# Durn's War of Fire and Ice Campaign Discussion



## Daern

Hi, I am about to begin a new 4e campaign and I have decided to try running WotBS.  I will post write-ups here as I do them.  I would also like to discuss various modifications people have done to iron out the kinks/shine a light on the best parts.  For instance, I understand the Restless Dead encounter is problematic so I am thinking of dropping that.  (I am running a prologue session to introduce the setting and characters, which will give me leeway to drop extraneous encounters.)
Since I won't start "Scouring" for another week or two, I thought I'd post a version of Torrent I made with the DMG2 companion rules.  I think I'll make simplified versions like this of all the NPCs.  
Any input is welcome!
Cheers

*Ahleena of the Torrents*
Level 2 Controller (Leader) Initiative +1; Senses Perception +4 Speed 5
HP 30          Bloodied 15      AC 17;           Fortitude 15, Reflex 15, Will 15         Healing Surges: 9  at 7hp

Mace:  (std; at-will)   +8 vs. AC; 1d8+3 damage. 
Tidal Force (std; at-will) Divine, Force, Ranged 10; +7 vs. Reflex; 1d8+5 force damage 
·one ally Torrent can see may shift 3 squares as a free action. 
Crashing Wave (std; enc) * Divine,   Mace +8 vs. AC; 1d8+3 damage
·the target is dazed until the end of Torrent’s next turn.
Ocean Shield (std; daily) * Divine Close Burst 5; 
·all allies in burst gain a +2 power bonus to AC until the end of the encounter. 
Healing Word (minor; 2/enc [1/rd]) * Divine, Healing Ranged 5; 
·the target spends a healing surge +3 hp. 

Alignment Good;  Languages Common;  Skills Athletics +7, Diplomacy +7, Heal +9, Religion +6 
Str 15 (+3) Dex 10 (+1) Wis 16 (+4)  Con 13 (+2) Int 11 (+1) Cha 13 (+2) 
Equipment: mace, small shield, chainmail armor, +2 Amulet of the Lady of the Lake (The Kraken)


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## John Doom

My group just finished The Scouring of Gate Pass and from what they tell me they really enjoyed it. I kept most everything the same as it was recommended in the adventure, although they skipped a few fights by making good role-play and skill challenge choices, but they'll never know. 

Regarding that Dead Rising encounter, it does seem somewhat out of place there. If you do run it, drop the burst damage to 2d6 rather than 3d6+infinity or whatever it was. If you choose not to, I would add another encounter with the Black Horse guys while you're still in the city to really push that group as pursuing the heroes and causing trouble where they can. 

Hopefully that helps a bit. I hope your group enjoys the game as much as mine has! Good luck!


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## talarei07

i had to bump up boreas a lot at the end but other than that there wasnt much i had to change although i had add a black horse encounter after the white wyrms killed all but one pc


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## EugeneZ

I wish I had bumped boreas, too... hm. Oh well, I'll just have to make future inquisitors harder to make up for it.


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## Daern

Boreas is the final encounter outside the farmhouse? What about the encounter could be improved?  
About the White Wyrm encounter, what do y'all think about reflavoring that as a "Black Horse" encounter to push that story thread?
Otherwise, yeah, reading these boards has me excited about the adventure and the series.


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## talarei07

yes the final encounter. i made him an elite. the only problem with making it black horse is the current bad guys are very thematically different, the black horse dont use arcanists for obvious reasons. it can be a difficult encounter with the flyer and the potential for getting bottle-necked between the boxes. if you were gonna change it to black horse i would suggest turning the wizard into some sort of archer to keep the ranged threat there


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## EugeneZ

And also, the White Wyrm terrorists make a return in future adventures.

Regarding Boreas, the encounter can be improved by making him much, much harder -- an elite at least, with an extra power or two (close burst 2?) He's far too easy and his presence didn't make nearly the impact it should have with the players. The encounter with Boreas should instill the players with a fear, a fear which drivers them into the forest. As it was, they only really went in there passively because Torrent was pushing them.


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## Daern

Ah, the White Wyrms return.  That's good to know.  
I'll definitely make Boreas an elite.  Maybe make his Rebuke an immediate reaction against arcane powers.  Looking at it, I could probably re-do alot of those powers.  More skeletons would help to.  

That's a good point about making them flee into the forest.  I'll emphasize "there's more of us where i came from". 
Similarly I think the Flaganus Mortus encounter should put the fear into them to get out of the city.

One thing I'm wondering about is the plan to go through the Burning Forest.  Why don't they want to Shahalesti through the Singing Chasm?  Is it because the Eladrin are still allied to the Ragesians?

Thanks for all the replies!


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## talarei07

gate pass wants remain free siding with the shahalesti doesnt accomplish that. i think


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## Morrus

Durn said:


> One thing I'm wondering about is the plan to go through the Burning Forest. Why don't they want to Shahalesti through the Singing Chasm?




Because Shahalesti is in the opposite direction!  They'd then have to turn around and go back through Gate Pass to get to Seaquen!


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## sfedi

Morrus said:


> Because Shahalesti is in the opposite direction!  They'd then have to turn around and go back through Gate Pass to get to Seaquen!



Yes , it is longer, but since you are not travelling a forest on fire, and you are going through a civilized area, you could go faster (on horse, through roads) and thenyou could catch a ship.

One of my groups actually wanted to do that, and I had a very hard time convincing them otherwise.

On the matter of the White Wyrms encounter, I recommend NOT to replace it with a Black Horse encounter, it should instead reinforce the idea of how a Ragesian cell operates within a city, as this turns out to be important in the third adventure.

I also recommend that you read all adventures if you can, specially the third one.

On the Inquisitor's Attack encounter, I was going to open a thread about that.


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## RangerWickett

The way I figure it, Shahalesti's at war too, so anyone coming out of Gate Pass who isn't a known citizen of Shahalesti is going to run into trouble, probably get picked up on suspicion of being a spy, and potentially detained for a long while. If you consider how the Shahalesti envoys who show up at Seaquen in adventure 3 try to dictate terms to ambassadors of other nations, you can imagine that a few random travelers won't warrant much respect.

Torrent and the Resistance would know this, so they take the direct route.

Of course, if the PCs decide to take the scenic route, well, you can just replace adventure 2 with something different. They get to see how frustrating the Shahalesti are in person, but perhaps they catch a break and get permission to go on to Seaquen. Maybe they can even travel with Shalosha to Seaquen, and deal with a saboteur on board.

The main problem is that this skips over a key bit of foreshadowing, since the party doesn't get a chance to run into a trillith until adventure 4. So in that case, I'd try to get the PCs on a ship to Seaquen, and have Kazyk the devil hire pirates, and make the saboteur on board be Deception.

The pirates attack once, get rebuffed, but during the confusion Deception replaces the captain, who takes them out to deeper waters to 'avoid the pirates.' Deception wants them to head to an island, where a fellow trillith lives, but is trapped. This trillith controls the seas around the island, and once they're in, they cannot sail free without either releasing or killing the trillith.

Yeah, that would work. Kind of messes with themes a bit, since I wanted to play up the 'fire' aspect in a campaign called Burning Sky, but I figure it'd be a bit too obvious if the PCs dodged a 'fire forest' and instead came upon a 'fire island.' Hm. Maybe a volcanic island, though.

Anyway, you've got options there, if the party doesn't want to follow the preferred course of the adventure. Let them detour for a few sessions, and then have them get to Seaquen as intended.


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## Morrus

sfedi said:


> Yes , it is longer, but since you are not travelling a forest on fire, and you are going through a civilized area, you could go faster (on horse, through roads) and thenyou could catch a ship.
> 
> One of my groups actually wanted to do that, and I had a very hard time convincing them otherwise.




It's doable, but it would be an entire adventure in itself. A much longer trip by land and sea through Shahalesti and then round the coast back to Seaquen. And Shahalesti wouldn't be a fun trip - they're very xenophobic, and are currently on a war footing. 

I think it would be the less efficient route, but it's certainly a fun idea for an adventure! Sneaking through Shahalesti by land, somehow getting on board a ship bound for Seaquen, etc. In fact, they could learn about the Seaquen blockade in advance, and actually be on one of those very ships!

Maybe one day we could look at producing an alternate adventure describing that route!


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## Daern

Great ideas!  I especially like the Trillith on the Island.  I think this is one of the strengths of the series, that such a major detour can make perfect sense.

@sfedi -I do have the 3rd one, but I'll have to go reread it to get a sense of the Wyrms.

cheers everyone!


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## Daern

I'm beginning the Scouring today!  I'll report back later.


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## GuyPRunkle

sfedi said:


> One of my groups actually wanted to do that, and I had a very hard time convincing them otherwise.




Worst part about going through Shahalesti instead of Innenotdar is that the party would miss the fire forest adventure, and it is awesome!

Not to mention that the party would then run into trouble trying to break through the Shahalesti blockade of Seaquin - not that they would know that before setting out . . .

Glad my group didn't consider trying to travel via that route.

Guy


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## Daern

Well, it was a very short session, but we got into it.  First of all, this was the third session of the campaign.  The first mini adventure took place in Ragesia, establishing it as an orcish nation, rough and powerful.  Much was said of Coaltongue's dominance.  The heroes were hired by the Merchant Menash, which I have renamed.  
The party consists of : Drow Cosmic Sorcerer, Human Fullblade Fighter, Wilden Seeker, Half-elf Cleric of War, and a human Bard (occasionally)
As we started, I gave them alot of backstory, saying that they barely made it back to their home city of Gate Pass before the news came of Coaltongue's death, and with it, the Scourge.  I described the grim winter in Gate Pass with the imperial armies at city gates, and of course, the first thing the wanted to know was if there was a resistance.  "Why sure," I said, "In fact they just contacted you to meet them at the Pub."
So they went for it and made a spectacular perception check outside the bar, but I ruled that the Black Horse were all out of sight, except for a wagon, which I mentioned very quickly... hoping he wouldn't investigate.  
The roleplaying with Torrent went well.  She gave a lot of exposition as well, some I had already given, but I was able to impress upon the party the urgency of the mission and the need to go through the Fire Forest.
Then the Black Horse attacked and were annihilated.  They heard footsteps over head and positioned themselves near the stairwell.  Then the battering ram crew burst in, perfectly positioned to take out the squishy sorcerer.  Of course I rolled terribly for initiative, and the combo of Drow Cosmic Sorcerer and Wilden Seeker decimated the minions immediately.  The thug did not fare much better.  The explosions and burning room were cool.  I added a chandelier from DMG2, which fell on the sorcerer.  
The result was that the party burst onto the street and made short work of Kathor and his dogs.  I described Kathor as very ambivalent to fight, giving up actions and calling on them to surrender, and finally throwing a net over one character, but he was doomed.  Luckily all his talk and offer of a truce impressed fighter enough to subdue him rather than kill him, so I will get to use him another day.  
That was as far as we got.  The fight was really easy, but that was fine with me because it was interesting.   I particularly enjoyed the setup of getting the players impressed with the idea of this threatening all powerful warlord emperor, and then immediately killing him off and telling them that the whole city is under attack by firebombing dragonriders.  Very cinematic.


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## sfedi

Oh, the fiery start of the campaign...

That rocked!

Yes, I thought the first encounter was very easy too, but that's a good thing. It give the party a morale boost, it gives them confidence.

One question: How aer your playing taking the mission/campaign?

Are they following Torrent?
Or have they made the mission something of a personal quest?


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## Daern

Well, the best part for me was when I told them that Coaltongue was dead, and my friend said, "And we didn't kill him?"  Good lil reversal of expectations there.  
The players seemed to take the mission well.  Since many of them are spellcasters they all wanted to get out of the city ahead of the Scourge anyways, so this seems to be a good opportunity.  I managed to get in some good Torrent talk about how the Elves would not be easy to deal with.
The concern I have, is how to play Kathor, now that he is their prisoner.  I'm a little unclear about his trillith connection.


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## Calavingian

For my own campaign I emphasised that the Ragesian (or rather, the Arcane Imperium since Im using the campaign in my own game world) had flying mounts and could easily deposit blocking forces on the east side of the pass to prevent supplies reaching the city from that route.

As it is, my PC's plan on avoiding the Burning Forest alltogether, and have come up with a reasonable case for doing so. So, in my campaign, the Borealis/Farm encounter will happen on the road westward through the mountains and the impetus to get the old wizard and his daughter hurrying along with the PLC's afterwords will be the Imperial reinforcements they can see hurrying along the path behind.


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## quihsupo

I accept with information:the only problem with making it black horse is the current bad guys are very thematically different, the black horse dont use arcanists for obvious reasons. it can be a difficult encounter with the flyer and the potential for getting bottle-necked between the boxes.


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## Daern

*Session 2*

oot


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## Daern

*Session 2*

We played on Sunday after missing a few weeks due to the holidays.  Session 2 of the Scouring of Gate Pass.  It was exciting!  The session began with a negotiation with the captured Kathor.  I presented the players with two handouts, letters that they found in his effects: a letter of diplomatic immunity, and an incriminating letter from Guthwulf directing him to work with the Black Horse.  The players decided that they would use Kathor as their ticket out of the city instead of working their merchant contacts.  They played upon Kathor's honor to get him to agree.  They think they can trust him and so let him go free while keeping the evidence.  I played up, again, a mysterious understanding between the fighter who is wearing  trilla aspected armor, and Kathor.
The trek through the city went well.  I didn't do a full skill challenge.  I used the scenes mostly as window dressing, allowing the players to develope their characters a bit.
At the Depository, a player immediately caught on to Larion's "Peppin" slip.  They immediately assumed an ambush and only went up the stairs when they realized the "gnome" was escaping.  Once they gave chase however, I discovered that my players have all invested in powers that knock people prone, so Larion didn't get far, was reduced to a handful of hp and intimidated into surrender before he or the Solon could do much damage.
The Flagus Mortus encounter was fun.  I spiced it up by adding the wounded wyvern (warwing drake stats) and a bunch of precarious stone walls (one use terrain).  And they wrecked the encounter.  
Overall they have walked through the encounters.  And this session only had three 2nd level characters (Seeker, Fighter, Sorcerer, Torrent).  That's alright for the opening gambit, but I'd like to scare them next session.  Perhaps they will pick a fight with Shealis.
The best part was that when the party made it to the safe house they wanted to spend some of their loot on magic weapons so I sent them down to a shrine of the Aquiline Heart where they prayed and received blessings.  They then went out and used their heal skills on the refugees.   I thought this was a poignant and somewhat unexpected direction on the part of the players.  They have now taken two prisoners and shown mercy upon the weak.  A good start for a heroic campaign!
Anyways, click on my sig to see a full write-up.


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## Calavingian

Very interesting, thanks for the link. My group (with the exception of a now retired dwarven PC) has not been particularly heroic in that light at all - going to so far as to completely ignore requests from citizens in need of medical attention. Rather surprising considering they are supposedly the "Protectors" of Gate Pass. In fact, as a group, they have spent more time tending to sick animals than wounded civilians!

But then, they seem to be of the opinion that they need to look at the "bigger picture" - the result being that they've lost sight of the "little picture" all together. But then, the two party leaders in my group have a very alien outlook  (in my campaign world Eladrin have more in common the Fey Elves of British & Irish legend and Shakespearian plays than they do with Tolkien's elves) and the remainder seem content to follow their lead.

I`m very interested in seeing how your campaign's party deal with the same situations and moral quandries faced by mine.


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## Daern

Yes, i'm a bit surprised as well, but I've also been surprised by how tuned in they are to the plot.  But this is a new group of players for me.

The group is literally alien: A wilden Seeker, and dark elf sorcerer (this character seems to be doing good deeds despite himself, but then, he has the most personally at stake with this attack on magic users.), and a human fighter (BUT he was apparently born on the Astral plane and raised by Gith slavemasters...)

I think a big factor is that the scenario of the adventure makes mercy and negotiation interesting, rather than just missing out on some fun combat rounds.  They realized right away that there was something more to Kathor than just the bandit boss... and similarly keep asking why we can't let the elves have the case.  This will make for an interesting negotiation with Shealis I think.

For what its worth to those who are about to DM the module, here is the text of my Kathor handouts.  (have renamed the Imp "Croaker" and decided that he had been Kathor's contact, though he does not know its true nature.)

                   Kathar Danava,
Despite your ignomious  failure as a soldier of the glorious Empire, Leska is gracious and would offer you and your men a bounty on behalf of the Ragesian empire – we will pay a bounty of one hundred gold for each living wizard you deliver to us.  
  Perhaps you may earn a place at your father’s side once again.  
  You will be contacted by Croaker.  
    Hunt well,
  Guthwulf



   Diplomatic Privilege

  It is Hereby Declared by Formal Recommendation of the Esteemed Council of Gate Pass that in Recognition of his Honor and that of his Patrimony, Master of Arms Kathor Danava is Granted Diplomatic Access to all Outer Gates of the Free City of Gate Pass in order to Promote Familial Feelings beyond the Necessities of War.


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## Daern

The one thing I kind of flubbed was the aftermath of the Depository fight.  I got a little confused myself about why Larion needed a password and what/how Rivereye/Hedgehog knew stuff so I ended up just giving out a bunch of info.

I had meant to use some of Cal's write up dialogue, but I spaced it!


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## Daern

I haven't done the write-up on Obsidian Portal yet, but I wanted to report on yesterday's game.  It was great!  Because the party was already 2nd level I skipped from the Flaganus Mortus encounter directly to confronting Shealis at the Wizard School.  

At the entrance they immediately became interested in the dead griffin in the moat.  The fighter wanted to skin it, and asked if it was rotting.  I said of course not, it probably died and crashed mere hours ago.  It is frozen solid in this icy moat.  This lead to plans to revive the griffin, which became the "in" to getting into the school.  Diogenes showed them to the vivisectionist specialist "Ol' Aderol the Stuffer", who was happy to take on the project, though he couldn't promise it wouldn't end up a zombie.  

Then they had tea with Diogenes and convinced him to cast a Detect Object ritual for their missing case.  I described this as seeing visions in a melted bowl full of gold (which they paid).  The gold drained into another dimension and then was consumed in a flash of fire!  They learned that Shealis probably didn't have the case, but her companions probably did. 

What followed was a great skill challenge / rp session wherein the players proved that they were completely paying attention and made great arguments to convince Shealis of their intentions and the wisdom of leaving the funny spy business to them.  In the end, she was happy to roll it over and be done with all this subterfuge.

Of course, there would have to be a battle, and since I skipped the white wyrms encounter, I used the warehouse idea for the spymaster encounter.  I set up wood blocks on the map to represent crates and piles of trade goods.  They began with a negotiation with some very jumpy eladrin, but then a horde of rat minions invaded the party (I had been including lots of rat and crow sightings all session).  The giant rats attacked the party and eladrin equally.  Meanwhile Kazyk(Croaker) freed the Manticore Cub the eladrin had chained to a chest holding the case (on the other side of a wall of crates.  The manticore flew over and attacked the group.  The eladrin cried treachery and the fight was on.  
After some tussling, the eladrin arcane archer got the case after the imp dropped it and ran for the pit.  I had decided that this pit lead to the excavation of the Singing Chasm.  The archer dove down the pit, followed by the imp.  The barbarian (new player) followed, scoring a fatal leaping attack on the archer as he jumped into the pit, and then invoking swift charge to run over and finish off the imp!  It was a bloody round.  

The manticore cub was soon killed, and the eladrin soldiers surrrendered.  The party stripped them of equipment, tied them up and were off.  The next session will be the escape from the city, with Kathor as their guide!

I described the entrance to the Singing Chasm entrance in the pit, having told them that it was a "forgotten path, very perilous", but they are not interested.  They are stoked on their deal with Kathor to sneak out the south gate.  I planned a bit in case the had decided to go there.  I thought I would use the "Navigating Golgorimth" challenge from DMG2, and include encounters with myconids and oozes and finally a negotiation with some duergar to escape...  They didn't go for it, but I was ready!

To sum up, great session.  I really feel like this scenario has set up a much more complicated situation than I would have created myself.  The best part is that the players seemed very tuned into the complexities and possibilities of the game and are roleplaying it out very well.  

Going forward, I'm probably do one  Black Horse encounter, maybe a random encounter, and then the Inquisition fight.  The party just made 3rd level.  I'm gonna make Boreas a doozy!


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## Daern

We finally played again last Sunday.  I am finishing the write up on Obsidian Portal right now (see sig).  
The session went well with lots of story progression.  My players are a little bit ahead on the experience curve, so I skipped quite a few encounters during the escape from Gate Pass and beyond.  I wanted to maintain a momentum and sense of flight.  The party had rung an oath of assistance from Kathor in the very first encounter, so they made use of his letters of marque to approach the southern guard station.  
I played the watch captain as a patriot who would not accept a bribe to let a Ragesian out on the eve of invasion so the party had to have a quick pow wow to convince him to take the money and look the other way and besides, they are the good guys.  The players were wishing for a diplomatic character by the end of that! (the bard player dropped out)
Outside the walls, Kathor departed on honorable terms and the party trekked through the snowy night, knowing that the Black Horse were camped somewhere on higher ground.
I had planned to change out the "gauntlet" for the "ice goblin ambush" from and adventure in Dungeon 159, and I am glad I did because the way the rp went, I needed a more specific map.  
Basically, they made a hidden camp in the woods and I rolled for wandering monsters.  Using the tried and true "open the MMII to a random page" method I dropped a Wood Woad and a Vine Horror on them.  However, the character on watch just happened to be a Wilden Seeker spending his first day out of the city in weeks.  The Wilden spoke passionately to the Wood Woad, and, aided by good rp and good rolls, convinced the creature that not only were they  not enemies, but perhaps he could show them to the real bad guys.  So they were led by a forest spirit to get the jump on the Black Horse Ambush.  The whole thing turned into a commando style assassination session during a blizzard.  It was pretty neat!
I threw in a few extra prisoners in the Black Horse camp, including Trehan Finner, the owner of the Poison Apple, who would really prefer to rejoin his wife in the besieged city.  Thus burdened, we had a crossing the winter pass scene which took us right into the encounter with the seer at the edge of the forest.  
We left off as the Inquisitor attacked.
Basically my thinking was that I wanted to play the whole journey as a fast paced flight from the approaching army.  I was ready to use the dwarf king material if things got off track, like if they searched for caves to the underdark, or had taken the path of the Singing Chasm, but mostly that stuff seemed extraneous.  I'm now hoping to have a really climactic battle with the Inquisitor (thanks RW for the novel inspiration!) and send them plunging into the Fire!
One thing to note is that I described the river/stream as entering the forest near the farmhouse and the players were talking about following the river instead of the path.  I may need to prepare for that...


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## Daern

*Session 4*

We finally played again last Sunday.  I am finishing the write up on Obsidian Portal right now (see sig).  
The session went well with lots of story progression.  My players are a little bit ahead on the experience curve, so I skipped quite a few encounters during the escape from Gate Pass and beyond.  I wanted to maintain a momentum and sense of flight.  The party had rung an oath of assistance from Kathor in the very first encounter, so they made use of his letters of marque to approach the southern guard station.  
I played the watch captain as a patriot who would not accept a bribe to let a Ragesian out on the eve of invasion so the party had to have a quick pow wow to convince him to take the money and look the other way and besides, they are the good guys.  The players were wishing for a diplomatic character by the end of that! (the bard player dropped out)
Outside the walls, Kathor departed on honorable terms and the party trekked through the snowy night, knowing that the Black Horse were camped somewhere on higher ground.
I had planned to change out the "gauntlet" for the "ice goblin ambush" from and adventure in Dungeon 159, and I am glad I did because the way the rp went, I needed a more specific map.  
Basically, they made a hidden camp in the woods and I rolled for wandering monsters.  Using the tried and true "open the MMII to a random page" method I dropped a Wood Woad and a Vine Horror on them.  However, the character on watch just happened to be a Wilden Seeker spending his first day out of the city in weeks.  The Wilden spoke passionately to the Wood Woad, and, aided by good rp and good rolls, convinced the creature that not only were they  not enemies, but perhaps he could show them to the real bad guys.  So they were led by a forest spirit to get the jump on the Black Horse Ambush.  The whole thing turned into a commando style assassination session during a blizzard.  It was pretty neat!
I threw in a few extra prisoners in the Black Horse camp, including Trehan Finner, the owner of the Poison Apple, who would really prefer to rejoin his wife in the besieged city.  Thus burdened, we had a crossing the winter pass scene which took us right into the encounter with the seer at the edge of the forest.  
We left off as the Inquisitor attacked.
Basically my thinking was that I wanted to play the whole journey as a fast paced flight from the approaching army.  I was ready to use the dwarf king material if things got off track, like if they searched for caves to the underdark, or had taken the path of the Singing Chasm, but mostly that stuff seemed extraneous.  I'm now hoping to have a really climactic battle with the Inquisitor (thanks RW for the novel inspiration!) and send them plunging into the Fire!
One thing to note is that I described the river/stream as entering the forest near the farmhouse and the players were talking about following the river instead of the path.  I may need to prepare for that...


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## sfedi

Durn said:


> One thing to note is that I described the river/stream as entering the forest near the farmhouse and the players were talking about following the river instead of the path.  I may need to prepare for that...



The best course would be for that plan not to work.

For starters, all the forest is in a valley, and that river will most probably enter into the forest at some point, and maybe end in Lake Seela (the other options is that it's waters sink, making the river end before reaching the lake or the sea.

The river may thin out, so that at some point they won't be able to advance with the protection of the river and they would effectively be travelling through the forest.

Be aware thet you could make them spend precious cooling draughts if they have to take a path that doesn't work.

And there's another idea: Torrent tells them that they don't have any guarantee that following the river will lead them out of the forest. While following the road will.
Besides, they may find abandoned houses or villages in which to camp or take refuge.

How are you going to handle the cooling draughts?


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## Daern

I have simply given them 4 scrolls of endure elements.  I don't believe they have the ritual otherwise.  The main problem with following the river I think will be that it is small and shallow and not floatable.  And the banks are overgrown with flaming brush.  So an attempt to take the river route will mean a day of wasted travel, perhaps eventually arriving at the 'bottom' of the first bridge encounter.


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## Daern

*Finished the Scouring of Gate Pass!*

The first adventure is in the bag!  We moved right on into the Forest.
After all my planning and rejiggering the Inquisitor, I went and forgot to use his Dispel Power when I had the chance (a sorcerer area effect that killed two creatures).  Oh well.  I'm certainly glad I made him an 8th level elite.  He still got his ass handed to him.  I wanted to scare them and I'm not sure I did enough, which is to say I didn't drop anybody.  I kept holding back and rolling random targets for arrows instead of focusing fire.  (Got to play for keeps in the Fire Forest.) 

On the up side, my players are so jazzed they are demanding to play again on Tuesday!


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## DragoonLance

As I'm planning on running this myself I really enjoy your write ups and comments here. Thanks!


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## Daern

Session 5 will be today:  I've decided to make Khadral a Kenku Bard (warbler) as this ties in with my campaign world... further I've decided to have him replace the elemental goblin in 'Unnatural Hunt', so he gets introduced, then runs away, then they find him again after the Infernal encounter.  I'm replacing the Goblin tribe with Kenku as well (I just like them), so the Khadral character will be an outcast from the tribe... we'll see how it goes.

Today I want to remember to use smoke clouds alot to break up the battlefield... keep the combatants moving around.


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## Daern

*Session 5*

Today the heroes traveled through the fire forest, beset on all sides by fiery bats and hellish wolves.  They slew all-comers, rolling through an encounter with 2 fire bats, then another with a colony of bats and a fire bat over the ruined bridge, then finally an encounter with the devil Kazyk, six minion wolves and a hell hound.  The ripped through all of these with ease.  Kazyk barely escaped!  I used moving smoke clouds, but I started them on the edge of the mat so they weren't very effective... 
Basically, the session was great for plowing through a bunch of encounters and getting a lot of plot in, but I felt like my encounters got mowed down... maybe my players are getting better...
The highlights for me as DM were previewing the Khaadral character (which I have made a kenku and used to replace the goblin in the "Hunt" encounter), establishing the "indominability" of the forest creatures with the "rekindle" characteristic, and also referencing the Shahallesti again with the "elf gold" ledger, and also a statue I added as scenery to the battle with Kazyk, a statue in a fountain of a robed elf in a gesture of friendship that says, "A gift of precious love from King Shaladeel, friend of the Elves of Innenotdar" (sort of a statue of liberty)  This gives a hint at the history of diplomatic relations in the forest... 
Finally, they know that the Inquisition is still after them and the case...
I'm looking forward to getting a little dungeoning in next session after meeting with Khadral, and then they can get to the heart of it and start making some decisions again!  Its a linear little bit on the Elf Road...


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## Daern

*Session 6*

Sunday's game was short but fun.  The fighter's player was missing so I had him go catatonic from the intensity of a night of visions and such (this character his unknowingly tied to the trillith, so he's been taking over the role of Cristin as seer). 

The group encountered the Khadral character, which I have changed to be a kenku and had fun RPing with a friendly character for awhile.  He told them some crazy stories, half of which seemed true, and then asked for help rescuing a dryad, if only they would help get some components for the ritual.  There was some good discussion about wasting time in the forest.  I had Torrent vehemently disagree with getting sidetracked but then be persuaded by the moral logic of the party.  Then they were off!  

The investigation of the alarm and skeletal remains went well: here was the remnants of a battle between an eladrin knight and a group of Kenku (which have replaced the goblins.  Khadral is a kenku who has returned to the forest to try to lift the curse from his flock).  Why were they fighting?  What was an eladrin knight doing in this land of forest elves?

I drew out the big mushroom cavern, with little mushrooms scattered around the place, and played up that they were pressed for time.  Then I 
around the group asking for Nature checks.  They managed to gather 11 of the 12 needed before my numbers came up for the Myconid attack.
It was sort of a mellow battle.  The stock myconids are only 3rd and 4th level, so the pcs plowed right through them, and marched back to the grove for some nymph rescuing action...

It was a nice, light session without much danger, but some more good plot development.  I'm looking forward to running them through the ritual and rescue encounters because they are going to pile onto each other and it will get hard at the end, I think.  Check out the sig below for more.


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## Daern

*Session 7*

Yesterday my players barreled through the Ritual of Khadral, Saved the Dryad children, Saved Khadral, Battled Myconids, stayed in the cave to collect more mushrooms and then battled more myconids, then spent several days resting before continuing down the road where they were ambushed by Indominable Stags and Fire!

We played four encounters in about 4 hours... much more than usual.  

Notes: I liked the whole set up of the Ritual and the double rescue, it makes for a great back to back encounter, but a DM needs to really think it out ahead of time to make sure you know what sequence of events is and what all the different characters are doing.  

The Skill Challenge to Rescue the Children was a little shaky.  I like the time squeeze element, but with a map drawn and combat running, the abstract nature of the multiple checks clashed with normal combat.  The players asked, "Why can't I just jump that chasm?  I almost think the whole encounter would run better without a map.  Also the DCs were very low, so there wasn't a whole lot of tension there.  On the other hand, the "Desecration Response" angry trees hazard was very effective and managed to trap Torrent and beat her to the ground.

This was my chance to kill Torrent.  I am not a fan of hang around NPCs, and I've grown tired of her, but the players were worried and made sure to rescue her immediately so I let her live.  One player said "She's our heal battery", which is another good reason to get rid of her, but the others wouldn't move on and leave her in the forest, so she recovered, though I'm thinking she should have some lasting injury...

I had the Dryad make a death speech, telling the story of the Song of Forms and the Elf Hero defeating the Dragon under the lake.

They did alright with the "Test of Fire" encounter (I made the Stag Elite, and dropped a cinder cloud in the middle.)  The whole place was a danger zone.  Nobody dropped, but the players were a bit worried.  The session ended with the Stags rekindling and Indominability making himself known.

I'm stoked for the adventure to turn to a more investigative style.  I feel like every encounter so far has added some bit of mystery and deeper story to forest, but now it is definitely time for them to start going after stuff themselves. I'm also looking forward to bringing Kazyk back to make his offer, so they remember the Ragesian threat.  

All in all, the Fire Forest of Innenotdar is a great module!


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## Daern

*Session 8*

We played a midweek session last night... picked up with Indominability's offer.  They all said yes, not realizing that the 40 tongues they must silence are cute little faeries.  

The exploration of the tower was interesting... they breezed right through the traps and immediately dropped the Dream Seeds, all except the sorcerer and Ahleena, who got romantic.  My advice for DMs is have some good stuff prepared for this: prophetic imagery, tantalizing tidbits and all that.

The party went straight to the shrine, and spoke with Eteranth, Knight of the Lily.  It was an emotional rp encounter as it became clear that the Shahalesti did something shady, and this honorable knight realized it as well.  Unfortunately I was a little unclear about this guy's backstory... at first I said he had died long ago, but then I had to backtrack when I told the story of Torfendor... then I said that he had died fighting orcs during a skirmish with Ragesia.  Anyways, I got a little flustered and forgot to ask the party to get Torfendar's remains.  At this point, there has been a lot of mysterious stuff and they know there is a big mystery, but it is pretty confusing to them.  I think that's a good thing.

It looks like the party wants to go directly to the lake and free the dragon, so I need to figure out what plot I need to make sure gets in there.  I am going to offer the Rescue of Khadral in the form of flashbacks and premonitions, but I don't expect them to backtrack or go up river.  

I am trying to decide who's offer I will present next, Kazyk or Tiljann.  Perhaps Kazyk will approach them immediately and the can rescue Tiljann as they travel downstream...  any thoughts?


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## Daern

*Visions of the Dream Seeds*

I wasn't satisfied with what I described in the Dream Sequence session, so this is what I just waved to my players in anticipation of the next session...

_The brothers descended into a hallucinatory reverie full of fires and armies marching.  _
_The Torch of the Burning Sky lights a web of fire that arcs over the skys over the whole of the Lands of Neradia, from Asgulan, to Gate Pass, Ragos, to Sindaire, Dassen, Ostelin, Delver's Dale, and even the Penninsula of Seaquen, pierced only by the indelible edifice of the World Mountain, Koshtra Belorn, whose impassive peak looks down on the swaddled lands from the unassailable heavens.... _
_Fire and Ice! Everywhere armies trudged through snow and over frozen rivers, lugging the tools of battle.  _
_Here an orc climbs a crenellated battlement, but is thrown back by a soldier's __pike__, _
_a__drow__ le__ans over a luxurious couch, _
_a dragon dreams in __its__ su__bterranean cave thrashing about on its bed of gold, _
_a king awakes from sleep with tear streaked eyes_
_g__raceful ships sail, _
_storm clouds gather over the sea_
_m__onks chant in their halls, _
_b__ooks are thrown upon a pyre and their owners follow, _
_a forest burns, _
_t__here a delicate gauntlet passes a torch to a crow's beak, _
_a__ slim winged girl takes flight from her people, who stand dejected, but still murmuring a soulful tune..._​_It was not a restful sleep. Each man awoke describing similar visions, but each also had memories that no other could understand. _
*Please write a few words about your **character**'s** dr**eam.  Something from his personal history or perhaps his destiny... (50xp)*


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## Daern

Whew!  Almost through!  I must admit this session nearly broke my poor DM brain.  Once the party gets to the Seela village there is ALOT of exposition to do.  All kinds of hints and conflicting info needs to be sorted out, and alot of RP is to be had.  This is all well and good, but some characters have a whole half page of info nuggets to impart and when the RP challenge goes off track...

Basically, I had a hard time keeping it all straight in my own head, so doling it out to the players was quite difficult.  All the info is scattered throughout various skill challenges and side bars and such and as I got into the action I realized that I didn't have as firm a grasp on the backstory as I thought.  I muddled through it, but I fear I spent a fair bit of time reading random bits of info I thought might help.  They did finally piece it together more or less, and despite initially wanting to just let the Seela end their suffering and give in to despair, they seem to be about to follow the Burning Dryad right to the lake.  Next up, the Showdown, I gotta make this good!


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## Daern

A brief recap: The party was uninterested in going up river so they built some boats and went down stream.  After some fishing for flaming trout the had an accident with a log and while they were repairing the boat, they encountered the fleeing Tiljann and Saved her from the Rebels.  

They refrained from killing anyone and used Diplomacy and Intimidate to drive the rebels off.  This impressed Tiljann and she trusted the heroes.  (This is where I began to get bogged down in the amount of exposition)  

The party made it to the Lake Village and encountered the leaders, talked to some depressed Seela, had a creepy encounter with Vuhl, and the Bard had a date with Tiljann wherin she taught him the Song of Forms.  

They learned that there was a love triangle and decided to go kill the hag and talk to the Dryad.  This was easily done, and presenting the lock of hair made Timbre amenable to discussion.  We ended with the group charging down to the lake to take on the Stag/Dragon!

I think a key difficulty beside the crazy contradictory mix of info is judging how to lay the cards on the table and just put the story together.  There is a hero who defeated the stag, and there were women who loved him, and there is a sword and there is a tree....  this is a REALLY complex story and I'm a little bummed that I didn't put it together very elegantly for the players, but over all I think they were fully engaged and we had a great time and that's what matters most!


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## Daern

*Session 10*

Today the heroes of Gate Pass defeated the Indomitable Stag and freed the forest of its flaming curse.  They slew Guenevere, Vuhl slew Timbre, and they slew Vuhl, and Kazyk as well.  They are still quite confused about who really started the fire, but ready to move on.  I think there were one or two too many sessions in the Burning Forest.  Despite an interesting story, it can feel repetitive.   
I continued to confuse myself as I ran through the endgame of this module. 

The battle with Indomitability was anti-climatic.  They took him down pretty easy (he never made it to the surface), then killed Kazyk after some abortive negotiations.  Vuhl fought for a moment, then escaped by physically dominating and passing through the sorcerer, who now will take over as the receiver of prophecy.

The swimming battle strained my ability to suspend dispbelief.  I didn't see what was to prevent the party from just taking potshots at Indomitabilty

Highlight of the session: Kazyk reapearing and making a final demand, offering to help in the battle against Vuhl in exchange for the Case of War Secrets.  Of course this didn't happen.  Then I played Kazyk poory and he died.

I ended up adding Vuhl to the mix along with the devil and hordes of minions.  It worked out ok, but I really  was hoping to drop at least a couple.

I'm looking forward to some more straightforward adventuring.   I think next session I will use the side trek from Dungeon, "Treed!" intstead of the skill challenge through the mountain.


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## sfedi

Wow, that was intense.

I feel you man, I'm having the same problems as you.
I have an easier time than you because we play slower, so I have more time to piece the things together and prepare for a session.

And now that you have finished the adventure, what would you say are the key points when running this module?


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## Daern

This was an adventure that started out fairly straight forward and turned out to be really complicated.  My players are still scratching their heads and some want to backtrack to try to put the pieces together.  They suspect the Eladrin, but aren't sure.  

I think the mod could use a bit of simplification.  Its sort of a railroad wherein the options get a little muddled.  I think I would make the Eladrin involvement a little more obvious and maybe skip a couple of early encounters on the road.  The party skipped a bunch of encounters in the middle by choice.  They were not interested in back tracking the goblin cave, and honestly I wasn't either.
The set pieces with Khadral were really neat encounters but, on review, felt a bit like a side quest.

I think having the solos at the end be skirmishers and controllers is a little weak, but mostly I played the monsters poorly.  Solos and elites are complicated!  I recommend redesigning them so that you are extra familiar with the monsters.

I still think its a really great and inspiring module, but there are a ton of little plot details that are hidden in various places in the text that I think sort of doing a DM's outline of everything and really trying to work it out for yourself ahead of time would help... 
I guess its just an Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game!

The campaign is looking forward to a return to civilization!


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## Daern

*Session 11*

The story now returns to civilized lands as the heroes descend out of the Two-Range Pass into the Kingdom of Dassen.  Rather than play out the mountain skill challenges, I decided to simply describe the travel and offer a couple of side-encounters.  The first was a trail in the snow that lead to a dragon ice- cave (map taken from Pyramid of Shadows).  Hoarfrost had a little monologue and a man-servant.  The Bard parlayed and convinced the dragon to allow he and two companions to bring a load of treasure into the room.  Since this split the party a bit I allowed it.  It was the only good move I made.  The poor things got critted about five times and barely got a breath weapon off (to poor damage).  A 9th level solo brute  in advantageous terrain with a 5th level artillery helper still didn't have a chance.  Oh well.
Next, the heroes came to the town of Cornerwood and encountered a surly patrol.  They also noticed markings of a marauding beast which they assumed was the dragon but it turned out to be an Owlbear when they ventured forth the next day to find a missing wizard.  
In general I'm taking the opportunity to add optional side quests and such while I try to throw in a lot of world plot info through various npcs.  It was nice to have a little town session with the bard breaking the ice at the Palace Inn and the fighter negotiating with a black smith and stuff like that.  
Next session will include an audience with Cadrick Red-Hand the Bastard of Rego, an ill-tempered illegitimate son of Rego consigned to the backwater of Cornerwood.  Then it sounds like they want to roll down the river.  
The module seems unclear to me about this section.  Is it a riverboating route or a trail along the river?  What's in that wood?  They sound interested in seeking out Rego and Lady Timor as well.  I don't think I'll make that easy, but I guess I'd better prep for it.  Any ideas?


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## Daern

*Sesssions 12 and 13: Shelter from the Storm*

The last two sessions have changed the pace alot.  Some players have switched around and so have some of the characters they are playing.  We have two original characters and three original players from the start of the campaign as we begin Shelter From the Storm.  And Ahleena, whom I am trying to kill off, to the great amusement of the group.

I threw them into a little side Delve while they traveled through the Thornwood Forest.   I'm trying to allow this section to be loose and open ended while laying out a lot of groundwork for Banquet.  Honestly, I'm much more excited about that module than the Shelter scenario, which i may abbreviate quite a bit (refugees, terrorists, politics, council, drama, dungeon, and done).  

I've been establishing Lord Rego's animosity towards Seaquen and general gloomyness.  The players came to his castle and wanted an audience so I suggested that spending a lot of money and offering gifts would attract his attention.  They threw a big party at the local inn, blowing much of their hard earned loot, while Bards sang of their exploits.  That got things going and they were invited to a more modest feast at the dour castle of Rego who complained to them about refugees and wizards and all the other dukes of the realm.  He was made friendly however by gifts of treasure and artifacts of Dassen's heroic past. Rego told them a fair amount about the politics of Dassen and suggested that instead of wasting their time in Seaquen, they should just wait around for the big Council of Nine in a month's time.  Of course, Ahleena was not pleased by this.

Anyways, I plan run a series of RP encounters and just the one key swamp fight before Seaquen, then, after a bit of exploring and getting the lay of the city, move right into the Seaquen Council scene.


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## Daern

*Seaquen Council*

I have an idea for the Seaquen Council scene that I will hand out Councilor cards to each of the players so that they may play out the speeches and arguments given by the various luminaries.  Might be fun.  It will keep me from blabbing on and on while the players tune out.
Thoughts?


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## Marius Delphus

Bounce the idea off your players first -- they might actually not mind settling in for a good story. OTOH, they may champ at the bit to give "voices" to some of the NPCs. But I would ask first.

If they go for it, make sure you know whether your group is better at impromptu script reading than they are at improv. You might need to do a bit of scripting. 

Finally, reserve Giorgio for yourself as DM. *No *DM running the *incomparable* War of the Burning Sky campaign should *ever *be denied the *incalculable* pleasure of *unreservedly* hamming it up as one of the saga's *most memorable* and *accomplished *public speakers (just ask him).

[sblock]Also, of course, he's one of the bad guys. But you should take pains to keep your players from realizing that; instead, make sure they understand you've merely picked out one of the NPCs for yourself -- the most *awesome* one (just ask him).[/sblock]


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## Daern

Yeah, I was planning to keep that one, and probably Shalosha as well.  I'll give them a synopsis.  They can read it or run with it...  
Can you tell me a bit about how you ran Giorgio and Shelter in general?  I haven't got a firm handle on it yet.


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## Marius Delphus

Well, I hope it is not impolitic of me to say I haven't actually run any of the adventures, but I do feel familiar enough with them (after having done the layout... in this case three times) to throw in a few comments.

That said, I would just make sure Giorgio comes across as the stereotypical bombast: full of sound and fury (as it were), signifying nothing. He has a puffed-up sense of his own importance, and the more so regarding things he himself deems important. And your players ought to be very comfortable writing him off as simply that. We boldfaced words throughout his speech to make sure the DM understands he doesn't merely *look* like a rock star; he *is *one (in the context of the game world), and he feels as though he is worthy of all the adulation he gets and more (just ask him).

So in short, Giorgio in the Seaquen Council scene should be an event, and not merely a participant. Same goes for Shalosha, and when she enters the picture I would actually recommend bringing to a close the "player participation" and taking the reins back. It's important to make sure nobody blows the lid off the end of this scene by overreacting... unless it's the PCs, who are entitled to do whatever they feel like. 

Regarding the adventure as a whole, I would just say "pressure cooker." Ratchet up the tension bit by bit -- the ever-worsening weather gives you a terrific tool for this. It won't stop raining for most of the adventure, and if you take pains to describe the weather in a slightly worse way each time the PCs have a chance to notice, the players should respond well. (Weather has hardly ever been a factor in the games I've run, so continually pointing out how bad the weather is getting would alert my players to the fact that something's up.)

It's all in the details. Near the beginining of the adventure, things are sodden and depressing. People shake off the rain as they enter buildings, everything is damp and slick, and travel by anything but well-maintained roads is unpleasant at best. As things progress, everything stays wet, the sky darkens, and rumbles of thunder are heard. Wagons splash through puddles, people grouse about the weather, and some even complain that the rain should never last this long. By the time the Wayfarers put on their play, there's a stiff wind, lashing rain, and chop in the harbor. It's impossible except by magic to keep dry outdoors, public places keep their fires burning all day and night so patrons can dry off, and it's worryingly dark and dismal even at noon.

In all, that should lend some gravitas to the unfolding events.

HTH.


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## Daern

*Session 14: Traveling in the Kingdom of Dassen*

Today's session was long on RP and long foreshadows.  We played through a loose narration of the heroes' travels through the various Duchies of Dassen.  They learned of how much the Lords differed from one to the other, both in policies and attitudes towards each other and towards the outside world.  Some were welcoming, while some merely wanted their hard won gold. 

Lady Timor is a sorceress.  Lord Rego is bitter, and a little naive.  Lady Namin is vain and fatuous.  Lord Iz is a serious and honorable highlander.  Lord Megadon is a fascist and a blowhard.  Lady Dene is pleasant but un mindful of suffering.  The met only Rego and Iz.  The others were unavailable even to big spending heroes.

The players picked up on this and started asking questions, having been tipped that there is a war council coming in the spring.  Still, news of the war in the north is woeful weeks out of date.  No one knows if the City of Gate Pass still stands free.  
 
This session should really bear fruition after the events in Seaquen unfold, when the party is sent back north.  I dig this because it means they will be looking forward to it for awhile.  But it also means I need to breeze through "Shelter" so it doesn't get too distant.  I'm realizing that because of real life, the ideal culmination of the campaign will be with "Banquet", so I want there to be momentum.

The heroes reached Vidor and traded their horses for a rowboat.  They delved into the swamp and were accosted by the Three Witches.  One escaped and they tracked her back to her lair, where there was a battle royal with the restless dead.  

Katrina was rescued and many bloody crystal globes were found along with incriminating papers.  Katrina warned them that the sisters' were waiting for the Ragesians to come to pick up the 'Tears' so they had better hurry.  Of course, this lead them right into the path of the Wyvern Riders.  We ended there, with the heroes tired and out of dailies, hearing the screech of a wyvern such as they had not heard since first level (they are now 8th)

I ran the Witches encounters entirely by the book, and I was pretty stoked on it.  The monsters were interesting though maybe the witches were a little too complicated.  The undead boneswarms and skeletal husks were great.  So was having one witch left to direct the undead.

My advice for this section is to play up the creepyness of the swamp and then have some theatrical introduction of the sisters.  Perhaps pre-write a short dialogue that the characters hear before they see light of the boat.  

"Fire fire toil and trouble, the blood of innocents fills my bubbles... tears of blood, tears of the torrent, tears for storms and weather abhorrent..." 

I've been glossing over the skill challenges, mostly announcing them as a sort of invitation for my players to do some dice guided story-telling.  I want to the story to move along, not to get them lost in the swamp. 

Next session, they will FINALLY get to Seaquen, bearing precious cargo, and also hints of new, nefarious plots from the far-flung Ragesians!


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## Daern

*Session 15: Spies, Imperialism, and the End of the World*

The Brotherhood of Aquiline Mercy has traveled through Fire and Ice, across many leagues, battling every step of the way to finally arrive at the famed Lyceum of Seaquen, the only Free City brave enough to stand up to the Ragesian Empire. Finally their duty will be discharged: a briefcase, stained, burnt and battered, delivered to the Headmasters of the School.  It is a heroic occasion, one of relief and trepidation for what would come next.  Even as one chapter seems to be closing, yet more trials appear on the horizon.  
While still in the Shrieking Mire, Ragasian spies were encountered, venturing far from their borders to collect the TideReaver Tears from the twisted sisters of the swamp.  The weary heroes happened upon the group and slew them all in a fit of rage.  They inhaled the fumes of an entire sack full of glass "tears" even as the wyvern unleashed the electrical charge of its fearsome scream.  All glowed purple for a moment and felt a strange sensation...
After a final night huddled in the cold and drizzling swamp, protected by the wards and spells of the druid and bard, the group found the road that emerged from the bog on its way to town.  
Walking, they encountered a party of Elven Knights, well armed with lances and writs of marquee, a delegation from the self-proclaimed protectors of the seas, the Dragon Throne of the Shahalesti.  The elves were impressed by the candor of the Paladin of Dreams traveling with the party and also with the evidence of the Ragesians they had slain.  The Brotherhood discovered that the Eladrin had instituted a naval blockade around Seaquen in order to ensure cooperation.  It seemed that all was not well in Seaquen.
Finally arriving at the fabled Quen-by-the-Seas, the heroes felt great pride and relief, but it was tempered some by the sea of Refugee camps that seemed to hold the city under siege.  The town was overrun with visitors, filled to bursting, every inn full, and the Militia was obliged to clear the streets with regular shield charges down the main roads.
Ahleena of the Torrents lead the group immediately across town to the Gates of the Lyceum Campus.  After some discussion with the militia captain Xavious Foebane (who invited them to dinner), the heroes arrived at the offices of the Headmaster and were finally granted an informal audience with the Lyceum Council to whom they presented the secrets of the Ragesian empire.  
It seemed that the book was written by the Second Inquisitor Kevran and although written in a crude cypher it was immediately apparent that the "Scourge" was much more than a political act.  Further study was warranted.  The group were promised bunks in the student quarters  returned for their dinner date with the Dwarf Xavious.  More questions would have to wait til morning.
All in all a fun session with lots of new plot twists and campaign continuity.  It is great to bring the Rags back and have another wyvern fight (not that tough) and the players now have a solid sense of the Shahalesti diplomatic style as well as the Ragesian threat.  Everyone was stoked to get to Seaquen, and I am stoked to offload the Torrent NPC as I have grown tired of the character's presence in the party.  Unfortunately I was dead tired and had not "studied up" the night before so I did not present the town as well as I could have.  
The module does not have any "entering the city" boxed text, and I was wishing it did, or at least that I'd written my own.  
What does the Seaquen skyline look like?  I said old white stone walls and white stone towers mixed with crazy ramshackle towers built by wizards and gnomes.  A variety of architecture.  I also described the refugees and the tension in the city.  I need to really get my head around the town and what all the options are and pad out some descriptions and ideas.
I haven't used the 2nd rag combat, so I may transpose that into a fish market, rat hunt, spies discovered sequence.  Then I plan to let the characters mess around in town for a session before moving things along. 

How did the other DMs out there organize the "Tales of Seaquen"?


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## Daern

*Session 16: Urban Adventure, of the Rails and into the Sandbox*

Well this one required some quick thinking for the old DM.   The party's second day in Seaquen followed a dinner party with Xavious Foebane who gave them the lay of the land, caught them up on war news and invited them to the morning militia muster.  It was a muddy morning at muster in the rain at dawn.  The bard played some drums to cheer everyone up.  Then it was off to follow up whatever thread they felt like grabbing.  There were alot.  The town kept dropping hooks every step they took; jobs offered, people to meet, people wanting to meet them, sages to consult,  taverns to visit, mysteries to unlock...
I was a bit lost.  There are many possible skill challenges for the party to take up as well as alot of exposition and npcs and stuff.  I spent a lot of prep time just getting the NPCs straight in my head but then realized that I hadn't closely studied the skill challenges, and that furthermore, the SCs didn't have much info for context.  These skill challenge write ups seem to be a very obfuscating way to present information to the DM...
They decided to visit the magistrate who sent them off looking for Ragasian arsonists.  This lead to a couple of mansions along the coastline where it was discerned that the source of the fires seemed to be rats from the sewers.  There turned out to be an aqueduct beneath the city, which they followed to a cross roads.  They chose to follow a low roaring sound instead of a rhythmic plop.  This brought them to a wall of fire crossing the tunnel where swarms of fiery rats seemed to congregate.  Attacking the rats revealed more than initially thought as rats poured through the wall.  They were followed by a fire archon!  These foes were defeated and the rash warriors amongst the party decided to hurl themselves through the wall of flame, burning themselves horribly in the process.
At this point I was just making stuff up.  The whole fiery rats in the pyromancer's tomb doesn't jibe well to me with the "biomantic seacreatures".  I don't get it myself.  Why would the trail of fire rats lead to a temple of mutant fish?  So I made stuff up and put up a wall of fire guarded by an emissary from the City of Brass.  I figured the rats were accustomed to fire because of the tomb but that the burning sky has made some of those wards increase in intensity, causing the rats to mutate and catch fire in the vicinity of this wall of flame.  I described the water as briney and oily.  Maybe the squids and skum are secreting some flamable mucus or something.  (I'm imagining the whole seacreature aspect of the scenario as a cult of Dagon rather than science experiments)
We stopped with most of the party on one side of the wall of fire and the bard and Katrina holding out on their side.  Now I need to figure out how to proceed.  Do I make this a dungeon that connects to the prison/tomb of the pyro, the submerged temple, the White Wyrm safehouse, the Lyceum and maybe the Royale?  Do I block off the tunnel?  (I tried to warn them party of how hot the fire wall was, hoping they'd turn back but they jumped right through... I kinda want them to be really screwed.)  
I think at this point I do need to make it a big interconnected dungeon so at least I have a sense of where everything is and I don't have to wing it quite so much...
anyways, good times with another really complicated WOTBS module.


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## Daern

*Session 17: Lost in the Dungeons of Fishy Lava*

The players liked getting back into an old fashioned dungeon after all this free form stuff.  I didn't realize it but that more or less what Shelter is, an urban dungeon.  After last session's quick thinking, I drew up a map that that connected most of the encounter sites in the module via the aqueduct network of the ancient ruined city that Seaquen is built upon.  This turned out to be a dungeon with a twin theme of fire/lava/portals to the Plane of Fire on one side, and fishy/aquatic/Esoteric Order of Dagon on the other.  So this time I was ready with an array of options if they decided to turn right left or turn back.  I made options for escaping out of a cistern, finding stairs to the White Wyrms safehouse, and coming up under the Royale through the garbage pit...
Unfortunately they were obliged to make a quick decision as the first encounter with a Living Napalm ooze resulted in a Cave-in that required the party to choose a direction before they were trapped between the rock fall and a wall of fire.  
I had a set of high level encounters prepared without a chance to rest and they were feeling the heat as they were lost and out of surges and attempted to rest in the "aquatic wing" of the dungeon only to be ambushed by a Crazed Carrion Crawler.
Exploring further, the party discovered the "Shrine" from the Entifini side quest, which I described as a temple of worship that connected to a violent sea cave.  The on coming tide brought the mutant sea life to the fight.  This sea cave is connected to Sidoneth's house.  I don't think they're going to take that route, but I'm sure they'll make the connection to his pet giant squid later on.  
At the moment the party is still trapped in the place, but they should be able to get back to town next session.  I plan to run the Council of War immediately and move on to the climax.  At this point I think they are well primed for the Pyromancer's Tomb.  Also, an encounter with Ahleena will be interesting as they have made the connection with her Kraken Worship.
Running a dungeon of this sort was great because I didn't know where they would go and their decisions closed off other options, illuminating the dark cult aspect of the town but getting them no better picture of the Ragesian spy situation.  Classic stuff.


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## Daern

*Session 18: Death and Old Friends*

I have to say that although I was wary of this module, the urban sandbox has been really fun to play with.  The players are following multiple plot strands at once I am DMing by the seat of my pants to keep up with it.  
The party started still lost in the aqueducts below Seaquen, and proceeded to sketch a map from memory and get themselves even more lost.  (and I was having a hard time keeping straight the map I had drawn)  So they slogged through water, swam through water grates, doubled back, realized they'd made a circle, and finally ended up at a dead end with water pouring down a trough (presumably out to sea), a blocked well shaft up, and a door that "bulged outward as if some great weight is behind it."  
Of course they climbed the shaft and dislodged the debris, which fell on them, but revealed an exit to the surface.  Scorning such an easy escape, they decided to open the door, which of course exploded on them with all sorts of junk, but when the dust cleared there was a stairs up.  They went up this staircase and found a basement room full of debris, broken statuary of the ancient Bael Turath empire and tombstones and old nautical equipment.  This of course all coallesced into a "Tombstone Golem" which, even de-leveled to 15 managed to kill the paladin and force the party to flee for their lives.
Finally returning to town, they met up with an old friend (the paladin player's original character, which he reintroduced), and then proceeded with investigations.  These heroes won't rest!  They learned a bit about the various Dionems and Tears and evil books they had accumulated and were invited to the upcoming War Council.  
Then they remembered that someone was looking for them.  This lead the White Wyrms hideout (I didn't have the heart to run the skill challenge as it was late in the session.)  They captured the Storm Mage, but Jezyk stayed out of sight.   I think I'll have her team up with Damius for an ambush next session.  
Next we'll run the Council, which I am still planning to run by handing NPCs outlines to each player (ambassadors and local officials, I'll keep some key NPCs to myself.).  They will probably go to the Royale as well and look for Nelebekus.  I may cut the Wayfarer play to run straight into the tomb.  
Anyways, its been a blast.  The players heads are spinning with all the different factions and small plots that keep popping up, and I think when events lead to their natural conclusion they will get a lot of a-ha moments.


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## Daern

*Session 19 & 20: The Perfect Storm*

Last session the heroes did some investigation and enjoyed some downtime.  The druid purchased a bookload of rituals from Sidoneth and had a positive interaction.  The Bard snooped around and managed to identifying Nelebekus at the Royale (he also tried out the "Best Joke Ever" on the bartender, ie Hideous Laughter, 9th lvl daily), but he was unable to eavesdrop.  The group returned to the Royale the next day and the barbarian challenged for supremacy in the arena.  He just barely managed to slay the champion, earning a bronze cup and two large pigs.  On the way back to town they were ambushed in the driving rain.  Ragesian archers, Inquisitor Damius, and Jezyk the assassin devil.  They fairly easily drove them off and Damius escaped.  Jezyk did not.  They never made the connection that she was following them about.  Perhaps I should have given her some dialogue. 
Finally, they were invited to the War Council.  I gave each player a cutout of the Ambassador descriptions from the module and told them they were going to play them.  The scene went well.  The players got into it and i think it built upon the already fairly thorough knowledge of the politics of the campaign.  It reaffirmed Dassen's ambivalence about fighting the Ragesians.  
It was certainly better than me  performing the whole scene.  As it was, I did a lot of text reading.  
The Giorgio thing fell flat, but I had already decided that the pace of the adventure required that the storm climax soon.  No play, though I can see it being a great scene.
The arrival of the Shahalesti was great.  The players were totally unsurprised by the over the top demands of the Elven Nation, but they made comments like, "Maybe they think they're doing the right thing but the way it comes out is by taking control of everything."  
The council broke up in pandemonium of course, and I had Sidoneth slip out quickly.  Two characters followed him to his house and more or less realized that he had jumped into the sea, possibly in the form of a sea creature.
Then the hurricane hit!  Towers and trees fell, people were blown away, and the heroes walked nonchalantly through gale winds.  They were the only hope!  The druid had been consulting ancient maps and scrolls to discover the drowned Tomb of the Pyromancer and when the storm hit was able to aim towards its eye.  
The party entered the prison and fought a horde of Burning Bones skeletons.  The session ended with the discover of a "force tube leading down through the water."

So, I'm really happy with the way this mod has turned out.  It has provided an opportunity for players to process and interact with alot of the campaign info they've been hearing for so long.  It was fairly sandboxy in that they were able to follow leads and abandon them and try others.  They strongly suspect Sidoneth and won't be too surprised I think when the denouement features the hairless druid and an Emissary of Dagon.
My plan is to wrap up the Tomb in 3 encounters... the trapped tomb itself, showdown with Damius and his soldiers at the fire bridge (plus a fire elemental I think!), and finally Sidoneth on the roof with the sea itself an adversary.  
Then we will move on to the War Council of Dassen.  I think I will provide a bit of awesome by making the Dionem available for use in taming a clutch of griffons for use in traveling to Steppengard's Castle.  I will have to think on how flight will complicate the entry into the castle encounters.  The castle will certainly have ballistae!


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## Daern

*Session 21: Put Him in the Iron Maiden!*

After last session's storytelling and roleplay, this session was pure hack and slash.  The party descended into the Pyromancer's Tomb through an "energetic" tube that kept water from flowing onto the hot magma.  The bard lowered himself down and tripped the alarm.  Settling themselves in the steam tunnel they overheard the Inquisitor in conversation.  He spoke of the uselessness of using devils, of the expected devastation to be caused by the hurricane (Dagon's Call), and left with orders to his men to sell their lives dearly.

(at this point I feel like a lot of explanation is needed.  The players have been fed all kinds of bits and scraps of info during this adventure and campaign, some of it from the modules and some of it made up on the spot, and the want it strung together a bit.  Hence the villain soliloquy.)

Entering the cavern the heroes confronted an old enemy, Kazyk the Perfidious Devil summoned once again.  He greeted them and gladly held the bridge while ragasian artillery bombarded the heroes.  Two soldiers fled, but one was captured.  A diplomacy challenge managed to turn the half-orc soldier away from his cause, but not to give him courage to fight the inquisitor.  At this point the party included Torrent and Katrina along with this new addition.  NPCs abound.

Noone was interested in the dragon's maw entrance to the Tomb itself.  There was some investigation of the  laboratory.  It revealed some treasure, including an evil tomb, the "Dagonomicon" written by a mad Sindairian.  This was a spur of the moment invention but its inclusion made everything click into place.  Why did Sidoneth betray his city and colleagues?  Because they offered the Dagonomicon!

There was a torture room fight featuring Damius and a quartet of de-leveled slaughter wights.  This fight was made memorable by the inevitable iron maiden, which was duly opened and Damius shoved inside.

Afterwards, the prisoners warn of the unleashed power of the Hurrican Orb and Dagon's Call.  There is no time, Sidoneth must be stopped!

At this point I've run them through 3 hard combats in a row.  They have twice thought they had reached the day's conclusion.  Nay.  I will offer them the chance to sacrifice magical items to the Omphalite to regain surges, but no long rest is available.

Lurking above?   The mad druid and the Wrath of Dagon!

in terms of where this campaign will go next in my limited time left, I'm thinking to allow some off screen downtime, then send them off to the Dassen Council where they will be involved in a spot of royal madness before engaging in a final battle against the Ragasians.  I may scrap much of Banquet and use something like the Siege of Overlook from Dungeon or something like that.  I like the idea of a Duke of Dassen having the Torch... or maybe the drow...


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## RangerWickett

Sounds pretty fun. It's always interesting to see how GMs take the modules and tweak them to fit their groups. I'm rather amused by the 'Dagonomicon.'


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## Daern

Yeah, the Dagonomicon was a flash.  We were all pretty stoked.  I haven't been describing much biomancy, so Dagon has taken the place of psuedo-science.  But, yeah this has been a great campaign.  It has been really amazing to have all these long threads pulling through the whole storyline.  The campaign has hit a stride now where the players are really tuned in to alot of the peripheral of the campaign world.  To bad it has to end, leaving town and all that.


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## Daern

*Heavy Weather: Planning the finale*

The party will be well worn by the time they reach the ultimate battle with Sidoneth.  It will be their 4th encounter without a long rest.  I haven't stretched their resources often in this campaign so it should be touchy.  I've redesigned Sidoneth and replaced "Lula" with a modified "Wrath of Dagon" monster much like a Froghemoth (foreshadowed in earlier sessions).  The battle will be on the prison roof, but I am thinking I will add some extra randomness, A Weather Table, rolled at the start of each round:

1: On shore wind rips through the battle, DC 18 Athletics; targets are Pushed 1d4 squares inland.
2: Off shore wind roars out to sea, DC 18 Athletics; targets Pushed d4 squares toward the cliff.
3: Rogue wave crashes over the seawall: All areas within three squares of the seawall suffer an attack +15 vs Fortitude; 1d12+5 damage and slide 3 squares (1d8 for direction)
4: Rising tide, a surge of water brings 1d4 Fish-man minions in to the fray.
5-6: Nothing.

Any character swept over the wall into the sea gets a Saving Throw to hang on, and another to cling to the Seawall 15ft below(1d10 dmg).  Athletics and acrobatics checks are required to get back up.  Failure results in being swept out to sea...

Any other ideas?  Maybe lightning strikes and a crumbling roof are too much, maybe not.


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## Daern

*Session 22: The Froghemoth Cometh*

This week we wrapped up Shelter from the Storm.  After some mucking about with the white monolith (and a vision of Leska), the heroes marched up to the roof and battled the corrupted Druid Sidoneth at the edge of the raging sea!  
The party was immediately swamped by a rogue wave while Sidoneth cackled madly and worked his Hurricane Orb (on a stand at the edge of the seawall).  The Bard tossed out a staggering note to push the druid over the edge and ran up to battle for control of the Orb (small Arcana skill challenge).  
Sidoneth disappeared for a round, only to be replaced by the Wrath of Dagon, also known as the FROGHEMOTH!!!  It was a long long fight, with monsters and heroes getting repeatedly launched into the ocean, but of course they eventually prevailed.  Cue the ticker tape parades, feasts and dark tidings of the wars to the north.
I used the table posted above for weather effects, but immediately realized I maxed out the encounter a bit.  I had them fighting a lvl 13 Elite Controller(Sid), and a level 13 Solo Soldier (FROGHEMOTH).  It was very difficult for them to hit and I almost couldn't miss.  I juggled this by sort of alternating Sidoneth with the FROGHEMOTH so that when one got pushed over the edge, the other would pop back.  Also, I had the FROGHEMOTH attack Sidoneth at one point after the Bard had directed one of the Druid's attacks at the monster.  I also lowered both villain's defenses by one.  As it was, I still didn't kill or even drop anyone, but all agreed that it was an epic fight.  It took the whole session!  One thing I was glad I did was make all the hit effects slides and pushes rather than immobilizations and stuns, which mixes it up without being too frustrating.  In the end, Sidoneth escaped...
Now we move on to the Banquet.  I will be fast forwarding quite a bit as I have half a dozen sessions remaining.  The heroes will fly directly to Steppenguard, Council it up, clean house, and have a war. 
Just for clarity, here's the outline of how I'd do the final encounter including some minor adjustments.  (I'll try to post the FROGHEMOTH stats sometime if I can).

Sidoneth: Elite Controller lvl+3
FROGHEMOTH: Solo Soldier lvl+3 (with lots of slide effects)
Hurricane Orb: Complexity 1 skill challenge
Heavy Weather Table: (I started out rolling d4s for an effect each round, but started rolling d6s and d8s as the bard took controll of the Orb and the weather eased off.  The bard now has the Orb and all are impressed by its badass-ness, though I warned them that excessive use might risk invoking the Call of Dagon once again.)


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## Skyscraper

The frogemoth... Heh. I remember battling one about 25 years ago and our entire party almost died there and then. Good stuff.


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## Daern

*Sessions 23 and 24: To Go Where Eagles Dare*

The campaign is really flying off the deep end now.  I'm trying to speed it along, but it is so much fun to enjoy campaign world we've built up, its hard to push too much.  Now I'm sort of following the players a bit.
In the last session the players enjoyed the spoils of success after saving the small town of Seaquen.  They were rewarded with powerful magics and the responsibility of representing the town at the court of King Steppengard in Dassen.  Their mission is to convince the king not to allow the invading Ragesian Empire to march across the country and wipe out Seaquen.

Meanwhile, it turned out the that the Dionem was actually a Universal Translator, and once they got it working the party took it to the eyrie of the Great Eagles and convinced them to help in the war effort as mounts.  So they flew to Bresk on the backs of Eagles!  On the way they stopped to battle a remorhaz and to confront a maniacal Steppengard Knight who was about to murder a halfling caravan.  They managed to negotiate this without violence.  The Knight Commander seemed to be under some sort of enchantment that was broken by the Bard's words of friendship.

Entering the city, the players went about investigating the political situation.  It was obvious that with the recent assassinations and the unstable mental state of the king that events were balanced on a razor's edge.  This was a loose skill challenge.  We rolled initiative and went through the order twice.  After that there were seven successes and one failure and that seemed good enough to me.  The players had a good idea of factions and politics and were ready for the audience with the king.  They were suspicious of an enchantment on the city and worried about their position in the town.

The audience featured a lot of me reading text blocks.  I hammed it up to keep it interesting.  I made Glibglamer a halfling and former acquaintance  of the party's halfling bard.  They players then took their turn, presenting themselves and the Seaquen offer of alliance.  I basically let them talk for awhile.  The triple skill challenge seemed awkward and unnecessary.  It was all about having the players explain to me how they saw the campaign and the situation.  Pure narrative and drama.

Finally, after some more political intrigue and a wild eyed warning of danger that had the whole party awake all night, the assassin attacked, sneaking into the bard's room and taking him down with poison darts.  The dark elf swordmage/sorcerer was the first on the scene due to a scout position outside the inn.  He chose to begin with an intimidate check, using an inquisitor mask.  He was shocked when the assassing, a dark elf, looked at him and said, "Brother, I am a servant of Madness"!

Indeed, I brought back the swordmage player's character from an old 3e campaign that I had only heard of (the new PC was said to be searching for his lost brother), and I brought him back as an assassin!  The one who killed the King's Familiy!  I had statted him up as a 13th level solo, but no blows were struck.  The players were blown away, and starting to hatch plans for switches of identity and all kinds of stuff.  More ideas and plot twists than they know what to do with!

It was an awesome session that ended without a single to-hit roll.

In all honesty, I am still unsure where I am going with this.  I have decided that the Dark Elf Assassin killed the family while under the enchantments of Madness.  I had him describe the Dreaming Dragon as fragmented by suffering and abiding in the "mountains of madness."  I have given the party all the hooks from the module as well.  There is an arrest warrant out for them, although they do not know that for sure yet.

I like the idea that the Torch of the Burning Sky is lodged in the Eye of the Dreaming Dragon, which could be an aspect of the Paladine/Bahumat diety I vaguely have in my campaign world.  The crippling of the Dragon is allowing Danzig(bestial god of tyranny and inquisitors) to speed his return to the mortal realm, along with eternal winter.  Perhaps this is Leska's plan, to return the world to the Danzig Empire.  

Anyways, I'd like to get a climactic mass battle in, and I'd like to have the players battle the Dreaming Dragon to recover the Torch.  They are pretty tuned into establishing a war alliance against the empire as well, convincing the Dukes of Dassen, the Elves of Shahalesti etc to join them.

Maybe it will go like this: Flee Bresk to Gallo's Duchy, pursued by the Sphinx of the Eight Lands.  Fly to the World Mountain to negotiate with the Titans for entry into the mountain's depths.  Encounter the Dreaming Dragon breathing Flame throughout the astral plane and battle an aspect of the god(Dreambreath Dracolich) in order to remove the torch.  Return with the Torch.  Winter fades quickly as Danzig's influence wanes.  The Ragesian hordes advance.  Rally the troops and do battle with the Torch.  Kick ass.  Take over everything.

Just spitballing here.  It could all change depending on what the players do.  At this point they have enough knowledge, power and initiative to run with whatever they want.  I reckon I only have a half dozen sessions left at best... I think we're gonna make it!


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## Daern

*Session 25: Madness and the Sphinx of Wisdom*

As I attempt to wrap this up in the next couple of weeks the campaign is straying pretty far from the modules, but I'm going to keep reporting just for the sake of completion.

The campaign has had so many twists and turns.  The players and our play time has been very consistent but people are pretty confused at this point.  There have been so many plot points thrown out there and I myself have struggled to keep the background story straight in my head.  I did alot of brainstorming these last weeks and finally figured it out.  Now I am ready for whatever the players do.

This session began with the party in their inn quarters having just encountered Madness's assassin, who turned out to be the long lost brother of one of the characters (bringing back the old PC background!).  Speaking with the confused assassin revealed that he was the one who slew the Emperor Coaltongue months ago as well as the slayer of the royal family mere weeks ago.  He blamed Madness, as if Madness were a real thing.  He was pretty spaced out.  
Outside were the sounds of armed men approaching the inn.  Then bells of the Temple of the Dragon rang.  The Temple (of Paladine/Bahumat/Dreaming Dragon) was where the royal family had been laid for public viewing.  The assassin clutched his had and cried out, "The bells of Madness!"  That was enough.  The party snuck out of the inn and to an underground dwarven road that lead to both the castle and temple.  The sound of an organ being played lead to the Temple.  (I made Glibglamer a halfling organ-tuner and old rival of the party's halfling bard.)

Sneaking into the temple, they beheld the king at vigil, praying over his dead queen while the organ played the Ballad of Dassen.  The party overheard a discussion between Glib and the King.  Then the king left the temple and the party was ambushed by Glibglamer and a second assassin.  
I used a Purplespawn Nightmare(Lvl 16 skirmisher) for Madness and a Dreaming Dark Assassin(lvl 13 elite).  It was a nice fight because Glib being 16th level scared the crap out of the players but then went down pretty quickly.  
They got a little bit of villain backstory before the fight.  They then arranged the bodies to make it look like the assassin killed the king's advisor.  Afterwards the party prayed to Paladine to reconsecrate the temple defiled by violence.  They were rewarded with a vision:

The bulk of the Platinum Dragon pins the Horned God to the ground.  Both are locked in an endless stalemate.  The Dragon Dreams and is driven made by the fury of the Horned God, Danzig, who wishes to return to the mortal realm.  The Dreaming Dragon has a red sliver in his eye.

I don't know why I'm into the idea of the Burning Torch being stuck in the Dragon's eye, but I dig it.  The trillith have been a large and mysterious part of this campaign and I needed to reveal it.  Turns out the Dragon's Dreams are fragmented and various aspects burst forth.  Since the Torch was applied to increase Paladine's agony, the Dragon's more savage aspects (trillith) have gotten free.  This was Leska's plan, for some of the Trillith hate their originator and wish to be free forever.  They have joined in Leska's mission to free Danzig and bring another ice age.

This was further explained to the heroes when they visited the Book of Eight Lands, which is guarded by a Sphinx who it turns out is the Living Constitution of Dassen.  The Sphinx is distraught that the King has not consulted him in months.  Bereft of the logic of the Golden Sphinx, the king has become paranoid and despotic.

The heroes left resolving to round up the political power of Dassen and make another attempt to reason with the king.  This could lead to a confrontation with the Ragesian embassy.  Ideally, they will soon travel to the Dragon Graveyard and there battle the final Trillith, Revolution, a Dreambreath Dracoliche.

The characters have just dinged 11th level.  Their final battle will be with an 18th level solo.  After that they can wrap up the war and who knows? maybe go kill Danzig?  If we have time...


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## Skyscraper

Durn said:


> Now I am ready for whatever the players do.




Of course you are...


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## Daern

Heh!  Well, a lot more than I was!  At least I don't have to make major background plot decisions on the spot!  I was sort of in story limbo for a little while.  It was really great to layout a whole bunch of the plot last night and let them have at it.  Now they can go about making some semi-informed decisions.


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## RangerWickett

You've taken the plot some interesting places. I'm pretty sure a level 18 solo is a tad over the top, but maybe your players can handle it. Are you planning for them to cross paths with Leska, or are you focusing the climax on the trillith?


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## Daern

Yeah, I want it to be over the top.  Of course, I also just dropped a +4 sword, so I'll give 'em a chance.
I'm thinking that Leska will be in the background of the final mass battle.  Perhaps she will show up at a negotiation for a peace treaty.   That may be more of a narrative denouement than an encounter...
My idea is that she instigated all this because she was jealous of Coaltongue and thought bringing Danzig back would be a good idea.  This is why the Inquisitors have all these Devils helping them.  I think that if the Dreaming Dragon/Danzig situation is resolved, Leska's fiendish help might dry up, leaving her authority over the four armies much more tenuous.  
Great question!  I hadn't thought it all through yet.


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## Daern

*Planning the Finale*

I thought I'd ask for ideas on my final encounter.  It should be coming up in a two weeks.  I'm looking to make it super epic.  The group will be a Wilden Druid, Halfling Bard, Goliath Barbarian, and Drow Sorcerer/Swordmage hybrid, all level 11.  Maybe Katrina and Torrent will help out.  Possibly a drow assassin as well.

The scenario will be this:  Fighting the manifestation of a dreaming dragon's Rage in a massive cavern that holds the shackled bodies of both the Dragon and Danzig (god of tyranny and all that, Baphomet/Orcus type).  

The Trillith Rage will be a Dreambreath Dracoliche 
I'm thinking of using various undead dragons of lower levels like Winged Putrescence and Bone Mongrels as minions, but any monster suggestions are welcome...

The bodies of these gods will be terrain I think.  One key will be that the Torch of the Burning Sky is stuck in the eyeball of the Dreaming Dragon.  Removing it will require strength/arcana checks, but will instantly result in deleveling the Dracolich as the Dreaming Dragon's torment is eased.

What other terrain effects would be good?  Maybe getting too close to the horns of Danzig sends a mortal into a rage?  This could be good/bad (+2 to hit a random target)

Perhaps a massive bonepile that can be climbed or toppled... stalagtites... 

It would be nice to come up with a multiple stage encounter, perhaps with a refresh of some sort.  Maybe Danzig will manifest as well!

I want to make this a near death experience for sure, but I will be giving out some boons in advance.


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## Daern

*Sessions 27 & 28: Politics and the End Game*

Its a race to the finish now.  We played the last two nights in a row.  Last night was full of politics and intrigue as the heroes schemes and persuaded to various dukes and duchesses of Dassen to support their cause while the King recovered from the trauma of Madness.  

I ruled that the Book of Eight Lands is guarded by a Sphinx who serves as the adviser to the king.  The king had not consulted the Book in many weeks, so the heroes took that as their cue to persuade the leaders of Dassen to consult the book/sphinx.  This led to some great scenes, including the wilden druid's visit to Lady Dene, an absent minded horticulturist.  The druid presented himself as a tree and cast Bloom on the wintery garden, thoroughly impressing the Duchess.  

Finally, the king did indeed consult the Sphinx and his torment seemed somewhat eased.  He made a proclamation to the city that there was a greater threat than Ragesia, that of the return of the Horned God.  He called upon heroes to quest against this threat.  The players of course volunteered.  Then the king called for the gathering of his hosts to march on Duke Gallo, whom he still considered a suspect and traitor.

The heroes flew off on the backs of eagles to the entrance to the labyrinth beneath the World Mountain, where Danzig sleeps, imprisoned by the Dreaming Dragon.

They entered the Seven Pillared Hall, then the labyrinth beneath.  This was a little skill challenge.  We ended with a glimpse of the first guardian, the Failed Lord of Winter, a Minotaur Liche who is cursed to guard the prison of his former master.

Basically, the campaign has left WOTBS behind at this point and we are looking at two more sessions to wrap up.  It will include an epic battle and then a denouement of the story of the War of the Burning Sky.  

I'm going to use the Keep on the Shadowfell map for the final battle.  Danzig's face will be fantastic terrain: Rageblood (choose to attack an ally or take 10 ongoing and crit on 19 or 20; also defiled ground), and energy nodes.  Also a bonepile that spawns bone mongrels, a portal to hell spawning Berzerking Minotaur minions, and, of course the Torch stuck in the Eye of the Dreaming Dracoliche (skill challenge to remove)


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## Daern

*A Belated Final Wrap-up*

This happened a few months ago, but just for the sake of posterity, here's a final report, from hour final climactic session!

In a nutshell, the Brotherhood of Mercy braced the Trillith that animated the skeletal remains of the Dreaming Dragon in a cavern far beneath the world's largest mountain, while undead dragons flew about.  They slew the mighty beast through the swordmage's gambit of leaping up to grasp the Torch that flamed in the eye of raging beast, and thus, pulling the brand from its socket, he made use of the artifact to lay waste to the fragment of a dragon's dream.  
The nightmare dissipated without a single hero dying for the cause!

Now that the Torch of the Burning Sky was in the hands of Heroes of the Realm rather than despots and dragons, we broke narrative and I explained the significance of the moment, telling them that now they should be able to win the war, or at least defeat the Ragasian invastion, finally asking the players to tell me how their characters ended up.

They responded eagerly.  The halfling bard became King of Dassen.  The dark elf swordmage sought to take the war into the Underdark to battle his brethren and Lolth.  The Barbarian continued to bring the war to Ragasia, campaign step by step at the spear head of and Army of Liberation until he was at the very Gates of Ragos.  The Wilden Druid, meanwhile returned to his feywild homeland, there to commune with the depths of nature.

It was a great campaign and I plan to continue the timeline in my next campaign.  Perhaps the Fallen Kingdom is Ragos is now a Points of Light type place.  Also, we plan on getting back together pretty soon to run an epic level one-shot with the same characters.  I think they may finally battle Leska in her lair.  (I might use the Winter Witch stats with some anti-magic effects)

All in all, thanks Enworld for a great set of adventures and all the community help!  It was a ton of fun!


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## Morrus

Awesome!  It sounds like you had a great time - which means we did our job right!


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## Daern

Indeed, and as I have said on these forums many times, these forums were especially great for spitballing the campaign as it progressed.  Cheers!


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