Hammerhead said:
Maybe it was on purpose. If I recall, her intel on Shaboath wasn't all that great, compared to Iphizeen. Maybe her Scry spells just aren't working or something.
Does anyone else plan on trimming or actually trim the middle of the second act, a mindless hackfest?
After I caught the discrepancy I assumed the same thing. The players just found that out this Sunday. They thought they were going to see illithids and instead found derro.
heh.
As for the mindless hackfest, I ran it as is, but interrupted it with a side adventure in the middle of it all.
It also proved useful for a number of reasons:
1. It allowed the party to get a number of xp's. However by the time the characters got to the derro guardpost, the normal derro were value-less.
2. It gave the party time to let loose on lesser monsters. The quaggoth and hook-horrors were good for this. The characters opened up and had fun if only for that reason.
If you do reduce the encounters I would suggest the following:
1. Reduce the number of trolls
2. Reduce the quaggoth and hook horrors.
3. Get rid of either the behir or the dragon. Unless the characters go straight to the behir that should be a cake walk for the party. The dragon is going to be tough regardless - but the treasure is nice.
4. Reduce the wandering monster frequency to once or twice a day.
5. Think about what level you want the party to be when they face the guard post and the City of the Glass Pool. Keep an eye on how big those encounters can grow to (all 3 of the Kuo-toan Dukes will be a handfull).
Round out with the wandering monsters or better yet with a side adventure for a change of pace.