# My Campaign Thus Far...



## Rugult

Long time lurker, long time reader, yadda yadda yadda...

So it's the War of the Burning Sky that has taken me out of my seclusion and forced me to make my first post here at ENworld.  The WotBS interested me for one main reason; it was really a standard fantasy setting with interesting concepts.  Up until running this campaign my roomate and I were running Eberron & Iron Kingdoms campaigns with our gaming group, so we really hadn't done 'true' fantasy in a fair while.  So I wrangled up a group of four players and decided to give this campaign a shot.

First off, let me say that naming an NPC Torrent was the smartest idea ever.  I don't think anyone can have an easy time finding downloads for this series.  Means I don't have to worry as much about possible nosy players  


*The Party*
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Rowan – Human Evoker of Gabal's School
Benedict – Human Cleric of St. Cuthbert
Lucky Pete Lightning – Human Rogue
Krug – Half-Orc Barbarian<Left Adventure 4>
Anika – Human Sorceress <Joined Adventure 3> <Left Adventure 4>


*The Scouring Of Gate Pass:*
-

Some initial comments before going in.  My one concern after reading through the first adventure was that a lot of the encounters seemed to be fairly high ECL and I was unsure if the party would be able to handle all the encounters especially in the order that they came in (particularly the last two encounters that were at ECL 7).

I didn't have any major issues with the roll out of the story as there were enough avenues to cover any NPC deaths or losses that might occur during the course of the adventure.  

The background information was enough to get the party in the mood, though some of the players who did not have access/time to read over the Player handbook for the Campaign didn't understand all the politics right away which caused some early confusion until it could be drilled in.


_Act One:  The Secret Meeting_
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The Half-Orc barbarian of the party; Krug, had taken the Resistence bonus feat so he was the obvious choice to get the party to the meeting.  So the adventure started with everyone confused as to where the seemingly unintelligent Half Orc was leading them.

Once the meeting with Torrent was underway the party seemed to get right down to business understanding the gravity of the situation and wanting to do what they could to help...  except for 'Lucky Pete' who thought it might also be profitable to find some more spellcasters to sneak out with once they got their objective.  Most of the other party members ignored this statement and were more concerned with the case and its contents.

The combat rolled out like a fairly standard DnD combat encounter.  The mood with the New Years bells and then the bombing gave good atmosphere to the fight itself followed by the building burning around them.  Interesting moments in the fight consisted of:

-Everyone but Rowan getting affected by the Thunderstones.
-The Enlarged Half Orc breaking through the door and accidently sending it hurling into Torrent.

Otherwise the party handled the combat with little loss except for the deafness on most of them.  Inspection of the Armbands revealed the Ignan code though it wasn't really important to them considering the apparent importance of the case.

The followup run to the Depository had quite a bit of War Flavour to it, with the party running about doing good deeds.  At every turn the Rogue took an opportunity to spread his name; “Lucky Pete Lightning at your service” even though he was quite deaf and couldn't hear anything.  The Terror in the Skies encounter with the Wyvern seemed a bit strange as I don't think there are many people at first level who would be making a DC 21 will save.


_Act Two:  Retrieving The Case_
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This is where things really started to pickup.  Almost immediately upon reading the Depository 'Lucky Pete' recognized that the masquerading Elf was disguised and confrontation soon followed.  A straight dash to the roof ensued with some crossbow fire sent but nothing damaging.  A small moral dilemma ensued when Benedict the cleric saw their target was being followed by a Lantern Archon.  The party did catch Larion on the roof as he was making his escape, and then they took their parting shots.

Two crossbow bolts (1 a critical hit) and a flying grappling hook courtesy of the Barbarian was enough to disrupt the jump as well as any subsequent casting of Feather Fall.  So the first NPC goes 'splat' thanks to interesting player tactics.

After freeing the Gnome and deducing that the case was likely in possession by someone at Gabal's school, the party was ready to head out.  Still slightly confused by current events 'Lucky Pete' took this as an opportunity to speak his mind on the situation and reaffirm his plan to sneak wizards out of the city for gold as well as his thoughts on how since the case was made of adamantite it must be “worth something” thus grew his plan to take the case itself and not the contents.

The party also used this as a chance to loot Larion's body.  The potions remained unidentified though a successful check allowed the players time to guess the nature of the Oil he carried.  Larion's spell book for the most part was relatively useless to Rowan who is an Evoker.  

(End Session #1)

Before heading to Gabal's school, the party decided it would be best to rest a bit at the suggested temple by Torrent.  On the way they encountered the Ragesian fugitive who was holed up in the house and after two unsuccessful sneak attacks by the 'Lucky Pete' the party eventually overpowered the single soldier and killed him.  Amazingly the boy who was hostage survived the encounter.

Resting at the Temple was pretty standard.  The party didn't really change the Evil Bard's actions as there was no one who really stood up or could out perform.  Some rest and a level up for everyone followed before heading to Gabal's School.

Reaching Gabal's School the party met up with Diogenes and were eventually able to fill in the blanks about Shealis.  Going with the suggested plan of stealing her spellbook while she was dueling and then overpowering her, the party set to work.  'Lucky Pete' broke into Shealis' room no problem and looted it for all it was worth though highly disappointed that he could not find his vaunted adamantite case.

The duel went without a hitch and the party subdued Shealis.  Once Pete came back to report the party decided how best to handle the situation, until Pete started threating to torture the captured elf (fingernail torture particularly).  Rowan interceded and instead bluffed burning her spellbook.  Shealis remained resolute until Rowan opened the book and found the map.  With this knowledge Shealis was sapped and left to Diogenes (all right, giggidy giggidy, just look at his picture) while the party went on their way to the Elven Ghetto.  Rowan acquired yet another spellbook, and the party split up the loot found in Shealis' room.

It took the party a while to get into the Ghetto though 'Lucky Pete' was able to sweet talk some information out of the locals.  Before planning their rush of the building the party was contacted by the Imp who let the party be aware of his jerk plan to take the case back.  Ironically enough this was the same thing that 'Lucky Pete' was planning to do, but eventually he capitulated and decided the Imp could have the apparently expensive case.

The elves inside gave little resistence as Pete sneaked  in and dealt with them in pretty short order.  The Badgers engaged the Barbarian for almost ten rounds, even when raging he could not hit them.  Luckily he had the Resistence Preffered Enemy feat, which now has Badgers on it for any future encounters with the critters.

With the documents in hand the party handed off the case to the Imp and then began thinking of how to get out of the city.

(End Session #2)


_Act Three: Escaping the City_

This act was pretty quiet with the party speaking with Councilman Menash and then Captain Herreman to get out of the city.

The Ambush did not happen as the party was able to confront the bounty hunters and see through their disguises.  A short visit from Rantle left them with the letter to his sister before they met up with Captain Herreman.


_Act Four:  The Gauntlet_

An exciting combat ensued with the party fighting off the oncoming bounty hunters in the gauntlet.  Pete and Benedict rushed forward after their horses were startled.  With the party divided there were a few rounds of regrouping in the face of oncoming riders and hidden crossbow snipers.

Benedict and Krug went unconcious during the fight forcing Torrent to run about with her wand healing them as needed.  The rest of the party was able to defeat the riders and scare the remaining hunters off.  They took the opporuntity to loot the bodies of their enemies and continue on their way towards the Fire Forest.


_Act Five:  The Inquisitor_
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The party was really worried about Haddin and his daughter knowing the stories about his mental domination abilities.  They stayed for dinner with the strange family, 'Lucky Pete' trying to bluff the old man and Rowan being diplomatic about the oncoming Ragesian threat.  I had Haddin detect thoughts them while they were chatting with his daughter so he had a good idea that they were generally being honest (except for Pete).

When the morning came and the Inquisitor arrived the party grouped in the house and went through their battle plan.  Haddin took this opportunity to Charm every party member except for Rowan (who made his save) and Torrent, and instructed them on tactics that would best get him and his daughter to safety.  Ironically the party was going to do most of the suggested tactics anyways.

First Pete opened the back door to do some scouting while the other players buffed up.  One Human Bane bolt later and Pete staggered back in with almost no HP left.  Torrent healed the rogue just as the locked door was opened by a goblin who quickly chugged an invisibility potion.  Six skeletons followed up though Pete tanglefooted one in the doorway allowing Benedict to summon the powers of St. Cuthbert and destroy them in a turn attempt.

Next up the Orc 'Smiley' sauntered up in front of the Inquisitor and his two guards.  Krug charged out of the house to engage the barbarian fighter.  Torrent followed up by running behind Krug and enlarging him.  Smiley took his quaff and enlarged himself (yes, we had a giant half orc fight).  Eventually Krug overpowered the other Orc and Pete launched a killing shot while Smiley was down.

The Inquisitor switched his tactics and used an empowered burning hands damaging both Krug, Torrent & Benedict.  With things looking bad, the goblins sneaky goblins came behind Pete who dispatched one only to have the other killed by an impressive display of magic from Crystin.  With the goblins killed Pete took a well placed critical shot on the Inquisitor killing him dead.  The two remaining guards booked it only to be shot down by the party members.

With this encounter over even Haddin was convinced to follow the party away from his home and into the Fire Forest.

(End Session #3)

*Thoughts*
-

One thing I would like to say about the first adventure is the fantastic use of items and tactics.  While there are encounters that use equipment like thunderstones, I like seeing these items given to NPCs in encounters that don't immediately call for their use.  In 'The Gauntlet' once their plan had gone to hell I had the bounty hunters using tanglefoot bags to try to get away.

My party agrees that all of the NPCs seem to be distinct.  I myself love the combination of Crystin and Haddin who I think are both very interesting and should prove to add a lot of character interaction in the Fire Forest.

There are some concerns/thoughts that I do have about the adventure though.  These are meant more as constructive criticism though.

-Pantheon.  Currently I am using the standard PHB cosmology for this campaign though some things have me wondering.  For example, up to this point I have not gone into which god that Torrent worships, or what the major religions of Gate Pass are.  Religion seems to be very vague in the printed adventure.

-Magic Items.  There are quite a few magic items that the party can come across if they kill the right people.  With potions it's not as bad (since spellcraft checks can be made), but thus far my party has acquired quite a few magic items and it doesn't look like they will have the material components to identify them anytime soon.

-Challenge.  The last two acts of this adventure were REALLY tough encounters based on the ECL and the situation itself.  It seems like standard rolling and even odds might see a player or two bite the dust in these encounters.


But so far it really has been enjoyable!  I look forward to starting the second Adventure tonight and seeing where we get with it.  Updates to come...


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## Rugult

*The Indomitable Fire Forest of Innenotdar  (Part 1)*
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Well I am only about halfway through and my party has made some very interesting decisions both moral and otherwise.  

First off it is worth noting that Torrent, Haddin, & Crystin are with the group now and they don't have a large stock of potions so they are pressed for time.  Along these lines I let the party know in advance that some 'in character' conflict would be approved due to the stressfulness of the situation (probably a mistake).

As far as that went I went into the adventure with a few read throughs so I was worried about the initial battle with the Bearded Devil and the many other encounters with the rush of time that goes on through the adventure.  So far it has proven QUITE deadly!


_Act One:  The Elf Road_
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The 'Endless Suffering' encounter had the party wizard Rowan and the cleric Benedict concerned as they knew the man from Gabal's school was was now dead.  Some use of energy resistance allowed the party to get the items from the bodies and continue on.

Once the mephit fell on Benedict things really started to pickup and the ensuing fight with the dire bat kept the party on their toes.  They were able to defeat it with acceptable material losses but were weary once it rekindled.  The trek continued into the forest...

The 'Dangerous Crossing' saw most of the party make it across the bridge until Hadding waddled across coughing.  The bat swarm K/O ed him about 4 times in the ensuing fight using several of Torrent's wand charges.  The party once again learned their lesson of rekindling monsters and continued on afterwards with Haddin muttering about their ineptitude.

Encountering the Hell Hound went as planned with no conflict happening.  Battling the Bearded devil did not go so well...  until the barbarian raged with the silver axe he acquired from the end of the last adventure and dealt a fine 25 damage to the devil in one round.  Rethinking his tactics the Bearded devil screwed off and left the party on Lemure cleanup duty.

Stag Fire Elementals proved to be not much of a difficulty for the party considering the last encounter they were involved in.  Once they were dealt with the party seemed to be tossing the fire vision's offer around until Torrent tried to turn it.  A bit of a debate came up as to Torrent's abilities to do that, though she claimed she could only do it once a day...

With the first act done the party carried on into the village...


_Act Two:  Rivers Flor to the Deep_
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'Lucky Pete' was able to get into the Fort no problem.  He scaled to the top and disarmed all traps along the way.  Once reaching the top and reading the journal of Bhurisrava the player playing 'Lucky Pete' said he was genuinely moved and thought Pete's alignment should switch from Chaotic Neutral to Chaotic Good (wait, this gets priceless later on).  Pete went to get the rest of the party...

Haddin refused to enter the tower and instead cast a still silent charm on the party barbarian trying to convince him to stay.  The party was weary of this and expected trickery so they headed into the tower without him.  During this point Haddin used the effects of the charm person spell to make the barbarian ignore the subsequent dominate spell.  Lesson learned...  don't leave anyone alone with Haddin.

The battle in the tower with the Dream Elemental went well.  The party damaged it to near death and it dimension doored out at the last chance, only to burn up on its way out.  The party seemed quite confused by this but were getting more pieces to the puzzle of the forest.

It didn't take the party long to realize that the barbarian was now dominated, but they decided to search the village (much to the protest of Haddin who wanted to continue on).  During the search the party came across the Shrine of Anyariel and turned the ghasts off.  Within the shrine they met the Ghaele and put more pieces of the mystery into place.  Their next goal was to head to the mouth of the river to follow up on the journal.

Realizing that Haddin would refuse to go to the river mouth and divert from getting out of the forest, they opted for some stealthy missions. 'Lucky Pete' would steal Haddin's spellbook and dispose of it while he was sleeping.  With little difficulty Pete acquired the 'spellbook' and without reading it tossed it into the flames.  As he saw it burning he realized what it really was and walked away shocked and slightly guilty...

The ensuing party conversation was interesting to say the least.  'Lucky Pete' eventually told them about the books true nature and the yelling started.  This drew the attention of the dominated barbarian.  More debate ensued and the party used every spell at their disposal to increase their barbarians will save before goading him into a rage and trying to attack one of them.

The barbarian Krug made his will save but was now quite intent on killing Haddin (who was sleeping close by).  Picking up a rock the Krug headed over but was only load enough to awake the old man and his daughter.  Before any words could be spoken 'Lucky Pete' shot Haddin through the chest with a crossbow.

With his dying breath Haddin cursed those involved (the spellish kind of curse) and then his head was smashed by Krug's rock.

Not too sure about this Chaotic Good thing for our rogue...

The follow up line that ended the session was priceless though:

Wizard:  “Well I am going to build him a cairn”
Barbarian:  “What's a cairn?”
Cleric:  “Basically pile stones around him until he's covered.”
Barbarian:  “Well...  we have a head start!”


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## Rugult

*Fire Forest Finished!*

*The Indomitable Fire Forest of Innenotdar (Part 2)*
- 

Ok, so we finished the Fire Forest three sessions ago and I have been rather lazy in updating this.  However my group has made me continue this post in hopes other DM's find some use or insight.  So here goes...

As a  recap last we left off the party had killed Haddin in an attempt to 'do the right thing'.  While certainly not the best way to go about things the only solution I had as a DM was to impose the -4 version of the Bestow Curse spell on all of them minus Torrent and the Wizard Rowan (who had stayed out of the entire affair).  With an insufficient level cleric to remove this, the party would be in for a hard time.

_Act Two: Rivers Flow to the Deep(Part II)_
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The party decided it best at this point to head out towards the Mouth of the river as had been noted in the previous journal.  This led them to the Unicorn Nelle who gave them slightly more information on the status of the Fire Forest and the people placed in her keeping.  Some discussion led the party to head south to see if they could find more about the Seela fey.

During their trek south, the Bearded Devil came to treat with the party giving an offer to them to get out of the forest.  The party was weary and took the offer 'under advisement' before sending the devil off on his way.  Tensions were running very high at this point as everyone in the party had different ideas on how to handle things (not a bad thing given the stress this adventure should put the party under!).

Next up came the encounter with Tiljann.  Saving the Seela Fey from attack by other Seela, the party met a new ally and learned about the Fey and their song.  The information seemed to be coming together for them and they decided after incapacitating the attacking Fey it might be best to go to the village to meet with them.

So off they went...


_Act Three: Rout of the Fire_
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The Seela village gave a relatively cold shoulder to the party with only the briefest of explinations on their history and the song of forms.  Only Tiljann really gave the party any particular information, as well as the Seela Vuhl who let the party know his plans to kill the dryad Timbre.  This plan didn't sit well with the party who instead opted for a different method...

Heading out to visit Gwenvere's pool the party found no trace of the Nymph, thought 'Lucky Pete' got pulled underwater and interrogated by her while the rest of the party looked around.  Pete was able to successfully bargain for Anyariel's hair and came out solemnly looking to get it from the cave.  By this point the barbarian had already suffered the traps effect and had his charisma lowered even more (what does a barbarian need Charisma for anyways?).

Seeing Pete emerge and speaking of his discussions with the Nymph the automatic party assumption was that he 'put on the charms'.  Pete of course did not speak of the now hideous nature of Gwenvere and tried to boast at how good a charmer he was...

Heading now to the Dryad Timbre, the party initiated a parlay with her using the hair as a bargaining tool.  They learned from the Dryad the tale of the Living Blade and how Anyariel had captured Indomitability at the bottom of the lake with it.  So in a rash decision the party headed to the lake with the intention of pulling the sword and slaying the beast while the song continued...

The final encounter with Indomitability was one of the most fun battles in the course of the campaign.  It started with the barbarian suceeding only enough to pull the sword out of the ground and not out of the stag.  With some well cast magic and strategic positioning, 'Lucky Pete' and Rowan were able to catch up to the stag as it ran towards the village.

Pete jumped on the impaled sword holding onto it as the stag ran.  Rowan also hoped on the creatures back and began pulling.  With two party members on it the stag slowed just in front of the Seela village to allow for one final fight.  It took three party members and a strategic grease spell to pry the sword from the stag (don't forget they were cursed still from killing Haddin).  And of all people...  the rogue 'Lucky Pete' drew the blade!

Cursing himself for drawing the sword and letting it attach to him, Pete tried in vain to use the greatsword against the stag.  The fight was brutal and many party members were severely wounded but eventually Indomitability was defeated.  With that the party stood in the now smoldering forest as the fires died and some traces of life returned.

The session ended with the Seela fey approaching them singing the song one last time and proclaiming Pete their saviour.  I was also nice and removed all curses affecting party members at this time.  Fighting a Trillith with that handicap was enough to earn them that!

(End Session #5)

*Thoughts*
-

The main problem early on with this adventure was the railroading.  While my players understood it was slightly necessary given the situation, the formula of “walking down the road and getting attacked” dragged on.  If I were to re-run this adventure I think I would space some of those encounters out into later acts to give for some 'light' encounter between the heavy background stuff.

Act Two was quite entertaining.  The Dream Elemental was a very nice fight for the party to go through, and I think will give them some hints as to other things to come in future adventures.  The Ghaele's task of guarding the bodies was an interesting touch that leaves a nice plot hook for later in the campaign and something for them to come back to.  All in all a very nice solid act of looking around finding stuff.

Act Three had a lot of things to digest and allowing it to split into two different paths seemed strange but since both were similar it wasn't unmanageable.  Some part of me would have preferred the party fight Tragedy as I think it would have made an interesting fight as well.  However the flaming stag boss was quite the epic battle and my party had tons of fun with it!

The major concern I had upon reading this adventure and am still leery on is the boon.  Indomitability's boon is quite large and has a lot of different aspects.  My players were struggling to write it all down as I explained it to them.  I'm really not sure if this will be too much of an impact later on in the campaign at higher levels as the abilities are quite powerful, but time will tell.  My assumption is that the boon was meant to offset the relatively low amount of treasure that come in this adventure.

As far as the Living Blade, I'll be keeping an eye on it as well.  Right now it is in the hands of our rogue who has just taken a level of fighter.  The weapon is not overly powerful now, but soon enough it should be sufficiently powerful in the hands of a rogue/fighter.

More to come in my next post as I discuss adventure #3 which we are already well into!


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## Primitive Screwhead

Please put a [Major Spoilers] into your title and consider sblocking some of your materail... a couple of my players wander around here ...

Thanks 

Sounds like your game is going well!


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## Morrus

I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Regarding the pantheon - we decided not to have one, and to let you use any pantheon you like (PHB as default, but whatever appeals to you).


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## amethal

Have you thought of doing it as a story hour? I'm having great fun posting mine.


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## RangerWickett

Eagerly awaiting an update.


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## Volaran

Its coming.  He's just been trying to play through Metroid Prime 2 as fast as possible, so as to start on 3.  We're still pestering Rugult to update.


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## Rugult

We're on the tail end of Adventure #4 now...  so I thought it might be prudent to update.  Here's a brief summary of what's happened recently with more to come!

*Shelter from the Storm*
-

So this adventure I am posting all in one go as we finished it a session ago.  I certainly have some criticisms on this as well as a lot of praise.  My party has given me some good insight on this as well, which hopefully I will convey in this post…  Hopefully!  

A key point is to remember that in this adventure I introduced a new player into the campaign.  As a player who never played DnD before I knew it might cause some issues with the campaign, but so far I found these adventures more then accommodating.  The player ironically enough chose to play as a Pyromancer…

_Act One – The Swamp_
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As I said, I took the opportunity with this particular act to introduce a new character to the party.  Anika; the fire specialized sorceress.

The small thorp of Vidor proved to give the PC’s some rumours about the Swamp which were quick to come back after they left.  The party picked up some boats and headed off into the muck of the swamp.

For us it seemed like the battle with the Hags dragged on quite a bit.  I’m not specifically sure why, but out of all our fights it seems like it was the longest we’d run thus far.  I think the main issue with it was that each of the hags were different classes, which made things a bit more difficult to manage from a DM perspective.

Anyways, the hags died and the party continued…

Next up was finding Katrina and the new party member Anika.  This went over relatively smoothly and in typical DnD fashion (“My don’t you look trustworthy”).  The only moment of note was Brother Benedict’s continued attempts to ‘Speak With Dead’.  Which I responded with unintelligible screaming due to the Hags continued torture…  I think he got the point!

After saving the two female sorceresses from the clutches of the Hags, the party continued via boat down the swamp where they saw an eagle overhead.  Now sadly there were members of the party stupid enough to shoot it, but luckily they were too incompetent to hit.  So I decided Katrina would show off a bit and fireball the little flying birdy to get the PC’s their desired goal.

When the elvish owners of the bird showed up, the party relied on ‘Lucky Pete Lightning’ to get their way out of trouble.  With a few well placed words, Pete had the party carrying on down the swamp…  albeit a bit more worried due to the Shahalesti influence that had appeared.

The next encounter the PC's had was the Green Dragon Naizelasa, who appeared to them in search of her eggs.  Once again 'Lucky Pete' gave a fine speech that quelled the anger of the elder creature and gave the party another side quest (this time not involving the death of an old man).  They all agreed no matter the outcome they would need to come back to this dragon and let her know the situation, to prevent an attack on Seaquen.

Before reaching Seaquen, I had the party spend some time fighting the Attercops around the area.  This encounter was nothing but PURE GOLD and is probably tied with the Dragon for most ingenious pre-city encounters.  Spells like sleep and hypnotize got a lot of play throughout this encounter, as the party subdued and fought the attercops that came wave after wave.  All said and done, the party was able to collect the 'spider wolves' and return them to the ship, as well as adding the title of 'Spider Wranglers' to Lucky Pete's repertoire.

You'll notice I did not do the goblin encounter, since the party was at 5 members and were itching to reach a city, I decided to give them a bit of a break.  Also they were really wanting to identify their loot!

_Act Two – Seaquen_
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Let me start by saying that this city is amazingly well detailed for a D&D adventure city.  This Act in particular was quite well written because it was so very open ended.  So while writing this act I will step through all of the encounters the party accomplished while they were in Seaquen...

The party first met up with Lee and his troupe of random friends.  Torrent and Crystin were placed in their care while the party continued their wanderings about the city itself.  The players were lucky enough to get some tent space amongst the refugees of the city, and Rowan went to work on identifying items (quite a bit of time spent).

First on the encounter list was the battle with the arson swarm that a few skilled party members were able to track down, and lower tensions in the city.  They also took this time to meet up with the Order of Echoes Souls and the paladin Laurabec.

Pete was eventually able to track down the egg of the green dragon and offered the pilferer a straight up honorable duel for it.  Sadly the duel was interrupted by Katrina who hurled a fireball into the melee.  Pete was thankful for evasion at that point!

_More to come...._


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## RangerWickett

Ah, Katrina. Now that's the way I wanted her to be played. She's got tons of fireballs, so pretty much any occasion is a good excuse to throw one. 

By the way, my original intention was that the various swamp encounters (aside from the hags and Katrina) would occur after the heroes reached the city, as the party ranges back out into the swamp to perform various missions. But it seems like you had fun going straight through them anyway, so groovy.


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## Rugult

While I haven't got through adventure 3 yet...  we just finished Adventure 4 tonight....

Madness escaped.  That should be pretty awesome for future plot twists...


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## RangerWickett

Color me intrigued. How exactly did you skip half of an adventure and go to the next one?


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## Jason Anderson

RangerWickett said:
			
		

> Color me intrigued. How exactly did you skip half of an adventure and go to the next one?



It's not like it's hard in adventure 3 - just remove the whole storm plot and go straight into #4


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## MHofer84

RangerWickett said:
			
		

> Color me intrigued. How exactly did you skip half of an adventure and go to the next one?





What he means is, he hasn't gotten through summarizing adventure 3 but we just finished playing adventure 4 tonight (or last night technically since I'm writing this at 2:30 in the morning). 

One of the memorable moments for the swamp was, as we're rowing through, we had the barbarian Krug taking point in the lead boat. After a couple hours of rowing, 

Torrent: "Do...do you know where we're going?"
Krug: "Sure do." *points ahead* "That way."


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## Fredrik Svanberg

Rugult said:
			
		

> For us it seemed like the battle with the Hags dragged on quite a bit.  I’m not specifically sure why, but out of all our fights it seems like it was the longest we’d run thus far.  I think the main issue with it was that each of the hags were different classes, which made things a bit more difficult to manage from a DM perspective.




I saw this one coming so I have prepared a different set of stats for the hags using non-classed monsters with interesting abilities (an annis, a green hag and a harpy). They will just use the stats for these creatures while they still keep their original appearances in order to confuse the players a bit. I hope it will make this fight a lot easier to run.

After-the-fact edit: It did make the fight easier to run but it also turned out to be a bit more difficult than I thought, resulting in three deaths... Although to be honest I didn't expect Torrent to roll a 1 on her will save against the harpy's song, and I never expected BOTH of their guards to fail the save at once. The tanker was out of armor due to having been asleep and was thus easy prey for the annis and green hag, and the remaining characters were mainly casters who never managed to penetrate the spell resistance of the hags. If I were to do this again I would have them attack in the evening before anyone has got out of their armor, and I would also remove the spell resistances.


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## amethal

Rugult said:
			
		

> *Shelter from the Storm*
> 
> _Act One – The Swamp_
> .....
> the party continued via boat down the swamp where they saw an eagle overhead.  Now sadly there were members of the party stupid enough to shoot it, but luckily they were too incompetent to hit.  So I decided Katrina would show off a bit and fireball the little flying birdy to get the PC’s their desired goal.



I stole that for my campaign. Thanks!


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## amethal

Fredrik Svanberg said:
			
		

> If I were to do this again I would have them attack in the evening before anyone has got out of their armor.



That's the only advantage of not having a tank in our party.

Armour ranges from none to chain shirt.

The only one in the party who even has medium armour proficiency is the druid, and since he's a pixie he didn't want the witch's dragonhide breastplate anyway.


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## Rugult

*Back...  from the future?*

All right…  I am going to TRY to update this as best I can.  Our group has just finished Adventure 6 so it’s certainly a buildup from this point…


_Act Two – Seaquen_
-

So the party continued adventuring through the city.  While Rowan worked on identifying in his shanty tent, the party accomplished in no particular order:

-Fighting an Erinyes
-Meeting Lee Sidoneth
-Learning about the Wayfarers
-Fighting Fire Rats
-Learning about the Order of Echoed Souls

Also of note was Pete’s attempt to find a religion to repent for the act of killing Haddin.  Benedict tried to convince him of St. Cuthbert, but instead he went about helping at the local church.  When pressing the priestess of the temple for an answer as to which deity he should follow she responded ‘Look to the hand’.  Pete took this as a suggestion to worship Vecna, which almost prompted Benedict to go back to the church in full holy warrior mode…

Luckily the Erinyes encounter botched that attempted religious war.

_Act Three – The Lyceum (Council of Elrond)_
-

It is quite difficult to retell this story in words but I shall try…

The Party came before the council with their tale, ‘Lucky Pete’ sold himself as a rebel, a warrior, savior of the Seela people, and a spider wrangler (from exploits earlier in the adventure).

It became apparent rather quickly that Pete did not get along with the Magistrate of the city and instead he seemed to ‘schmooze’ with Xavious Foebane (apparently Pete has a fondness for fighting dwarves).  During this meeting the party also met and treated with the paladin Laurabec who they found to be an honorable ally, and defender of the impoverished people in Seaquen.

The rest of the council went as intended, with Pete bringing his charms to Shalosha when she appeared.  Though the Elves demands were too high, the party understood the poor princess’ position.

One of the memorable lines of the encounter was when Rowan was going around ‘mingling’ with the other nobles almost directly insulting their actions or asking questions with child like glee.  When he realized how pestering he seemed, the now coined party line of ‘We’re from the mountains” was made.

I apologize if that doesn’t say a lot…  But as it was a fair time ago, and it’s hard enough to sum up massive in game discussions in a recap…  well that’s all I got!

_Act Four – The Storm_
-

The party attended the wayfarer’s play.  And while Katrina mocked the entire affair, the party realized they were ‘those guys’ at the theater.  Eventually Pete left in relative disgust noticing the kurfuffle upstairs.

Comabt ensued amongst the stormy upper portions of the Wayfarer’s ship.  Pete engaged with the assassin while the rest of the party fought the wayfarer traitor and his half orc friends.

Sheer damage broke down the saboteurs and the party was victorious.  However the storm was at hand, and they were running short on time.

_Act Five – The Fire Tomb_
-

With little time and the boon protecting them, the party set forth to the Fire Tomb.  They were accosted by the tojanida’s early on, which kept them weary of anything else that might be thrown at them.  Not weary enough however.

As a DM it’s a good thing when interesting monsters show up.  As a DM I love Mimics.  I love it when they appear and cause general chaos amongst the party.  This Mimic was no exception.  Shock value, decent damage done.  Nuff’ said.

When dealing with Skeletons a cleric is always handy.  When (and I quote) ‘St. Cuthbert says sit the hell back down!’, skeletons sit the hell back down.

 When dealing with a room of 13 clustered Ragesian red-shirts, a sorcerer with a penchant for fireballs is also a fine solution.

The Inquisitor was not so easily handled, and gave the party a decent run for their money.  Sadly as his guards were handled rather quickly, he was overwhelmed by sheer PC numbers in turn (one of the issues with running a 5 player group).

Taking their leave of the Fire Tomb, the party walked out into the trap set by Lee.  Fully half the party was engaged with the ‘squid of doom’ while Krug the barbarian viciously charged up to Lee.  Then one of the Gargoyles activated and decided to take Mr. Krug down the water with them while grappling.

Seriously now…  Picture it.

You’ve got a powerful monk directing a storm around the players while they fight his giant squid companion.  The one player who makes it to him is taken for a ‘dunk’ underwater by a gargoyle.  Things don’t look good…  but that’s what this campaign is about; making the players worried.

While the wizard Rowan and the Sorceress Anika dealt with the big fish (oh the PUNishment), the cleric Benedict and our lovable rogue ‘Lucky Pete’ charged up the stairs for round 2 with Mr. Badass McMonk.  Sufficed to say the battle that ensued was so epic that the whole world ended and the campaign was finished.

No wait…

Actually the party barely managed to finish off the Squiddy and Monk, while still somehow managing to save their underwater Barbarian from drowning.  Drowning while receiving a bear hug from a gargoyle...  I still think it would have been an awesome death.

The follow-up was rather brief as most of this would be followed up at the start of Adventure 4.  I did however go through the scene involving Takashi (Lauarbec’s giant eagle).

Takashi showed up and informed the party of Laurabec’s demise during the storm.  He offered her Holy Symbol to ‘Lucky Pete’ thus completing the whole ‘Look to the hand’ bit I setup earlier in the adventure.  Also Laurabec’s name is now on Benedict’s resurrection list beside Haddin.

Thus ends adventure Numero 3.

_Thoughts_
-

I will skip over my initial comments of railroading, as it has been explained many of the initial encounters are supposed to be done out of sequence… apparently reading the adventure helps.

So my first thought on this adventure was how much of a treat it is to parties who love cinematic battles and excellent plot development.  From the various battles during the storm to the entire act dedicated to the council of Seaquen, this adventure really got my players and I into the tone of the campaign.

At this point our group has run through adventures 1-6, and I still have to say that this is the adventure where the tone of the campaign was decided.  The players honestly feel as though they’re part of the resistance, and will be making a difference.  Sure there are some forced moments of assistance, such as the players being the only ones who can save Seaquen because of the Boon/Magical Stability… but hey, that’s what good fantasy/DnD is all about!

One thing important about this adventure that I really liked was that NPC stats were displayed when they would likely be needed.  In retrospect from Adventure 6, this was quite a nice help.  No having 2 copies of the adventure open on my Laptop flipping between the area descriptions and NPC stats during combat.  Small things like that really made the pacing of this adventure seem strong.

Now this can’t all be lollipops and sunshine (or something like that), so here are some concerns I had with this adventure…

The Fire Tomb seemed to have a LOT of randomly placed NPC’s/monsters that didn’t really fit.  The group of Tojanida’s, Mimic, and even the full out group of Ragesian soldiers seemed almost ‘copy/pasted’ in.  I mean I love Mimic’s and using one was quite fun from a DM perspective, but I think it took away from the intensity of the situation.  The Ragesian soldiers seemed out of place for me because it seemed to take away from the idea that this was a small ‘cell’ of Ragesians who had infiltrated the city.  Luckily a single fireball removed that thought  

Finally, and this is really an annoyance for me in hindsight (and totally understandable why it wasn’t in the adventure).  But with the inclusion of Biomancy, I think some rumors about Ostalin’s ruler might have been fluffy to throw in.  That way it’s not as much of a throw in when they meet him in adventure 5.  But of course that’s just me being nitpicky and thinking of cool plot points to throw in if I ran this campaign again!

Overall, Adventure 3 was the best of the first 3 adventure because of the combination of plot, intense combats, and good role-playing moments.

*Breathes deep*

Now onto adventure 4!


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## RangerWickett

I love reading these reviews. Thanks!

It's especially useful in case we do go back and revise them for 4th edition, so we can iron out some of the narrative issues (like hinting about Onamdammin). Even with a few mistakes on my part, though, I'm thrilled that the adventure worked so well for you.


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