Marcon
First Post
This will be a playtest review more than anything. It will be especially useful to people who read through the adventure and are wondering how it can unfold with the interaction of a real group of PCs. In case it's not clear enough, this review will make more sense if you already know the overall plot. Sometimes, I will fall into "Story Hour" territory but I'll do my best to relate events to strong/weak points of the adventure.
I DM'ed the following group into "The Scouring of Gate Pass" :
An alcoholic Human Fighter, member of the local militia (Chris/Tlaloc);
A Human Bard (Leon/Arthur);
A Human Cleric of the Aquiline Cross (Bruno/Mederic);
An Elf Warmage, the actual nephew of Lord Shaaladel trying to infiltrate the Resistance (Jonathan/Nasharius).
The guy playing the warmage was the one who made the most of the Player's Guide I sent them. In all honesty, some of my players may not put enough time into building a complete background and I may be partly responsible for that, having killed so many of their beloved PCs. But I must say Jonathan got hooked, going so far as to send me TWO backgrounds, his secret and his public one. This is very motivating for a DM and he tends to be the most involved player in the group so far. The Campaign Guide gave me a rough timeline so I could foresee that in the end, Ragesia is indeed the nation to beat and that everybody else will be an ally or an enemy based on what the PCs do. This chased the worries I had of regretting to allow such a "high-ranked" Shahalesti spy into the group and I told myself "What the heck, the guy put some effort into his background, let's allow it and see how it turns out".
This adventure starts off in a tavern. Quite the cliché you could say but there is a twist. First, this is not the "While you sip your beer, you notice like-minded individuals talking with a man who is looking to hire them to escort his caravan" type of tavern where so many 1st-level adventures have started. I like the fact its owner is among the ones being "interrogated" by Ragesia. Gives the creeps to the spellcasters in a "The Scourge has already started" sense. And I especially like the fact that a fight breaks out minutes into the adventure. I think it's important to get the players involved ASAP and nothing does it like an ambush of this kind. My PCs handled the Black Horses quite well, in fact, the bounty hunters had to run for their lives at some point. The fight is very nicely balanced though, with a lot of ways to subtly apply DM fiat as needed (Kathor having remorse, random bomb or ceiling on fire falling on the enemies, etc.)
When I read an adventure, I have to go "Wow!" at least a few times to decide to run it. There must be passages where I say to myself "I have to share this with my buddies, it's too good". The initial attack on Gate Pass was such a chapter. The PCs got out of the tavern after the fight and were like "How the heck are we supposed to react here?" It's blatantly obvious they can't handle the Ragesian army by themselves but still, they are in the middle of an all-out assault at Level 1! Torrent was able to move things along and if you are like me and are hesitant to have an NPC accompany and guide the PCs by the nose, you should put that scrupulousness aside for this adventure. Unless you are willing to give one of the players a lot of information on the steps needed to retrieve the case, get out of the city, get to Seaquen through the Fire Forest, etc., you should use the priestess as a tool to steer your PCs in whatever direction is the coolest.
I have to say I was disappointed with the encounters occurring on the way to the depository tower though. I felt like they were last-minute additions to the adventure, possibly to round out XP and make sure the PCs would be Level 3 at the end. My main gripe was that the encounters were plain in comparison to what was happening in the city : Everyone can save a damsel in distress from a burning building or retrieve a weasel for a pompous merchant. Give us stuff that showcase the grandeur of this attack! Looking for inspiration, I posted something on the E.N. Publishing forum and got an answer from Ryan Nock himself (Granted, he's not a Hollywood star but in the context of the adventure, what more can you ask for?) Sure, most 3pp authors are available on their respective forums but such a lenghty response to such a no-name 2 years after the adventure was out? Sorry for being impressed.
The boxed text Ryan posted fueled me and I put the emphasis on the citizens panicking and preventing the PCs from reaching the tower, having them come up with original ideas (Such as enlarging the fighter to scare people by picking up a passersby and throwing him on the gate). Instead of hinting at the presence of a red dragon, I fully showcased him devouring a griffon rider and had the PCs fail their Will saves, dropping and losing their weapons in the snow before fleeing while many thieves wera already plundering stuff all over the city. I took the Ragesian wyvern rider fight and inserted it right there. When my PCs agreed on taking the rider's corpse and dump it right in the streets to prove to Gate Pass people they can prevail, I knew the act was a success.
I altered the depository tower part quite a bit. I felt uneasy with the whole "hot pursuit" scene and the disguised gnome encounter felt somewhat convoluted. It sounded rail-roady and I feared that, so early in the campaign, my players would not "click" that the real Rivereye would not mistake them for Peppin. And of course, it kinda kills the magic to have them roll Intelligence checks just to say "Well, your PC realizes the gnome is confused and is probably an impostor". When they arrived at the tower, I had them spot an elf being escorted out and one guard at the entrance tell them a security incident occurred. It worked as planned : They split the group, some PCs trailing the elf while the others tried to get in the tower. Both scenes led to fun roleplaying. My only goal here was to have one group get the name and probable location of Shealis. Jonathan (Reminder, he's the Shahalesti spy player) already had mixed facial expressions when he learned his nation was probably behind Rivereye's attack.
To Gabal's school they went. Again, the small details in the adventure. People manifesting in front of the school, a necromancer trying to drag the corpse of a griffon inside for "experimentations", a cracked tower, everytime I saw a paragraph titled "War Flavor", I was all over it. Without getting into the details, this encounter was the funniest I ran in a while. I was prepared to roleplay Diogenes but the party surprised me by sending the elf alone into the school. He confronted Shealis and told her he was Shaaladel's nephew (Showing the appropriate credentials). From there, it was a coin flip : Either she would fry him or he would have her doubt her mission enough to hand him the case. I had the elf plead his cause, had him roll Diplomacy/Bluff checks to save his life and he succeeded. Then, the false murder of Shealis was staged with the help of Diogenes, giving an illusionary show to the angry crowd and the speechless PCs outside (The enchanter was more than happy to finally give way to his phantasms, even though it was all fake). Nasharius knew this would be the only way he could get out with the case without his companions swarming him with questions ("Those 2 got in a fight all of a sudden and I was able to sneak by them and get away with the case").
I was able to improvise this because I had a lot to work with here. Diogenes is a colorful character, the rivalry between him and Shealis is hinted at, the manifestants outside made the explanation natural ("Oh, those 2 finally decided to settle the score...", etc. It also allowed me to skip the elvish ghetto part, which is subpar IMHO. I understand the whole "Good guys are not necessary allies" concept but again, so early in the campaign and with relatively newbish players, I'm not sure they would have grasped it.
Act 3 was locked in my mind. Get them to the safe house and then straight to Councilman Menash's. Another original NPC you simply can't afford not to showcase. I had an almost illegal fun designing tailored items for each of the PCs. Sometimes, I was so inspired by the concept I came up with 2 or 3 possibilities each and they had to pick one! I believe this is the first time I deliberately put prep hours into a non-combat NPC house layout. Usually, we DMs are scared of nosy PCs stepping away from the entry hall to explore the place but this time, I was so ready I had Menash give a guided tour of the premises, all the while cursing the town council for deciding to let the inquisitors in! He directed them to Captain Herreman and told them to hurry before his political power is removed because of his attitude.
I'm not saying you shouldn't let the PCs come up with original ideas for getting out of Gate Pass but frankly, I couldn't seriously imagine myself telling my PCs "No, you can't climb the walls, there are ever-watchful soldiers EVERYWHERE" or "Sorry, you can't bribe anyone, they are all fiercely loyal", etc. So instead of having to run a lousy escape, I went with the better one suggested. A lot of choices = Good.
Act 4 was tricky. Be warned that this is a potentially very tough encounter. I shuffled the number of Black Horse ambushers many times but it's really tough to figure out whether or not it will be a breeze or an impossible nightmare. I added a home-made ice patch as part of the scenery and had a few ideas scribbled down to spice up the fight but in the end, it was just a long drag. I'm still going over the encounter sometimes to figure out what went wrong. Was I prepared enough? The thunderstones split the group as intended, the ones fleeing ahead slipping on the ice. Renard stayed in the middle and circled around to alternately shoot arrows at both groups. But it seemed as if once the first set of traps went off, it was just hack and slash. I'm pretty sure my relative DM inexperience hurt me here, I don't think there is anything wrong except maybe for the fact there is no way a Level 2 party can get out of it alive if Renard AND Kathor are present.
Act 5 was a blast. By then, Rantle had replaced the hopeless bard in the party (With the conset of his player, I had this under-average character head back to Gate Pass following Act 4, being shaken and scared and all), the dauntless rogue coming from the Black Horse camp following a lead the bounty hunters would possibly try to ambush the PCs. They knew something was wrong when they saw Crystin a half-mile from the fire forest but good heroes have to help, right? Haddin is another very impressive NPC. I felt sad when all my PCs failed their Knowledge Local checks, but even then, there are so many other things they would discover by themselves. The old mage was the jerk described in the adventure, dominating a PC, yelling at his submissive daughter, challenging the inquisitor, etc. The PCs were split outside the house and this made the encounter very interesting because everybody had a different perspective when Boreus's group arrived.
Some of them had to hide from the goblin climbing to the top of the stable, the dominated one got outside with the mental command to taunt Smiley out of the Magic circle, etc. They were cursing Haddin every round, wondering why the old man couldn't use his magic to help them (They were clueless about the inquisitor protection). Crystin was throwing spells around like she just discovered she was a sorceress. It was an epic fight in the end, with Torrent dying off Smiley's greataxe, Haddin barely being stabilized by morally-challenged PCs and everyone welcoming their Level 3.
There is no pointless fight in this quest; everything is related to the big picture. I love that. I hate to setup the grid for a random encounter. The NPCs are colorful and the setting is a wonderful place to have an adventure in. Just knowing my PCs will be coming back to Gate Pass for adventure 9 is thrilling me. And that's why it would be foolish not to run this adventure as part of the campaign saga. The art is good, the maps are professional and the writing is top-notch. The electronic product includes a B&W PDF, text-only combat stats, maps for the players and 1-inch scale battlemaps. If you like to meddle with the material, you have plenty of room to do so, as shown by my own "off-the-trail" scenes.
I've already told Morrus and his team they could be really proud of what they have accomplished. Business-wise, it was a very unfortunate twist of fate that WotC announced 4e right in the middle of WotBS. That's why I forced myself out of my laziness to write this review. Enjoy it not because it is a product of the community you love led by the man at the head of EN World. Enjoy it because it is so darn good. Whether you are considering running this under the new edition or the old one, take the plunge, you can't go wrong.
I DM'ed the following group into "The Scouring of Gate Pass" :
An alcoholic Human Fighter, member of the local militia (Chris/Tlaloc);
A Human Bard (Leon/Arthur);
A Human Cleric of the Aquiline Cross (Bruno/Mederic);
An Elf Warmage, the actual nephew of Lord Shaaladel trying to infiltrate the Resistance (Jonathan/Nasharius).
The guy playing the warmage was the one who made the most of the Player's Guide I sent them. In all honesty, some of my players may not put enough time into building a complete background and I may be partly responsible for that, having killed so many of their beloved PCs. But I must say Jonathan got hooked, going so far as to send me TWO backgrounds, his secret and his public one. This is very motivating for a DM and he tends to be the most involved player in the group so far. The Campaign Guide gave me a rough timeline so I could foresee that in the end, Ragesia is indeed the nation to beat and that everybody else will be an ally or an enemy based on what the PCs do. This chased the worries I had of regretting to allow such a "high-ranked" Shahalesti spy into the group and I told myself "What the heck, the guy put some effort into his background, let's allow it and see how it turns out".
This adventure starts off in a tavern. Quite the cliché you could say but there is a twist. First, this is not the "While you sip your beer, you notice like-minded individuals talking with a man who is looking to hire them to escort his caravan" type of tavern where so many 1st-level adventures have started. I like the fact its owner is among the ones being "interrogated" by Ragesia. Gives the creeps to the spellcasters in a "The Scourge has already started" sense. And I especially like the fact that a fight breaks out minutes into the adventure. I think it's important to get the players involved ASAP and nothing does it like an ambush of this kind. My PCs handled the Black Horses quite well, in fact, the bounty hunters had to run for their lives at some point. The fight is very nicely balanced though, with a lot of ways to subtly apply DM fiat as needed (Kathor having remorse, random bomb or ceiling on fire falling on the enemies, etc.)
When I read an adventure, I have to go "Wow!" at least a few times to decide to run it. There must be passages where I say to myself "I have to share this with my buddies, it's too good". The initial attack on Gate Pass was such a chapter. The PCs got out of the tavern after the fight and were like "How the heck are we supposed to react here?" It's blatantly obvious they can't handle the Ragesian army by themselves but still, they are in the middle of an all-out assault at Level 1! Torrent was able to move things along and if you are like me and are hesitant to have an NPC accompany and guide the PCs by the nose, you should put that scrupulousness aside for this adventure. Unless you are willing to give one of the players a lot of information on the steps needed to retrieve the case, get out of the city, get to Seaquen through the Fire Forest, etc., you should use the priestess as a tool to steer your PCs in whatever direction is the coolest.
I have to say I was disappointed with the encounters occurring on the way to the depository tower though. I felt like they were last-minute additions to the adventure, possibly to round out XP and make sure the PCs would be Level 3 at the end. My main gripe was that the encounters were plain in comparison to what was happening in the city : Everyone can save a damsel in distress from a burning building or retrieve a weasel for a pompous merchant. Give us stuff that showcase the grandeur of this attack! Looking for inspiration, I posted something on the E.N. Publishing forum and got an answer from Ryan Nock himself (Granted, he's not a Hollywood star but in the context of the adventure, what more can you ask for?) Sure, most 3pp authors are available on their respective forums but such a lenghty response to such a no-name 2 years after the adventure was out? Sorry for being impressed.
The boxed text Ryan posted fueled me and I put the emphasis on the citizens panicking and preventing the PCs from reaching the tower, having them come up with original ideas (Such as enlarging the fighter to scare people by picking up a passersby and throwing him on the gate). Instead of hinting at the presence of a red dragon, I fully showcased him devouring a griffon rider and had the PCs fail their Will saves, dropping and losing their weapons in the snow before fleeing while many thieves wera already plundering stuff all over the city. I took the Ragesian wyvern rider fight and inserted it right there. When my PCs agreed on taking the rider's corpse and dump it right in the streets to prove to Gate Pass people they can prevail, I knew the act was a success.
I altered the depository tower part quite a bit. I felt uneasy with the whole "hot pursuit" scene and the disguised gnome encounter felt somewhat convoluted. It sounded rail-roady and I feared that, so early in the campaign, my players would not "click" that the real Rivereye would not mistake them for Peppin. And of course, it kinda kills the magic to have them roll Intelligence checks just to say "Well, your PC realizes the gnome is confused and is probably an impostor". When they arrived at the tower, I had them spot an elf being escorted out and one guard at the entrance tell them a security incident occurred. It worked as planned : They split the group, some PCs trailing the elf while the others tried to get in the tower. Both scenes led to fun roleplaying. My only goal here was to have one group get the name and probable location of Shealis. Jonathan (Reminder, he's the Shahalesti spy player) already had mixed facial expressions when he learned his nation was probably behind Rivereye's attack.
To Gabal's school they went. Again, the small details in the adventure. People manifesting in front of the school, a necromancer trying to drag the corpse of a griffon inside for "experimentations", a cracked tower, everytime I saw a paragraph titled "War Flavor", I was all over it. Without getting into the details, this encounter was the funniest I ran in a while. I was prepared to roleplay Diogenes but the party surprised me by sending the elf alone into the school. He confronted Shealis and told her he was Shaaladel's nephew (Showing the appropriate credentials). From there, it was a coin flip : Either she would fry him or he would have her doubt her mission enough to hand him the case. I had the elf plead his cause, had him roll Diplomacy/Bluff checks to save his life and he succeeded. Then, the false murder of Shealis was staged with the help of Diogenes, giving an illusionary show to the angry crowd and the speechless PCs outside (The enchanter was more than happy to finally give way to his phantasms, even though it was all fake). Nasharius knew this would be the only way he could get out with the case without his companions swarming him with questions ("Those 2 got in a fight all of a sudden and I was able to sneak by them and get away with the case").
I was able to improvise this because I had a lot to work with here. Diogenes is a colorful character, the rivalry between him and Shealis is hinted at, the manifestants outside made the explanation natural ("Oh, those 2 finally decided to settle the score...", etc. It also allowed me to skip the elvish ghetto part, which is subpar IMHO. I understand the whole "Good guys are not necessary allies" concept but again, so early in the campaign and with relatively newbish players, I'm not sure they would have grasped it.
Act 3 was locked in my mind. Get them to the safe house and then straight to Councilman Menash's. Another original NPC you simply can't afford not to showcase. I had an almost illegal fun designing tailored items for each of the PCs. Sometimes, I was so inspired by the concept I came up with 2 or 3 possibilities each and they had to pick one! I believe this is the first time I deliberately put prep hours into a non-combat NPC house layout. Usually, we DMs are scared of nosy PCs stepping away from the entry hall to explore the place but this time, I was so ready I had Menash give a guided tour of the premises, all the while cursing the town council for deciding to let the inquisitors in! He directed them to Captain Herreman and told them to hurry before his political power is removed because of his attitude.
I'm not saying you shouldn't let the PCs come up with original ideas for getting out of Gate Pass but frankly, I couldn't seriously imagine myself telling my PCs "No, you can't climb the walls, there are ever-watchful soldiers EVERYWHERE" or "Sorry, you can't bribe anyone, they are all fiercely loyal", etc. So instead of having to run a lousy escape, I went with the better one suggested. A lot of choices = Good.
Act 4 was tricky. Be warned that this is a potentially very tough encounter. I shuffled the number of Black Horse ambushers many times but it's really tough to figure out whether or not it will be a breeze or an impossible nightmare. I added a home-made ice patch as part of the scenery and had a few ideas scribbled down to spice up the fight but in the end, it was just a long drag. I'm still going over the encounter sometimes to figure out what went wrong. Was I prepared enough? The thunderstones split the group as intended, the ones fleeing ahead slipping on the ice. Renard stayed in the middle and circled around to alternately shoot arrows at both groups. But it seemed as if once the first set of traps went off, it was just hack and slash. I'm pretty sure my relative DM inexperience hurt me here, I don't think there is anything wrong except maybe for the fact there is no way a Level 2 party can get out of it alive if Renard AND Kathor are present.
Act 5 was a blast. By then, Rantle had replaced the hopeless bard in the party (With the conset of his player, I had this under-average character head back to Gate Pass following Act 4, being shaken and scared and all), the dauntless rogue coming from the Black Horse camp following a lead the bounty hunters would possibly try to ambush the PCs. They knew something was wrong when they saw Crystin a half-mile from the fire forest but good heroes have to help, right? Haddin is another very impressive NPC. I felt sad when all my PCs failed their Knowledge Local checks, but even then, there are so many other things they would discover by themselves. The old mage was the jerk described in the adventure, dominating a PC, yelling at his submissive daughter, challenging the inquisitor, etc. The PCs were split outside the house and this made the encounter very interesting because everybody had a different perspective when Boreus's group arrived.
Some of them had to hide from the goblin climbing to the top of the stable, the dominated one got outside with the mental command to taunt Smiley out of the Magic circle, etc. They were cursing Haddin every round, wondering why the old man couldn't use his magic to help them (They were clueless about the inquisitor protection). Crystin was throwing spells around like she just discovered she was a sorceress. It was an epic fight in the end, with Torrent dying off Smiley's greataxe, Haddin barely being stabilized by morally-challenged PCs and everyone welcoming their Level 3.
There is no pointless fight in this quest; everything is related to the big picture. I love that. I hate to setup the grid for a random encounter. The NPCs are colorful and the setting is a wonderful place to have an adventure in. Just knowing my PCs will be coming back to Gate Pass for adventure 9 is thrilling me. And that's why it would be foolish not to run this adventure as part of the campaign saga. The art is good, the maps are professional and the writing is top-notch. The electronic product includes a B&W PDF, text-only combat stats, maps for the players and 1-inch scale battlemaps. If you like to meddle with the material, you have plenty of room to do so, as shown by my own "off-the-trail" scenes.
I've already told Morrus and his team they could be really proud of what they have accomplished. Business-wise, it was a very unfortunate twist of fate that WotC announced 4e right in the middle of WotBS. That's why I forced myself out of my laziness to write this review. Enjoy it not because it is a product of the community you love led by the man at the head of EN World. Enjoy it because it is so darn good. Whether you are considering running this under the new edition or the old one, take the plunge, you can't go wrong.
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