WotBS 3.5 Scions of Gate Pass (SPOILERS IN THE POSTS)

Adventure II, Act I -- into the fire forest

Adventure II, Act I

Dramatis Personae

• Ari, a whisper gnome monk/rogue/swordsage mishmash
• Erina, a human evoker/druid/theurge mishmash
• Fitz, a human crusader/cleric/RKV mishmash
• Koba, Erina's owl familiar and urban companion
• Torrent
• Crystin, a human psion (telepath)

The heroes enter the fire forest and quickly come upon the wizard who tried to sneak through -- sadly, it was someone Erina recognized. They quickly put him out of his misery.

Crossing the bridge with the fire bat swarm is harrowing. Ari guides the party across, but Crystin dies in the process, much to everyone's dismay.. They hear the indomitable fire donkey, still attached to the gnome cart it was pulling, braying, so they lower Ari down to investigate and are rewarded with stand the heat potions and coins in an iron chest.
Surprisingly, the heroes tolerate of the hell hound that dropped off the bone bearing a message, but are terribly unimpressed by what was written on the bone. They drop off the iron chest (remember, they left the case with Shealis) and leave the bone as well, wanting nothing to do with Kazyk and his demands.

Kazyk then attacks, of course, but a quick spell from Erina foils his attempt to summon lemures. Dismayed but undeterred, he wades in with his glaive but it quickly driven to teleport away for help.
Indomitability's trial by fire turns into a rolling game of heal-the-point-man -- Torrent and Fitz, at least, take turns getting the stuffing beaten out of them and then having to be rescued so that they can be healed while the next victim gets beaten on. Eventually, though, they survive the trial, and Indomitablity makes its demands. Fitz is thoroughly unimpressed, not knowing the lawful basis for its imprisonment or its demand to be released. Torrent, of course, thoroughly rejects being held hostage to someone else's demand for freedom.

Adventure II, Act II -- fort, village, Nelle, and Tiljann

Adventure II, Act II

Dramatis Personae

• Ari, a whisper gnome monk/rogue/swordsage mishmash
• Erina, a human evoker/druid/theurge mishmash
• Fitz, a human crusader/cleric/RKV mishmash
• Koba, Erina's owl familiar and urban companion
• Torrent
• Crystin, a human psion (telepath)

The heroes enter the bridge fort without incidentThey make quick work of looting the elven soldiers in the lower level -- Erina is quite happy to replace her pastel-rainbow bow with a superior weapon -- and proceed upstairs. They appreciate the battle-map of the nearby town, and take the time to read through the journal sitting by it. Erina, it turns out, knows the history of Innenotdar better than does Ari (the Innenotdar gnome), so she describes some of Anyariel's heroic deeds to the rest of the party. Eventually they make their way up to the top floor of the fort and find the dream seeds. Crystin, ever eager and naive, handles the packet, falls asleep, and starts mumbling strange phrases in a deep voice.
Erina, being a daughter of drug lords of Gate Pass, immediately recognizes the seeds and describes their ecology, propogation, cultivation, and, oh yes, their hallucinogenic properties and dosing restrictions.
Crystin begs to take a seed until Erina offers to give her one, at which point she suddenly because cautious and reticent.

Fitz insists they explore the village some before settling in for the night, despite Crystin's objections. They are a bit surprised when they find the willow tree they saw on the wooden model was made of stone in real life. They break up to explore the area around the tree, so Ari ends up facing the initial brunt of the two ghasts playing dead in the tree. She gets badly injured but avoids becoming paralyzed. Fitz successfully rebukes them, and then he and Torrent get into an argument about the right way to finish them off: Fitz thinks she should channel divine energy to destroy them, but Torrent doesn't want to risk them fleeing and then coming back in a couple of minutes. The disagreement drags on as the heroes have an embarrassingly hard time beating up the cowering ghasts.

As the heroes tend Ari's wounds, Crystin testily points out that this is why she thought they should spend the night in the tower before exploring.
The next morning, the heroes quickly find their way into the shrine of Anyariel. None of them recognized the octarine ball at the top of the stairs (Erina vows to takes some classes in Planar Studies at the Lyceum), but, since they are being peaceable, proceed down to the shrine proper uncontested. Eventually, though, the Eladrin does speak and explain why she is in the shrine.
Having seen the village's main attraction, the heroes decide to proceed upstream. Kazyk approaches them under truce and explains his situation and how he can wriggle out of the terms of his binding without having to kill the heroes. He then proposes they join forces to end the fire.

"Sounds good to us!" says Fitz. Erina agrees. Torrent fumes (if that's the right word for a cleric of the sea goddess), and Ari tries to look inconspicuous, as usual.
The battle with the rast is surprisingly harrowing, since it focuses on attacking Koba on the opposite side of the river from the rest of the heroes.

When they reach Nelle at the Mouth of the White River, she explains her promise to Bhurisrava, her need for some heroes to save the forest, and the dangers of teleporting.

At this point, the heroes decide to try one of the dream seeds. As soon as Are falls asleep, Crystin casts sense link on her and describes what Ari sees: In her dream, Ari makes her way back towards Gate Pass and sees some Ragesian soldiers, including Inquisitor Boreus, preparing to leave. Boreus happens to be carrying a sack. She gets an opportunity to peek inside the sack and sees Haddin's head, his neck having been severed with some sort of serrated blade. Crystin's reaction to seeing this is, er, complicated.
Ari proceeds to Gate Pass and gets to see her family having a discussion [saying unkind things about Ari, but Crystin doesn't know that], the numerous pieces of Ragesian armor mounted as trophies on the front of the Westgate residence, and the battle beyond the west gate.
Ari slept through the battle with the dream elementalwhich ultimately ends up with the elemental teleporting away and burning itself to death in the process.

The heroes catch sight of Crystin and Kazyk talking at the side of the lake while the rest of them said their good-byes to Nelle. They are a bit suspicious, but don't follow up.
Fitz then takes a dream seed and, thanks to a good roll on his Lucid Dreaming check, dreams his way down to Seela Lake and the surrounding environs.
The heroes make their way back to the bridge and decide to poke around the village a bit more. In their pokings, they run across a grey ooze in one of the old houses, defeat it, and claim an empty bottle as treasure.
When Erina hears Tiljann singing the next morning, she pulls out her recorder and starts to accompany Tiljann's song.
Tiljann starts explaining why she is here and soon thereafter gets attacked by the seela who had hidden out on the bridge. The heroes manage to drive the attackers off without killing any of them. If they held one for questioning, their notes made no mention of what they might have learned.

I really like it when it is possible to incorporate the player's back stories into the campaign, especially when it doesn't take too much effort. It adds to the story and to the player's enjoyment of the story. I hope you can keep it up making all of them feel involved. In my campaign I have two of them perfectly matched, but the last one is still eluding me.

The scene in the shrine also put some gray hairs in my players head. It took them quite a while and a lot of heavy hints from my part as to what it possibly could mean. I think that the scene is nicely though out, but the players do not have the prerequisite backstory to put the pieces together, so one has to push the hints a bit. It also took them some time to figure out who the priest was.

Nice touch with Haddin, even if it means you wont have the pleasure of tormenting your players with him .

I like how our campaigns are currently around the same spot, and how things are rather different. Just you killing off Haddin changes the flavor of things. Interesting read all over, thanks for sharing.

Adventure II, Act III -- saving Innenotdar

Something I forgot to mention in my previous post: On the trip downriver back to the bridge fort, Torrent shouts out, "Indomitability, I will free you!" She then briefly screams in pain as she feels fire coursing through her veins.

"You're really going to free it?" inquires Ari.

"No." replies Torrent.

"But I thought you were Good!" says Ari. Torrent scoffs. "Wow, this business of being good is more complicated than I thought!"
Adventure II, Act III

Dramatis Personae

• Ari, a whisper gnome monk/rogue/swordsage mishmash
• Erina, a human evoker/druid/theurge mishmash
• Fitz, a human crusader/cleric/RKV mishmash
• Koba, Erina's owl familiar and urban companion
• Crystin, a human psion (telepath)
• Tiljann
• Torrent

Tiljann explains everything she knows as they all make their way to the seela village and in return pesters the party at great length about the world outside the fire forest. On the way down, Crystin excitedly tells Tiljann about Torrent's offering to help free Indomitability, calls out "I will set you free" herself, and suddenly screams in pain as she, too, gets his boon.
Most of the heroes go talk to Papuvin. They don't ask the right questions and thus don't get much in the way of useful answers. Ari, oddly enough, goes off on her own to talk to Vuhl, who happily invites her in and pleasantly explains his perspective.
In any event, the heroes get enough information to decide that the best course of action is to take some bait to Guinevere. They manage to talk her into lending them the lock of Anyariel's hair. After spending an inordinate amount of time admiring Guinevere's shrine to the lock, Erina finally picks it up and sees herself turn ugly in the mirror. Everyone else is suitably horrified for her to realize it's not some sort of illusion.
Then, leaving Guinevere's lair, a giant eel attacks the party and chokes on Fitz.
The heroes go visit Timbre and easily lure her out. She gives the full explanation, releases the sword from its bond, and tells the party to have at it and save the forest. After a brief discussion, everyone realizes that the person most suited to pulling the sword from Indomitability is Torrent, of all people.
Fitz, and Torrent take a boat out to where Indomitability lies and...negotiate! Fitz says he will set Indomitability free, but only if he promises not to exact any sort of revenge. Indomitability agrees.
Torrent and Fitz dive into the lake and they pull the sword free -- well, free of the lakebed. Indomitability drags the two of them up to the surface and demands to be set free.

Alas, no one thought to negotiate with Papuvin. Erina the Cursed desperately tries to convince him to get the seela to stop singing. Papuvin is unconvinced. Ari the Terminally Uncharismatic aids with her two cents. Papuvin remains skeptical. Crystin prettily pleads with Papuvin to stop the singing. Papuvin is starting to warm to the idea. Tiljann begs him to stop the singing, having come to trust he heroes. Papuvin is nearly convinced. Koba wants Papuvin to give a hoot, so he makes a last-ditch diplomacy check and Papuvin finally relents and stops the song, and Indomitability goes free.
Kazyk, having been monitoring the party all this time, smiles and disappears in a chrysanthemum of flame for the last time.
There is happy singing, the heroes all get Indomitability's boon, and the whole joyous nine yards. Vuhl flies away, and Crystin makes her last cryptic premonition about Vuhl and his grandmother. In a desperate attempt to restore Erina's not-so-bad looks, the heroes return the lock of Anyariel's hair to the shrine, but to no avail.

Adventure II, Epilog

Adventure II, Epilog

Dramatis Personae

• Ari, a whisper gnome monk/rogue/swordsage mishmash
• Erina, a human evoker/druid/theurge mishmash
• Fitz, a human crusader/cleric/RKV mishmash
• Koba, Erina's owl familiar and urban companion
• Crystin, a human psion (telepath)
• Tiljann
• Torrent

The morning after the heroes free Indomitability, Koba flies out to see if the their escape route is clear. She returns somewhat alarmed. After a rather frustrating game of playing "guess what the familiar is thinking", the harem sets off to investigate while Fitz identifies the Living Blade, the mask they got from Boreus, and the helmet they got from the Black Horse Murderers.

Meanwhile, Koba leads most of the heroes on the road to the south. They hear what Koba was concerned about before they see her: A fire giant, despondently walking along the road and knocking down the occassionaly burned-out snag. The heroes guardedly talk to her while Koba flies back to get Fitz (who is too busy identifying to be bothered with Koba's interruption), but they eventually let drop that they were the ones who had put out the fire. The giant angrily shouts, "It was you" and attacks the heroes. The heroes flee back to the river fort, Fitz gets clobbered, mysteriously gets up anyhow, and Ari plays dodge-the-giant until everyone is safely back in the tower. The giant's attack on the door finally triggers the spiritual weapon trap on the door. The fire giant moves away to lay siege with boulders, but the heroes eventually regroup and finish the giant off.

The heroes return to the Shrine of Anyariel in attempt to extract any clues. They investigate the case again and discover a single strand of hair, leading them to conclude that this is where Guinevere got the lock of Anyariel's hair. They also ask the guard ghaele to remove Erina's curse of ugliness. She does so -- and removes Indomitability's boon in the process!

After identifying the blade, our heroes decide that Papuvin is the appropriate holder thereof, since they are headed into a war zone. Papuvin, of course, wants nothing of it, nor do any of the other seela. Ari is eager to get the blade from Torrent as soon as possible.

Finally, the heroes head out of the fire forest. They soon run into a Dassen calvalry detachment headed north along the road, trying to hunt down the fire giant who had been raiding villages on the south side of the fire forest and then ducking back into the forest to escape retaliation. They are a bit disappointed to learn that the heroes had beaten them to it. The Dassens travel with the heroes out of the fire forest as Fitz quizzes the horsemen about anything and everything before heading off on their own to Seaquen.

I like the consequences part, it is part of what I really like about the adventure. I had the issue come up a few times in chapter 4, where Lady Timor is not that pleased with their efforts in the forest. To do good, is not always without consequences in this adventure.

Typical players to actually consider giving a way an artifact

to be honest, I would have let the player lose the boon, it might have been harsh, but my experience in the campaign is that the first adventures won't really challenge them a lot unless you up the challenge.

Concerning player deaths, as such I don't mind them, but ultimately it is a game an supposed to be fun, so I am often torn about it. In my campaign I had one death so far. It was in chapter 6 with no real way of getting a new PC into the game. I had to let them ressurrect him, otherwise he wouldhave been out for quite a while, playing npcs or such. That would not have been too fun, to be honest. On the other hand, it is not fun if there is danger to the players, so I find it is a tough balance. It is always interesting to see what others do in those instances. In your case I would have done the same to show off the boon, it makes sense and is a naturally integrated part of the story.

Adventure III, Episode I

Dramatis Personae

• Ari, a whisper gnome monk/rogue/swordsage mishmash
• Erina, a human evoker/druid/theurge mishmash
• Fitz, a human crusader/cleric/RKV mishmash
• Koba, Erina's owl familiar and urban companion
• Crystin, a human psion (telepath)
• Tiljann
• Torrent

The trek across Dassen turns out more exciting than anyone expected: In Nassamport they learn that no one is willing to sail to Seaquen. Then, in Vidor, Fitz, being from a merchant family of Gate Pass, decides they should try their hand at horse trading, quite literally: They round up the horses hanging loose near Vidor and ride back north, selling the horses to refugees as they go.

Once they return to Vidor after their business activities, they purchase some rowboats and something resembling a map, but Erina dismisses the protective crocodile teeth as fakes. They also hire on a couple of half-orc fighters and a shugenja named Odo, all of whom were stuck in Vidor for lack of funds to buy a boat. They also hear a rumor about Katrina going into the swamp.

The H'andreas attack in the night; the wizard uses her darkness ability on a pebble, which makes it look like the lantern on the torchstaff is floating in mid-air. Then she casts cloudkill on the island the party set up camp on as H'andrea the druid sneaks up from the back side and kills Odo with a single blow. The fight has begun!

Erina's gets stuck on the far side of the island from the witches' boat to deal with H'andrea and Crikey -- H'andrea dies quickly, but Crikey tries to drag his mistress away, distracting Erina from the main battle. The rest of the fight is very chaotic, with the witches throwing various clouds and the heroes getting separated into various boats. Torrent enlarges Fitz, who then feels free to wade up to the boat the other two witches are in. Eventually, Ari traipses from gunwhale to gunwhale of of her allied boats to get close enough to shadow jaunts her way into the front of the witches' boat, thereby experiencing the dangers of teleportation first-hand. She then uses her silence ability to keep the witches from casting spells. The wizard gives up, but H'andrea doesn't understand that Ari is trying to knock H'andrea unconscious and therefore attacks Ari to defend her sister. Fitz then decides to flip over the boat, dumping everyone in the water. H'andrea eventually flees to a nearby island that she conceals in magical fog, only to be rendered unconcious via shield other when Ari finally manages to knock H'andrea out.

The heroes inspect and divide up the witches' possessions. After binding the two surviving witches, the heroes decide to revive the witch to question her. The first thing she says is, "I can lead you to our captive...". Fitz agrees to let H'andrea go so long as she lets the heroes leave after she leads them to their captive, which she agrees to do.

The next morning
the heroes follow H'andrea's lead to their soggy island home. Of course, the island's skeletons attack. Fitz blames H'andrea for the skeletons' attack, but since their creator, H'andrea, is still unconcious, there is nothing she can do. Ari knocks H'andrea unconcious while Torrent destroys the bulk of the skeletons. They search the huts on the island and find Katrina and another Tidereaver's Tears. Katrina explains what the witches had been doing and how she avoided the kettle. This gives someone the clever idea to use one of the dream seeds, since the kettle obviously has strong psychic associations. Surprisingly, and contrary to family policy, Erina volunteers.

As Erina falls asleep, she finds herself soaring on Koba's wings over the cold snowy mountains of home. She is accompanied not by the sounds of the wind but the screams of those fed to the witches' pot. The screams die down but not away, and she arrives in the courtyard of The Castle. There, a line of mourners wait to pay their last respects. As Erina approaches the casket, she sees it is Gabal lying in repose, a look of smug satisfaction upon his still face. She recalls some of Gabal's advice, "Don't trust magic users who rely on charisma rather than studying spell books." As she resumes flight east from Gate Pass, she sees one of her cousins receiving a sledge of supplies from an elf. Food seems to be getting into the city despite the Ragesian army camped outside its walls.

Everyone decides that the surviving witches are a threat to anyone who passes through the swamp. The heroes give Katrina the honor of blowing them to bits. Nothing like the smell of napalm in the morning!

I miss Katrina. A scheming, charming, short-tempered, arrogant woman who nevertheless isn't a bad person, and who really enjoys flaunting her fireballs. When I originally ran the campaign that inspired WotBS, Rantle was a PC, and he was constantly having to keep the rest of the party from finding out what his sister was up to, while helping her actually forward her plans.