possible the PCs will never take any damage from the Dream Manifestation, which is fine.
* When the aboleth openers have a PC dominated, they don't order that PCs to run away and provoke multiple opportunity attacks. That's just cheesy. (They would rather order the PC to attack an ally, which was my intent in using a creature that can dominate.)
In retrospect, this encounter is more complicated than it needs to be (I blame the Far Realms influence), so it's not the DM's fault if he or she misses something. Thanks to AH_Iceman for his kind words and to comicbradsell for his mixture of kind words and legitimate criticisms. (Brad and I know each other in real life, so he knows I'm just teasing.)
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1 year ago ::
Feb 22, 2012 - 1:55AM
#5
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Date Joined:
May 11, 2005
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I liked playing the adventure with my character who got imprisoned in SPEC3-3. Just would have liked... Spoiler:
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to keep that aquatic condition...
or perhaps earn back one of the rewards we missed in SPEC3-3.
Deep Speech is also cool though ... just not something that gets used much.
Gomez
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1 year ago ::
Feb 22, 2012 - 3:30PM
#6
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Date Joined:
Mar 13, 2008
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I'm going to DM this for my AC that will save me. But I was wondering, my character that was captured in SPEC3-3 has gone paragon in that adventure and will not be able to play either SPEC4-1 or SPEC4-2. Does anything happen to him after being rescued at the end of the adventure, even without playing either of them?
Or does my character forever keep the SPEC50 story award without gaining (or losing) something from the conclusion of this pair of adventures?
Heroic Dungeon Master
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1 year ago ::
Feb 22, 2012 - 6:00PM
#7
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Date Joined:
Apr 25, 2002
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I liked playing the adventure with my character who got imprisoned in SPEC3-3.
Just would have liked...
Spoiler:
Show
to keep that aquatic condition...
or perhaps earn back one of the rewards we missed in SPEC3-3.
Deep Speech is also cool though ... just not something that gets used much.
Gomez
+1. Liked the mod a lot, but totally agree with Gomez.
Also one more thing with imprisoned in SPEC3-3 relating to this
Spoiler:
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I think the 'roll a 1' ought to have been a daily option where you turn it over on a 1 instead of an encounter option - hand them out to the PCs affected by this. Stunned(Save ends) if you don't have Superior Will is nasty if it turns up for more than one encounter...it didn't for me, but it easily could have. Or on that 1, reroll the attack, but Stunned(save ends) afterwards, or something similar.
NETH4-1 Containing Shadow (co-author) Handbooks
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Builds
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1 year ago ::
Feb 22, 2012 - 7:51PM
#8
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my character that was captured in SPEC3-3 has gone paragon in that adventure and will not be able to play either SPEC4-1 or SPEC4-2. Does anything happen to him after being rescued at the end of the adventure, even without playing either of them?
Your character is trapped in a hellish mental limbo, unable to make the screaming stop as the psionic tentacles bore into his flesh. Forever.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 22, 2012 - 8:33PM
#9
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I played this twice @ DDXP. First time was run by a DM who clearly had prepped the mod and it was fantastic. Final encounter was quite challenging - scraping for every last Dazing power and forced movement in our arsenal to get past bottlenecks. Second time I played, the DM was less prepared, having been brought on to run the mod cold (although I think he playtested it). The run was less polished, but still quite entertaining as my Githzerai monk... Spoiler:
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was ready to murder the Mind Flayer captive in cold blood Good effort, sir - I hope to see more from you in the future.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 22, 2012 - 11:15PM
#10
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Date Joined:
Mar 13, 2008
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my character that was captured in SPEC3-3 has gone paragon in that adventure and will not be able to play either SPEC4-1 or SPEC4-2. Does anything happen to him after being rescued at the end of the adventure, even without playing either of them?
Your character is trapped in a hellish mental limbo, unable to make the screaming stop as the psionic tentacles bore into his flesh. Forever.
That would be extremely less interesting than the SPEC50 story award indicates 
Heroic Dungeon Master
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