Trollhaunt tips for a DM

[SlyFlourish]

So my group just finished Pyramid of Shadows (I plan to review it soon) and next week we begin the King of the Trollhaunt Warrens. Do you guys have any tips for running this adventure? Were there any rough spots in the encounter design or the story that I should work out?

I use dwarven forge for my setup so I tend to rail-road the party through three encounters each night, will this be trouble in this adventure?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Bumping in case anybody didn't see it the first time (and I'd be quite interested too, as I'll probably be running it in a few months)

Cheers

 

[Plane Sailing]

I haven't checked yet, but this thread http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...t-warrens-fantastic.html?highlight=trollhaunt may have some useful information

Cheers

 

[Rechan]

I'd vary the Troll King's stats every time the PCs fight him. Just bumping up his level is lame. Give him something different he can do each time they face him.

Here are some additional encounters. I highly, highly recommend the troll ship one for the town. That looks fun.

This article might also be interesting to try and mesh with the general story (plus the Troll witch is neat).

If you use the encounter with the Lamia and the four hook horrors, my suggestion: have the Lamia come peeling out of the cave, shrieking for help, huddling against the PCs. Have her direct them towards the cave, telling her there are MONSTERS in there, and they have (someone important). She needs their HELP to get them back! And as soon as the PCs get in the cave, she uses Pacifying burst first. Then the Hook Horrors descend upon them.

The adventure also takes you into the Feywild, presents you a castle... and doesn't really utilize the castle at all. I certainly would have.

Also, there are two instances where you can easily drop seeds about P2. The two drow in the Troll King's chamber can be from the Drow Enclave. The two necromancers (see the first link) fit right in, too. Maybe they are there hunting the two drow who were meeting with the Troll king.

 

[Jack99]

Troll King is a quite weak, at least in the first version, I would give him more powers.

The fight with the troll vinespeaker and the 3 blackflame skulls is a killer. Between the immobilizing and the blinding, it gets really nasty. Beware. It is also quite long, although the suspense we had didn't turn it into a grind.

I can't speak for the rest of part one, since I made so many changes that it no longer bear much of a resemblance to the original work.

 

[vagabundo]

@Jack

I made so many changes to H! that I started to question why I bought it in the first place, still it is handy to have something to work from I suppose.

This adventure is on my radar, but my players are only coming to the end of H1 after nearly eight months!!

 

[Rechan]

@Jack

I made so many changes to H! that I started to question why I bought it in the first place, still it is handy to have something to work from I suppose.

Maps. I actually really like the big foldable maps that come with the adventures. Easily reusable. (Trollhaunt comes with one for the town too!)

I also do the same. I turned "Death in Freeport" to something that didn't resemble it any more.

 

[Sanzuo]

Huh, I think our DM just started this module for the group I'm playing in. I guess I shouldn't read this thread any more!

 

[Jhaelen]

Maps. I actually really like the big foldable maps that come with the adventures. Easily reusable. (Trollhaunt comes with one for the town too!)

Yup!
The city map in P1 was the main selling point for me. It has a lot of potential for reuse.

 

[Nebulous]

Yup!
The city map in P1 was the main selling point for me. It has a lot of potential for reuse.

Yeah, that really is a cool map. Now, whenever i run this (after Thunderspire and some interim adventure, i'm skipping Pyramid because it looks lame) i'm going to need good replicas of the inner book maps. I'm hoping someone on Cartographer's Guild whips those up one day.

Or, ideally, WotC would offer them as printable .pdfs from DDI. My goodness, that would be so, so awesome, and they could easily provide that service.