Tyranthraxus
Explorer
Yeah, Im with RulesJD. THere is no logical reason to issue CERTS for items players are never expected to be able to obtain. If its classed as Treasure (and by default certed items are) then they are there for the taking.
Yeah, Im with RulesJD. THere is no logical reason to issue CERTS for items players are never expected to be able to obtain. If its classed as Treasure (and by default certed items are) then they are there for the taking.
Only problem is:
[sblock]The certed items in question belong to the duergar king of Gracklestugh, whom the party gets to meet once their 'fixing' of things in Gracklestugh is done.[/sblock]
If the party managed to obtain the items at my table, they'd have a difficult time leaving the area much less the city. *That's* why I say that the adventure doesn't expect the party to acquire those items.
It's possible that the list of items to be certed was put together by someone who just went through the adventure looking for magic items and didn't spend much time analyzing whether or not the party would be likely to acquire them -- it's also possible the items were included in the event some parties find a way to get ahold of them without being slaughtered in response.
Given that not every certed item in an Expeditions adventure is necessarily found by the party (I'm looking at you, DDEX 1-6), it's not unreasonable to have certed items where the certs are seldom given out. This isn't Living Forgotten Realms, where items were dished out like candy.
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Pauper
[sblock]I have actually planted the seeds of a potential battle against the Deepking at my table. I figured that since they're already siding with Themberchaud, let's see if the party can throw Gracklstugh into utter chaos. Plus, they're getting too big for their britches, so a potential TPK would be a nice slice of humble pie for each PC. If they decide to kill him and succeed, I'm going to give the party a single DC 20 group Charisma(Persuasion) check at disadvantage to convince the Stone Guard of the Deepking's madness. One success is all that's needed to not be charged with regicide. The Pokémon League Gym Badges that the party has will be of no use to this check.
If they succeed, they are free to go with all loot from the Deepking that the party can take, as the items would remind the duergar of the Deepking's succumbing to madness. If they fail, Themberchaud's coup will provide enough of a distraction to escape, but the party will forfeit the shopping spree quest reward they earned from the Stone Guard Captain and all duergar will immediately treat the party as enemy combatants.[/sblock]
The wand of orcus is specifically off the table, as per comments made by the admins. Not only is it not listed as treasure, but there is no cert for it in order to justify its possible inclusion as such.
In respect to the comment about the black dragon mask, that is definitely lootable - however the average party will fail to achieve this. Once they learn their mistake however, it is too late as the mask has vanished back to the Well of Dragons.
Couldn't agree more, IF that's how it worked. But that was sort of the logic behind the Black Dragon Mask and yet I saw dozens of those back in Season 1. Just seems that AL might want to take a closer look before dumping certs out if there are items that are clearly not intended to be acquirable by the players.
[sblock]The Black Dragon Mask is inside a chest in Resmir's private chamber. As stated in the adventure text, Resmir is deliberately goading the players into killing her in Ch8 as she wants the contents of her chest to teleport to the Well of dragons and out of the parties reach. The only way to obtain the BDM, is to first sneak into her private room, unlock the chest, and steal the item BEFORE confronting Resmir. [/sblock]Yeah except every single table that I have been on that has ran Chapter 8 of HotDQ (currently at 6 times) has been rewarded the BDM. I get that if tables worked how the author and AL organizers intended then this wouldn't be an issue, but they don't.