WotBS Running Innenotdar WotBS #2 (spoilers)

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.

EugeneZ said:

Interesting choice with the Endurance checks. When I ran it, the party was almost out by the time they got to Khadral

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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.

EugeneZ said:

and he made them some more, and soon afterwards made a pact with Indomitability and didn't need them again.

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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.

EugeneZ said:

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.

Click to expand...

Oh, these things happens.

Live and learn

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.

Oh, I see.

From the potions dynamic, and what the adventure expected, I ruled from the bieginning that horses wouldn't enter into the fire forest.

After reading the initial description, the player's themselves understood/agreed with this.

In some weeks I'll be running the encounter with the fungus men.

But I read their stat blocks and I fail to see how to effectively use them.

I started this thread on the rules board:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-4th-edition-rules/267273-myconids-how-use-them.html#post4980813

Anyone who ran the encounter, is more than welcome to chime in that thread.

Thanks

Today we've finished the dire bat encounter.

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 grâce 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)!

I applaud those of you who run the NPCs during the combats.

I just let them fall back and not count for the encounter.

sfedi said:

I applaud those of you who run the NPCs during the combats.

I just let them fall back and not count for the encounter.

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I have the PCs control them. They usually elect to have one NPC help out.