ZEITGEIST Adventure 5 Canal Route and Attending the Banquet

[squirmonke]

Hello All,

I'm preparing to run Adventure 5 of Zeitgeist for my group, after a long delay since running adventure 4.

One thing that I'm concerned about is I expect my party will be likely to defeat Kell and recover what they need to traverse the canal route into the bleak gate. But I also know my party would absolutely love the scenes at the peace summit, and I'm eager to make sure they get to see them. But I worry that if they recover the route to enter the canal, they'll feel pressured to do that before the start of the peace summit (after all, that's what the king asks them to do!), and they won't get to see those scenes since, of course, if they go early and wake the Colossus early, the summit simply doesn't happen.

Is there a good solution to get them to go after the summit that doesn't feel like they failed their task (since taking the king's portal is presented as failure)?

 

[arkwright]

The canal option isn't a perfect route.

Book 2, 'How does the smuggling plot work': Even then, a final spell is required to keep the item (or person) from returning to the real world five minutes later. Guards on the Bleak Gate side have wands for this purpose.

By Book 5, the PCs may have found a few different means of entrance into the Bleak Gate. The canal, the Macbannin rings, maybe they stole a lantern from Luke (and procured the necessary oil). But they most likely won't have the resources needed to transition themselves + 60 soldiers into the Bleak Gate, which is what the King's ritual offers.

My suggestion is to permit the PCs to do a scouting mission. Probe defences, try to set up some diversions to move enemy troops around. The facility has exhaust chimneys, they could potentially discover those and climb down to get an early peek at the (non-Borne) parts of the facility.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

By Book 5, the PCs may have found a few different means of entrance into the Bleak Gate. The canal, the Macbannin rings, maybe they stole a lantern from Luke (and procured the necessary oil). But they most likely won't have the resources needed to transition themselves + 60 soldiers into the Bleak Gate, which is what the King's ritual offers.

the gate can only let 31 people through, though, so it's more like the party + grappa + twenty-something troops - unless that's only a restriction in the 5e version (which is what i have), in which case that's...strange.

 

[arkwright]

'31 people' is ringing zero bells for me. Might be a 5e thing?

Here's what the 4e version says:

Social. Montage.
If the party goes the Canal Route, they can bring along perhaps a
handful of allies—if they’re using amulets, there are only enough
for the PCs, Asrabey, Alexander Grappa (in his fully reassembled
golem body), and perhaps one or two other prominent NPCs like
Kvarti or Gale, though the PCs need to be persuasive to convince
them to step into the Bleak Gate. If they’re relying on Obscurati
wands to complete the transition, there are only a limited number
of charges available, at GM’s discretion. We know tagalong NPCs
can be annoying. Asrabey and Grappa, though, have important
plot roles.
If the party travels with Ekossigan, they’ll have the fey lord and
his hundreds of lesser fey minions, plus Asrabey. They might be
able to convince Ekossigan to wait long enough to get Alexander
Grappa, but he won’t let them bring along military or police.
If the party uses the king’s Ritual of Transposition, the expedition
can include up to thirty-one people, which should include
Asrabey and Grappa. The party might even convince Kvarti Gorbatiy
to tag along. Sixty soliders gather to travel with them, but
not all of them make it through the portal before it closes. Enough
come through to constitute two Allied Units (see Appendix J).

Canal Route.
This route involves passing beneath five bridges that cross Stanfield
Canal, which runs between Bosum Strand and Parity Lake. The
route can be traveled by barge or steamboat (the bridges aren’t tall
enough for most sailing ships), or you can walk along a foot path
paralleling the canal. The route to enter the Bleak Gate goes either
direction—east-to-west or west-to-east—with guards at each end.
Each bridge is keyed to a different magical sigil, and a person or
object must be marked with or carrying something marked with
that sigil. Each bridge you pass under with the right sigil pulls you
further into the Bleak Gate, and over the course of a few miles the
real world fades out. The effect of each bridge only lasts about ten
minutes unless you pass beneath the next in the line. The party
might take this path if they manage to get the five sigils from Quentin
Augst, but then they’d have to know to seize the Obscurati
wand from the watchmen in order to complete the transition. If
they got a wand from Norm or amulets from Lorcan Kell repaired
by Minister Lee, they can get in on their own.
At either exit, watchmen wait beneath the last bridge with
wands that finalize the transition. Without the wand’s magic, a
person can remain in the Bleak Gate only for a few minutes before
snapping back to reality. Normally the watchmen just let through

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Sixty soliders gather to travel with them, but
not all of them make it through the portal before it closes. Enough
come through to constitute two Allied Units (see Appendix J).

this is probably the 4e equivalent of what the 5e version says, which is:

Soldiers Ready.
Depending on which method of entry the party uses to reach the Bleak Gate, they might be traveling with most of Dale’s soldiers. The night of the 13th, sixty soldiers will wait near Hotel Aurum, ready to go through the portal the king will open, though only thirty-one people will be able to pass through, so the party had better go first.

 

[squirmonke]

The book I have says that if they capture Kell, he and Harkover can hook them up with a working wand to finalize the ritual, so if they do that, they won't have the issue of coming back after a few minutes.

As for "allowing" them to do a scouting mission. I don't think it will work. Once there in there, nothing stops them from pushing too deep into the facility and forcing me to start doing the facility events. I could have Delft or the king tell them not to "It's too important that you be back in time for the thing" but that raises a bunch of other issues:

• The party may find it suspicious, after all previously they were asked to get the job done before the summit. Now they don't want that?
• The party may not have a way back from the bleak gate planned. Presumably the plan would be to go into the bleak gate and figure out how the Ob get back and use that, though of course the colossus breaking free obviates the need to find a way back
• The party may be concerned about the feasibility of taking two trips. If they're detected, will the canal route still be open when they return? Does their wands/amulets have enough charge for two trips? etc.

What I'm currently thinking is that I'll break the summit into two parts. One a day early is like an intro banquet where I can put all the toasting and eating scenes. And then one at the scheduled time, where they're planning the treaty or whatever, and Asrabey interrupts and causes Han to send the messenger and all that. That way if they pull it off it ends up looking like They go to the banquet, then rush to the trap to try to catch Kell, then realize time is short and they have to go the next morning before the event the next night. And if they don't do it, Han gets a chance to warn the Ob and it feels a little more like an earned failure.

 

[RangerWickett]

Or just remove the ability to stay transitioned, so they can get in to the Bleak Gate and look around, but they only get five minutes before returning to the Waking.