I've read through the whole adventure now, and I really like it, but I have a question about the party's motivation towards the end. It seems like the adventure flows very well for the first half, leading the characters where they need to be and making sense at the same time. Towards the end it seems to lose the drive, or maybe I'm just missing it.
Basically I'm worried that the adventure will lost steam half-way through once the party gets out of the ruined temple. At that point it will be time for my Solamnic hopeful to become a Knight of the Crown and the mage to take her Test. With all this going on I foresee the party losing focus and not making it a major point to get to Kendermore, or even go near Port Balifor. Now if I have to come up with lots of side stories, trying to bring them back on track, the group is going to be higher level for the end of the adventure...
If they get to Port Balifor we've got the Kender angle to encourage them to head towards Kendermore and get back on track. No problem.
Once we get the party to Kendermore the adventure seems to lose detail. The previous sections really have alot to do, but in Kendermore there is really only one encounter and that should lead directly to them heading to the Peak, and they have not found anything in Kendermore relating to the Key or the Shard of Light like Uleena said they would.
So it's time for a rescue mission in the Peak. It seems unclear to me when the party encounters the Phalanx Ant colony. Perhaps it should happen quickly to deter the party from walking right into the ogre city or dragonspawn city. Yes, my group is dumb enough to do that.
The end seems a little anti-climactic. Yay, you killed the dragonspawn beastie, find a Dragonlance (I mean, they aren't supposed to really know it's Huma's yet, right?), and save a few Kender. It seems like there is no further plot development here. What's up with the Key? What is it they are supposed to find out? I realize it's really a matter of setting the stage for the rest of the adventure, but where do they go from here?
Ok, so reading through my post here it seems like I'm griping an awful lot. I really don't mean to come off that way, I just really want to make this adventure as good as I can for my players. I'm really not the most experienced DM and I haven't done it in several years to top that off.
Basically I'm worried that the adventure will lost steam half-way through once the party gets out of the ruined temple. At that point it will be time for my Solamnic hopeful to become a Knight of the Crown and the mage to take her Test.
to borrow a page from Cam's playbook, you could conceivably have the dark knights kidnap the mage that administers the wizard tests in Ak Khurman (forgot her name) and have the party give chase, ending in Port Balifor. That will bring them into direct contact with the dark knights, which will most likely result in their NEEDING to find a place to hide, which is a great time to bring in the Kender, and further mentioning Kendermore.
With all this going on I foresee the party losing focus and not making it a major point to get to Kendermore, or even go near Port Balifor. Now if I have to come up with lots of side stories, trying to bring them back on track, the group is going to be higher level for the end of the adventure...
Then you can up the challenge rating of the encounters. Maybe throw some more 'goon' type characters that accompany nastier critters for encounters. This should be pretty easy to scale. As for the motivation, don't try to follow the book word for word, but rather as a plot device with lots of flavor already added. Try to personalize it a bit. For my group, one of the characters lost a kender friend a while back. Finding out that they need to go to Kendermore would be a great place to search, and discovering that there are kender imprisoned there is all that much more intriguing.
If they get to Port Balifor we've got the Kender angle to encourage them to head towards Kendermore and get back on track. No problem.
Correct
Once we get the party to Kendermore the adventure seems to lose detail. The previous sections really have alot to do, but in Kendermore there is really only one encounter and that should lead directly to them heading to the Peak, and they have not found anything in Kendermore relating to the Key or the Shard of Light like Uleena said they would.
Perhaps make it so the group runs across the kender there that is fighting the ogres. Help him out, then maybe he can 'have some information' on where some of the entrances to the volcano are, maybe which ones look like they are actively being used, etc.
So it's time for a rescue mission in the Peak. It seems unclear to me when the party encounters the Phalanx Ant colony. Perhaps it should happen quickly to deter the party from walking right into the ogre city or dragonspawn city. Yes, my group is dumb enough to do that.
I don't have the book in front of me, but IIRC, the Phalanx ants are a random encounter, plus, if you enter one of the upper plumes, you automatically run into them. Again, you could have the kender the group rescues point them toward that area. As for steering them clear of the ogre city, you could have them spot large hunting parties coming and going from the entrance closest to their entrance. Sheer numbers should be a good deterant from going there, if they are stup, I mean crazy enough to go there anyway for a fight, then they reap what they sow. Of course give them a chance to escape, but they would have alerted the ogres at that point, and will have them to deal with more often. Maybe make ogre scouting parties a more prominent encounter chance while in the area.
The end seems a little anti-climactic. Yay, you killed the dragonspawn beastie, find a Dragonlance (I mean, they aren't supposed to really know it's Huma's yet, right?), and save a few Kender. It seems like there is no further plot development here. What's up with the Key? What is it they are supposed to find out? I realize it's really a matter of setting the stage for the rest of the adventure, but where do they go from here?
Ok, so reading through my post here it seems like I'm griping an awful lot. I really don't mean to come off that way, I just really want to make this adventure as good as I can for my players. I'm really not the most experienced DM and I haven't done it in several years to top that off.
The next book, Spectre of Sorrows is due out sometime around november, so that should answer a lot of your questions. If you find that your group is progressing through the adventure too fast, then encourage side quests, anything to bide for more time. Like you said, this book sets the stage, so defeating the dragonspawn shouldn't be the equivalent of something monumental like killing Takhasis. You can't have the group fighting and killing MAJOR characters too often, or it starts to lose impact. Don't think of it so much as the end of the book, just a stopping point for the next book to take off from. Besides, I don't think anyone but Chris Coyle and the Sovereign Press guys 'n gals really know what is coming up next, so we're all in this proverbial boat together.
Good luck, and hope some of these suggestions help. :D
Originally posted by iconherder
I'm DM'ing a new Key of Destiny game, my group had our first session earlier this week and we got through the Sylvan key adventure in the DLCS, so now I'm all set for KoD.
The Sylvan Key is a pretty short adventure; it is meant IMO to set the PCs up for the Key of Destiny adventure.
I've read through the whole adventure now, and I really like it, but I have a question about the party's motivation towards the end. It seems like the adventure flows very well for the first half, leading the characters where they need to be and making sense at the same time. Towards the end it seems to lose the drive, or maybe I'm just missing it.
Basically I'm worried that the adventure will lost steam half-way through once the party gets out of the ruined temple. At that point it will be time for my Solamnic hopeful to become a Knight of the Crown and the mage to take her Test. With all this going on I foresee the party losing focus and not making it a major point to get to Kendermore, or even go near Port Balifor. Now if I have to come up with lots of side stories, trying to bring them back on track, the group is going to be higher level for the end of the adventure...
IMO the best part of the adventure starts once they leave the ruins. To me the ruins is a good section of the module but it still reeks slightly of hack 'n' slash. Which is not a bad thing every now and then. Most of the side plots and role playing opportunities I have set up come in once the PCs reach Ak Khurman. For instance if you have a wizard PC well you can add some depth to Zoe Left-Hand since she is to be the one responsible for administering the Test of High Sorcery in Ak Khurman.
On another note you have the chic that is masquerading as a Legionnaire but is in actuality a dark knight. Add some depth to her as well.
If they get to Port Balifor we've got the Kender angle to encourage them to head towards Kendermore and get back on track. No problem.
Once we get the party to Kendermore the adventure seems to lose detail. The previous sections really have alot to do, but in Kendermore there is really only one encounter and that should lead directly to them heading to the Peak, and they have not found anything in Kendermore relating to the Key or the Shard of Light like Uleena said they would.
Do you have the Bestiary of Krynn ? If so then add more encounters in. There is also an encounter table that has a good deal of encounters for Kendermore.
So it's time for a rescue mission in the Peak. It seems unclear to me when the party encounters the Phalanx Ant colony. Perhaps it should happen quickly to deter the party from walking right into the ogre city or dragonspawn city. Yes, my group is dumb enough to do that.
Then your group needs to meet the ant colony quickly.
The end seems a little anti-climactic. Yay, you killed the dragonspawn beastie, find a Dragonlance (I mean, they aren't supposed to really know it's Huma's yet, right?), and save a few Kender. It seems like there is no further plot development here. What's up with the Key? What is it they are supposed to find out? I realize it's really a matter of setting the stage for the rest of the adventure, but where do they go from here?
It is not meant to be a climax. The biggest threat to the PCs has not even been revealed fully as of yet. My advice is stop rushing through the adventure it sounds, although I may be wrong, as if your group is hack happy and is just jumping from one encounter to the next. That really takes alot of fun out of the game. Have they even taken times to develop their characters outside of looking at how high their Strength scores are ? What kind of group do you play with ? Do they even like to role play or are they just dice rollers ?
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Originally posted by LordofIllusions
It is not meant to be a climax. The biggest threat to the PCs has not even been revealed fully as of yet. My advice is stop rushing through the adventure it sounds, although I may be wrong, as if your group is hack happy and is just jumping from one encounter to the next. That really takes alot of fun out of the game. Have they even taken times to develop their characters outside of looking at how high their Strength scores are ? What kind of group do you play with ? Do they even like to role play or are they just dice rollers ?
One of the things you really have to be careful with when making statements like these or asking questions such as "do you like to roleplay" is avoiding the stereotype that puts "real roleplayers" on one side and "hack & slashers" on the other.
I don't think anybody would be at all surprised to hear that my campaign has a lot of story elements, introduced not just by myself from the written module and from my own ideas, but by the players themselves. A great deal of roleplaying goes on. But it's also true that, as a group of late 20's to early 30's gamers with kids, 9-5 jobs, other hobbies, graduate study work, and other time-consuming things, we don't want to get together for 4 hours a week and not come away having indulged in a lot of pretend violence.
There is a lot of combat, use of rules, cinematic action, looking up what spells do what, miniatures & battlemat, rolling of piles of dice, scribbling down of notes on character sheets, going up levels, picking up treasure and earning XP. We have tactical sessions where players work out the best way to approach a trio of dangerously powerful dark knights, or survive a tunnel filled with dragonspawn and sewer water. The rules, and the use of the rules to give a so-called hack & slash experience, generates so much roleplay and story that if I didn't include it, I may as well throw away the books and freeform the whole thing.
And, well, I don't want that, my players don't want that, and I would suggest the majority of the D&D audience don't want it either.
Roleplaying and rollplaying are not exclusive. The most rewarding experience, for Dragonlance and other D&D settings, is going to come from combining it together. And therefore, looking down our noses at somebody for worrying too much about combat or their next power-up item is about as ridiculous as looking down our noses at somebody for wanting to talk to the ogres instead of pull out the battlemat.
Cheers,
Cam
Originally posted by Sysane
If your looking to drag out the mode you could always run the other short adventures from the DLCH. I'd suggested the Ghost Blade one as a side trek. That was a pretty cool one IMO.
The thing that he/she would have to worry about when running Ghost Blade is what level it was intended for. I may be mistaken, since I cannot access my Dungeons and Dragons collection right now, but isn't Ghost Blade an adventure intended for use with characters of a higher level ?
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Originally posted by Cam Banks
One of the things you really have to be careful with when making statements like these or asking questions such as "do you like to roleplay" is avoiding the stereotype that puts "real roleplayers" on one side and "hack & slashers" on the other.
I don't think anybody would be at all surprised to hear that my campaign has a lot of story elements, introduced not just by myself from the written module and from my own ideas, but by the players themselves. A great deal of roleplaying goes on. But it's also true that, as a group of late 20's to early 30's gamers with kids, 9-5 jobs, other hobbies, graduate study work, and other time-consuming things, we don't want to get together for 4 hours a week and not come away having indulged in a lot of pretend violence.
There is a lot of combat, use of rules, cinematic action, looking up what spells do what, miniatures & battlemat, rolling of piles of dice, scribbling down of notes on character sheets, going up levels, picking up treasure and earning XP. We have tactical sessions where players work out the best way to approach a trio of dangerously powerful dark knights, or survive a tunnel filled with dragonspawn and sewer water. The rules, and the use of the rules to give a so-called hack & slash experience, generates so much roleplay and story that if I didn't include it, I may as well throw away the books and freeform the whole thing.
And, well, I don't want that, my players don't want that, and I would suggest the majority of the D&D audience don't want it either.
Roleplaying and rollplaying are not exclusive. The most rewarding experience, for Dragonlance and other D&D settings, is going to come from combining it together. And therefore, looking down our noses at somebody for worrying too much about combat or their next power-up item is about as ridiculous as looking down our noses at somebody for wanting to talk to the ogres instead of pull out the battlemat.
Cheers,
Cam
Well the above is all well and good. Nothing in my statement/question implies that I frown on combat; if I did I would not have fighting in my campaigns. It does ask questions in order to find out what kind of group this particular DM entertains in hopes of giving some advice to help out his/her campaign.
Contrary to what you may want to see in my post it says nothing about frowning upon people that want to fight every now and then. I am just making it clear that if his/her group is jumping from encounter to encounter with no role playing at all the adventure is going to move along quickly and your going to be left with alot of time on your hands unless you spend time developing some of the open ended hooks Chris left in the module.
Too much fighting and no role playing = A very quick adventure because your flying from one encounter to the next. If that is what his/her group is doing then he/she should expect to speed through the adventure and have the players wandering around looking for what they have to fight next; since that is all they are doing(Hypothetically speaking.).
I don't know what kind of group this is hence the reason for the questions.
~~~
Originally posted by LordofIllusions
Well the above is all well and good. Nothing in my statement/question implies that I frown on combat; if I did I would not have fighting in my campaigns. It does ask questions in order to find out what kind of group this particular DM entertains in hopes of giving some advice to help out his/her campaign.
Right. Hence, why I noted that it's always good to be careful when asking those questions not to come across as somebody on the real roleplaying vs. hack & slash debate. I'm not accusing you of being anything of the sort, however. Nice to hear you like to focus on combat as much as the next guy.
Cheers,
Cam
Originally posted by Cam Banks
Right. Hence, why I noted that it's always good to be careful when asking those questions not to come across as somebody on the real roleplaying vs. hack & slash debate. I'm not accusing you of being anything of the sort, however. Nice to hear you like to focus on combat as much as the next guy.
Cheers,
Cam
Combat is an integral part of the Dungeons and Dragons role playing game. One of my best combat scenarios was the very first encounter in The Sylvan Key. Kybo(The Rogue) , Jitatha(The Barbarian), and Nyatar(The Wizard) overheard the man threatening the kender. Jitatha and Kybo decided to quietly move closer to see what was going on in the alley.
Nyatar's player had never been in a Dungeons and Dragons combat session ever; as a matter of fact this was only his second time playing DnD period. So while the Rogue and Wizard are moving closer and trying to figure out how to handle the situation the wizard decides to charge into the alleyway, past the other two characters who looked at him(Out of character) like he had grown another ear, screaming at the top of his lungs to attack the men in the alley. He got knocked out in the first round. He just totally disregarded our warnings, and advice, against placing a wizard character in melee. :D
~~~
Originally posted by frostdawn
to borrow a page from Cam's playbook, you could conceivably have the dark knights kidnap the mage that administers the wizard tests in Ak Khurman (forgot her name) and have the party give chase, ending in Port Balifor. That will bring them into direct contact with the dark knights, which will most likely result in their NEEDING to find a place to hide, which is a great time to bring in the Kender, and further mentioning Kendermore.
That sounds like a pretty neat idea! That gets some real potential for intrigue, which I would really like to try to do.
Originally posted by frostdawn Then you can up the challenge rating of the encounters...
I'm already having to up the challenge rating as I have a fairly large group. Another one of my challenges in this campaign. I was going to make another post about that though. What I'm really worried about is having the characters get too high in level during this adventure because it could throw the next two modules out of whack. Maybe I shouldn't really worry about it, besides my group desperately wants to take this party to epic level someday...
Originally posted by LordOfIllusions It is not meant to be a climax. The biggest threat to the PCs has not even been revealed fully as of yet. My advice is stop rushing through the adventure it sounds, although I may be wrong, as if your group is hack happy and is just jumping from one encounter to the next. That really takes alot of fun out of the game. Have they even taken times to develop their characters outside of looking at how high their Strength scores are ? What kind of group do you play with ? Do they even like to role play or are they just dice rollers ?
Yeah, I guess I was thinking of this a little too much like a book trilogy in terms of story arc. I get what you're saying, so OK, there's no climax.
My group is a strange mix. They aren't all hack'n'slash all the time, they really lean toward what Cam describes in his post. I'm not trying to rush things, we've had one night so far and that got us through that little Sylvan Key intro, which would seem to be an OK pace since that's really all about getting the key from Pegrin and his goons.
I've got 7 locals and 1 remote for players. Yeah, big group, maybe not the best idea I've ever had. But our first session went pretty well all things considered. I guess I'll go ahead and describe my 8...
1) Human Cleric - hopes to be a Knight of the Rose someday. Experienced player, leans toward hack'n'slash and min-maxes alot.
2) Human Monk - Ergothian, is going to lead his character in worshipping Majere since the gods have returned. Experienced player, good with role-playing, min-maxes alot.
3) Human Fighter - not really sure where he's taking the char yet, originally thought about Solamnic. Completely unfamiliar with Dragonlance setting. Experienced player, excellent role-player.
4) Dwarven Fighter - just playing up the Dwarf bit. Experienced player, good role-player.
5) Afflicted Kender Thief - remote player. This is a bit of an experiment with a friend who moved far away. Playing via webcam basically. Not too familiar with Dragonlance. Experienced player, decent role-player, min-maxes a little.
6) Silvanesti Wizard - Total newbie. Loves Dragonlance. Alot.
7) Kender 'Handler' - Newbie, played once or twice a decade ago. Read one Dragonlance book and liked it.
8) Human Ranger - heading towards sorceress and we're working on an Arcane Archer-like prestige class. She basically wants to play a Diablo 2 Amazon. Total newbie, knows nothing of Dragonlance.
Hopefully none of them will read this thread, since it's marked as spoiler material. #1 would probably get pissy about being called hack'n'slash.
Anyway, there's the group. It sort of snowballed. I'm still a little dubious about the remote player. Combat seems ok, but other than that he isn't able to participate much. I've got my work cut out for me keeping the session on track with that many people, but I'm counting on some help from a few of the more experienced players in that area.
I appreciate your comments guys, thanks.
Originally posted by frostdawn
[b]QUOTE]Originally posted by iconherder
to borrow a page from Cam's playbook, you could conceivably have the dark knights kidnap the mage that administers the wizard tests in Ak Khurman (forgot her name) and have the party give chase, ending in Port Balifor. That will bring them into direct contact with the dark knights, which will most likely result in their NEEDING to find a place to hide, which is a great time to bring in the Kender, and further mentioning Kendermore.
Thinking back on this some, brings two things to mind. One, you could conceivably have your group rescue Zoe, then retreat to Kendermore in order to get away from the dark knights giving pursuit. Zoe could administer the test once in Kendermore (and free from being chased by knights), and that would be rather interesting. Illusions provided by Zoe, as well as some of the actual monsters in the area could make for an interesting test for the WoHS to be.
Speaking of which, I've found that the wizard test actually requires a bit more work than running the adventure. Do you have any ideas on what you might like to do for the test when the time comes?
6) Silvanesti Wizard - Total newbie. Loves Dragonlance. Alot.
If your intending on picking up the Tower of High Sorcery sourcebook once it comes out you may want to have this character run into Zoe Left-Hand and take the Test of High Sorcery. That will provide one sidequest for you at least.
If you are not intending on picking up the ToHS accessory then you can find a small summary on the tests in yet another KoD thread, I am not sure which one, where Chris was posting pieces that were left out of the module by mistake.
~~~
Originally posted by LordofIllusions
IMO the best part of the adventure starts once they leave the ruins. To me the ruins is a good section of the module but it still reeks slightly of hack 'n' slash.
The ruins of Hurim have the best 'flavor text' and descriptions of any section of the book, but I agree, the roleplaying aspect of the book really starts to take off after they leave the ruins, and can start interacting with NPCs that will talk to them, versus try to kill them/steal their soul. :D
By the way, how far into the adventure are you guys now LOI and Cam?
I'm a little worried actually about party interaction. If I end up with a Wizard who is a member of the Tower of High Sorcery, which she totally intends to do, and I have a sorceress in the party...
Yikes!
Originally posted by iconherder
Yeah, I'm anxiously awaiting the Tower of High Sorcery book. At about that same time I'm going to have to get my Solamnic hopeful instated as a knight too. Fun times!
I'm a little worried actually about party interaction. If I end up with a Wizard who is a member of the Tower of High Sorcery, which she totally intends to do, and I have a sorceress in the party...
Yikes!
That's one of the best parts of RPGs, the character interaction, and sometimes inner party conflict can spawn a gaming session all it's own. If they have become good friends during their adventure (the characters, not necessarily the players) then maybe the wizard will just employ 'peer pressure'- "you know, you really should become a WoHS, there are all kinds of perks..." etc etc. The sorcerer could retort with "provided you survive the silly test, and can still walk away if you survive.
Then again, I think the general policy for the time being is that the WoHS are rather weak, and don't have a lot of members, so they won't be able to enforce rules against renegades and sorcerers like they did in ages past. The WoHS might ask the new wizard to keep an eye on the sorcerer, and make sure they don't do anything too terrible. Remember, the WoHS are newly formed, and their ranks have been thinned quite a bit over the years, so unless the sorcerer becomes a true nuisance, they most likely will turn a blind eye toward that character for a good bit of time.
Originally posted by frostdawn
By the way, how far into the adventure are you guys now LOI and Cam?
My group met last Sunday to play, and they're currently in Port Balifor. I'm playing up this part of the campaign as being somewhat more like a Mediterranean pirate movie set in the Greek islands, as Port Balifor is a lot like an old Greek fishing town filled with unsavory characters. There's a lot of running about in tunnels carved into the cliffs, streets roughly paved with slabs of stone taken from other buildings, the weather is always sort of gloomy and warm, and evening in the town is notable for its hanging lanterns on street porches, accordian and bazouki music, revelry, and skullduggery.
The heroes limped into the cave harbor on board their ship, the Perinchief, and the two surviving crewmembers recommended they get the heck out of the dockside area and into town, to avoid Nerakan patrols. At Hope's End, they met a new player character, a dwarven ranger and grandson of Helsfar Stonesplitter by the name of Therol. Therol and his enormous bulldog animal companion recognized the others as likeminded invididuals, especially when the topic of dark knights came up. He helped them escape Hope's End when the Nerakans showed up, and in classic Dragonlance fashion they ran out the back through the kitchen (setting fire to it in the process) and into the cliff tunnels that connected a number of residences and businesses in the town.
Therol got them a place to stay (his family's Underground Inn) and information on Gloom Town. They knew that Kronn Thistleknot was a Legion of Steel contact point, so the next day they travelled into the ruined quarter and dodged enough traps that the afflicted kender finally caught up with them. Brought before Kronn, they came to the conclusion that he's a cross between a kender and Hannibal Smith (from the A-Team). He's actually modelled on Wolverine, but the general idea came across, I suppose.
Kronn's now agreed that if the heroes promise to go into the Desolation for him to investigate Kendermore and locate his missing agents, he'll help them investigate one of the two Nerakan compounds in the city and hopefully find Zoe Left-Hand. He sent Blight, his son, off with them into the sewer system underneath part of Port Balifor, where they encountered red dragonspawn and began to realize that there were a lot of secret allegiances and factions among the Dark Knights.
A ventilation shaft (yes, the dwarves were responsible for this too) led up from the tunnels and gave the heroes an ear into the office of the dark knights. They overheard a meeting between Ulric, the Ergothian sub-commander looking after things in Port Balifor for General Dogah, and a band of Thorn Knights with shaved heads and fire emblems tattooed on their foreheads, who were the knights in control of Darkhaven up the coast. These are former servants of Malys, but something else was going on... they were promising their help to Dogah's Lily faction if the Red Robe mage were handed over to them and taken up to Darkhaven.
We left it there, with the heroes learning that the dark knights were planning a united attack upon Ak-Khurman, with red dragonspawn allies, powerful sorcery, and some mysterious references to their "mistress" at the Peak of Malys and something called a Stone of Three...
Cheers,
Cam
Originally posted by frostdawn
The ruins of Hurim have the best 'flavor text' and descriptions of any section of the book, but I agree, the roleplaying aspect of the book really starts to take off after they leave the ruins, and can start interacting with NPCs that will talk to them, versus try to kill them/steal their soul. :D
By the way, how far into the adventure are you guys now LOI and Cam?
My players are currently investigating the tower in the ruins of Hurim. They just met Shroud last session.
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Originally posted by Sysane
Currently in my campaign the players have just come back for Pegrin's camp with the key and the lives (barely). They just have bunked down for the night at the Five Dragons Inn (after being lead there thru the chase by the mysterious stranger) and received some healing from Emaline Yaseth after befriending her.
Pegrin's crew did some damage eh ? The barbarian in my campaign squared off against Pegrin, alone, and cleaned his clock with one swing of her great axe.
;)
~~~
Later, our little band of misfits arrived in Hurim valley late in the afternoon, and after some scouting, it was about night time. What was amusing was after hearing the 'flavor text' for the chilling fog and sense of foreboding in the valley, they figured checking out any of the buildings at night was asking for trouble, so they decided to camp out in the open (to see anything approaching them) by the fallow fields.
The encounter table is set up nicely to allow for lots of encounters, especially at night, so of course, things really picked up. They were beset by a group of zombies, and the session ended after that little skirmish. Gonna be a looooong night for the weary travellers.
~~~
The players also had no issue with getting away from the Dark Knights after the beggar combusted.
They are currently in the sewers beneath Pashin after begin lead there by the elf Naelathan. The last part of the session consisted of the party getting torn appart by the dire rats. Next session I have to roll to see if the wounded contract filth fever.
Ran my second session of KoD. Had the 4 characters meet the new 5th player thru the encounter with the drunk ogre. That ogre couldn't hit squat with all the penalties from being trashed.
LoL. Garthak has a personal vendetta against the PCs in my campaign. He holds the PCs personally responsible for his imprisonment on the night in which he attacked them(As if they forced him to lunge out at them from the alley
). As a matter of fact I just finished writing out a cut scene that involves Garthak in the latter portions of the module. That is if the players do not kill him first.
~~~
I might still you idea and have him come back for revenge. I might have him team up with the thief who escaped from Pegrin's camp. He has also sworn venegance against the party.
Originally posted by Sysane
I was going to have Garthak help them if they were caught by the Dark Knights but the party managed to get away (I hate chase encounters in RPGs. I Never know how to run them).
I might still you idea and have him come back for revenge. I might have him team up with the thief who escaped from Pegrin's camp. He has also sworn venegance against the party.
Feel free to take an ideas of mine you think will do well for your campaign Sysane. My PCs gave the dark knights a heck of a time when they were in Pashin.
~~~
All that because Derg stole some things from them. The group decided to take Cole along with them- until the Dark Knights started questioning them. The group hasn't seen Cole since, so that leaves so many options available for him later.
Originally posted by frostdawn
The group hasn't seen Cole since, so that leaves so many options available for him later.
This reminds me. I gave Cole a last name for my campaign - Shatterstone. I'm not sure if any of my players cottoned on to that...
Cheers,
Cam
Thats priceless!
Originally posted by Sysane
The best part about Cole is that right in the mod its states he pleads with the party to let him go back to his mother.
Thats priceless!
I played off of that a little. He saw the rest of his "friends" basically get slaughtered by the group, so he didn't put up much of a resistance. I played him off as the angsty, conflicted, run away from home kinda teenager. The group questioned him until he fessed up that he ran away from home, so the group swore to return him there, and steer him away from the path of evil he was sure to follow if left on his own (as evidenced by his following Pegrin and Derg). He was ridiculed by the group a bit, so he might want to get back at them later for that...
Originally posted by Frostdawn
The group decided to take Cole along with them- until the Dark Knights started questioning them. The group hasn't seen Cole since, so that leaves so many options available for him later.
The run-in with Cole was very brief for my adventuring group. They barely paid him any attention; other than the barbarian snatching him up by the neck to question him.
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