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Today I begun running The Indomitable Fire Forest of Innenotdar (I loooove spelling it all) to one of my groups.
In the first encounter I wasn't totally sure about how I handled it.
Is it as simple as putting the fire out of Durval and that's it? He's alive?
Wasn't he an undead?
What if he leaves the forest and outside the sphere of influence of Indomitable?
After that, we begun An Unnatural Hunt.
I modified the encounter as follows:
Made both bats Elites. Just duplicated their hitpoints, and added a second attack in it's Flyby Attack.
Also, I corrected it's AC to 20, the one corresponding to a level 6 skirmisher.
I dropped the Claw attack.
Modified the Bite attack as: +11 vs AC, 1d10 + 4 damage + 1d6 fire damage
Because that way it makes sense that the bat attacks and damages the goblin. And it also doesn't make the bat's attack totally worthless against fire protected creatures.
Also, the added damage scales well with the character's hitpoints.
Of course, this makes the encounter harder.
Another modification I made was to the Endurance checks to withstand the forest fire.
As it was, at DC 26, it is extremely difficult for a character to succeed at the check and a total of 7 to 9 healing surges could be spent a day (3 per 8 hour period and 3 to 4 more because of encounters).
The problem with this is that it doesn't makes much difference if you have Endurance or not, your chances are very small.
I changed it so that if you have lots of healing surges and a good Endurance bonus, you can risk going through the forest without taking potions.
This, in turn, will give the party more margin with the potion problem.
The change:
Endurance check DC 18 for every 3 hours exposed to the fire forest.
Success: You endure the fire forest.
Failure: You loose a Healing Surge.
This mechanic is made so a typical trained PC, with a +7 Endurance bonus, will loose between 2 to 4 healing surges a day.
Enough to make a difference and to make it worth a try.
It also rewards the characters if they find and use a sheltered place to rest in.
Another change was to the hazards.
The grass would deal 1d6 if you enter a square with this hazard. Maximum 1 per round.
Given that, it seems strange that a burning bush would posibbly deal less than this damage.
So I changed it to:
1d6 if you enter a burning bush square.
+4 vs Reflex. Hit: 5 ongoing damage.
That way, it's ALWAYS worse to enter a burning bush than burning grass.
I haven't dealt with the smoke and cinders yet.
PD: Flaming/Burning Brush? Shouldn't it be a Flaming/Burning Bush/Shrub?
Interesting choice with the Endurance checks. When I ran it, the party was almost out by the time they got to Khadral and he made them some more, and soon afterwards made a pact with Indomitability and didn't need them again.
What I probably should have done, though, is have indomitabilty remove the boon just as the fight started so that the PCs had to make endurance checks. Drat.
Interesting choice with the Endurance checks. When I ran it, the party was almost out by the time they got to Khadral
How is that possible?
You find Khadral at the end of Day 1, and Torrent has potions for all the trip, that should take 3 days.
I assumed Torrent had something like 4 days worth of potions (25 potions), a little bit more, just in case something happens. Then, when the party brings along Crystin and Haddin, that extra postions allow them to still travel 3 days through the forest, but without margin for delays.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EugeneZ
and he made them some more, and soon afterwards made a pact with Indomitability and didn't need them again.
Mmm, that's a good one. I wasn't aware of that.
Much better then, if they manage well their potions, and the Endurance checks, they can be able to reject Indomitabilitie's offer and know they can handle the fire hazzard problem.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EugeneZ
What I probably should have done, though, is have indomitabilty remove the boon just as the fight started so that the PCs had to make endurance checks. Drat.
They brought horses. They got them when they left Gate Pass, remember? They took good care of them and brought them into the fire forest, potions and all. They lost two horses on the bridge, when the tiles collapsed. Two were left with Khadral and never seen again. One was mercifully killed right as the group was running out of potions. It was a sad day for the horse's owner.
They were really surprised at the end when the elemental goblin spoke in common (while during all the encounter he babbled in goblin)
They now know that "the animals of the forest are angry". Let's see how that piece of information get used.
So far, although they witnessed weird stuff happening, they haven't had the initiative to investigate. Even though the Shaman knows that "a spirit is present in this forest".
I hope that Khadral will make them realize that the weird stuff happening in this forest can be investigated/unveiled.
This attitude, I think, is essential for the module.
What did others experienced when they ran the module?
Changing a little the subject, today we begun Dangerous Crossing.
Man, this bat swarms are pretty nasty.
I've changed the encounter as follows:
- Lowered their Fort and Ref, they were two points too high
- Made the Bites and Claws damage untyped, instead of all fire damage
- Removed the portion of the attack that dealt different damage vs prone targets
Both encounters, this and the previous, brought interesting rules in play:
- you can't move vertically someone during forced movement
- swarms can't be pulled, pushed or slid by melee and ranged powers/attacks
- three dimensional distance calculations
We've introduced a little houserule to allow forced movement vertically if the target was moved down (you had gravity helping you).
After the third time Haddin made Crystin use Swarm of Daggers centered on the party to kill the swarm of bats, the Warlock in the party attacked him. Amazingly, the Warlock for some reason decided to jump off the bridge and lay down on a fire-bush.
The Warden knocked the old man prone, and the avenger promised a coup de grāce should he not immediately release control over his daughter and the warlock. Unfortunately, the warlock didn't survive. Crystin struggled internally over loyalty to her only remaining family and being trapped in her own head watching herself hurt others. She did not argue when they tied her father up on the bridge, although she probably would have had she found out that the warden tied the other end of the rope to the small section of intact stone and pushed her father over to hang like an enfeebled batman with chronic emphysema.
On the plus side, now the party has a Leader role (Bard)!
Torrent was killed in Gate Pass, and one of the characters got infuriated when Haddin tried to mind control him during a heated argument and killed him during the first extended rest in the forest. I do run Crystin but I mostly have her alternate between cowering in fear, running away, and occassionally tossing a magic missle.
Ok, we've finished the Swarm bats encoutner and moved on.
These swarms gave them hell of a run for their money.
Some things that came up during the session:
- I've changed the area of a Smoking Cloud to be a Burst 2
- So far, I'm not sure how to introduce them into a combat, and what's the point of it
What I'm doing is to roll 1d6 to see when ir appears, I then randomly determine which side of the battlefield it will appear on, and then I randomly determine it's course to the opposite side
- I determined that to know what a Shaterspell does you had to roll a DC 15 Arcana check
- A DC 20 Arcana check tells you also that you can chill it to make it a potion that gives spell resist damage
- I changed how Shaterspell works, because it scales weirdly.
It works like: A 1 + level bonus vs Will of the Zone caster to dispel it, entirely
- I don't know how much it affects the rest of the campaign this
- In order to chill the potion you had to use a power that deals Cold damage while holding the Shaterspell and it remained in potion form for 5 minutes. In the case of the Innenotdar Forest, it will remain only for a minute, not that it matters too much.
Last edited by sfedi; 13th November 2009 at 08:09 PM..
Hey Sfedi, I think the clouds are a great way to bring the flavor text onto the battlefield. Describing alot of smoke and an asking for endurance checks during the traveling scenes then makes it logical that there would be floating smoke clouds on the battle field. Your ideas for randomness sound great. I would come up with some handy prop to mark the smoke cloud's area. Maybe a circle of black paper...
Since the adventurers will not have an opportunity to spend money on this adventure, I thought I could replace the money rewards for consumable items, wondrous and items that are improbable of ever getting bought.
Note that this treasure isn't as helpful as it could be, so to still reward prepared PCs.
But is helpful enough so that PCs have at least some protection against fire and death.
At the left of the item I list a GP value, which I use as the amount of money treasure I swap out.
Since there's some treasure that the party wouldn't have purchased, and it's likely to be sold, that item GP value count as it's selling value.
Consumables GP value count as it's full purchase value.
Below is the list of items more appropiate for each encounter that gives treasure:
PCs level - Encounter
Level - GP equivalent - Description
4 to 6 - Kazyk
104 gp - Prison of Salzacas (20%) (replaces the finger)
4- Ending Suffering
30 gp - Stonemeal Biscuit
4- Dangerous Crossing
30 gp - Stonemeal Biscuit
40 gp - Potion of Fire Resistance
104 gp - Shroud of Protection (20%)
360 gp - Belt of Endurance (20%)
4- A Cool Cave
40 gp - Life Shroud
4- Reagents (Myconid Cave)
75 gp - Fire Beetle Potion
5 - Entering the Fort
50 gp - Potion of Clarity
104 gp - Battle Standard of Honor (20%)
125 gp - Elixir of Accuracy
5 - Village Wanderers
125 gp - Elixir of Accuracy
200 gp - Stag Helm (20%)
5 - Indomitable Goblins (Myconid Cave overrun with Goblins)
75 gp - Fire Beetle Potion
5 - Remains of the Day (Rescue of Khadral)
75 gp - Fire Beetle Potion
100 gp - Elixir of Cold Dragonbreath
5 - The Mouth of the River (Nelle)
30 gp - Herbal Poultice
40 gp - Life Shroud
50 gp - Potion of Clarity
50 gp - Potion of Spirit (+2)
125 gp - Elixir of Accuracy
350 gp - Elixir of Speed
6 - Shrine of Love (Pond Hag)
30 gp - Herbal Poultice
350 gp - Rust Bark
6 - Dryad Burning Bright (Dryad Grove)
30 gp - Herbal Poultice
50 gp - Potion of Clarity
200 gp - Boots of the Dryad (20%)
6 - Conclusion (Reward from the Seela)
30 gp - Herbal Poultice
50 gp - Potion of Clarity
200 gp - Flame Rose
350 gp - Elixir of Speed
I dig giving out more obscure treasure as well, but that list seems a wee bit overboard. They could still score a weapon off those Solaris guys in the cave, or find armor in the tower. Its a lot of levels to not find any shiny swords.
cheers
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