Beckett
Explorer
Spoilers for Three Faces of Evil below
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Started TFoE for my group last night, after spending the first part of the session converting everyone into Gestalts (7 players, so I've added additional foes, but the path is pretty deadly as is, so I thought a little extra oomph would help... of course, the NPCs also get to be gestalted). Dwarf Fighter/Rogue, Half-Orc Paladin/Fighter, Human Dragon Shaman/Warlock, Human Monk/Scout, Catfolk Rogue/Swashbuckler, Human Sorcerer/Warmage, and Aasimar Healer/Favored Soul, for the curious.
After a little dealing and bribing (one of my players is a big briber- 100gp each to a pair of guards, giving a +20 on Diplomacy according to the adventure), they entered the mines. At the bottom of the elevator, they quickly dispatched a trio of tieflings (who did open up with a 13 damage sneak attack arrow on the Paladin, and another who nearly cut the Sorcerer in half). I was expecting them to go to Hextor first- the Paladin being of Heironeous for starters- and was anticipating the meatgrinder that the temple is. Well, the Paladin did rip down the Hextor banners, but the decision was made to go after Vecna first; they figured the Hextorians were warned, and the other door led to an unfinished cavern, so why not Vecna.
The Labyrinth. I considered working around it some way, but decided to give it a try. It was a lot to keep track of, and kinda frustrating as I was trying to draw out the map as they moved around. The opening was a great surprise, as one kenku opened a wall behind the party, a second moved out into the corridor and shot the Paladin (bringing up rear), gaining sneak attack and skirmish (gestalt rogue/scout seemed a good fit on the kenku), and he used a free action to open the next wall, and a third moved through the newly opened wall. They beat out almost all the party in inititive, so they quickly moved through the second wall, closing everything behind them. A prolonged battle ensued, as the party hunted for the kenku (and found the dire weasles), and the kenku kept popping out of walls and taking shots (sneak attack was hard to get, but they could often get enough movement for skirmish, and D8+D6 adds up fast). Eventually, the situation was getting to all of us (particularly the paladin, who kept double moving to catch up with the kenku, who would promptly shut a secret door in his face before he could strike), so I moved things to a swift conclusion. A final out-and-out melee took down the last of the kenku (and almost some party members, as the lead Kenku made use of all three Fireballs on his necklace, relying on evasion to avoid damage and spread to deal it).
All in all, it was a fun, memorable, challenging and sometimes frustrating fight. Not the sort of thing I want to do often, but an interesting change of pace. I let the characters find the Kenkus' treasure before we stopped for the night, and I awarded 1.5X experience (putting everyone very close to 4th level) for the difficulty of the labyrinth. In two weeks, we pick up with the characters entering the Faceless One's lair, where I am sure they will be happy to pay him back for the labyrinth experience.
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Started TFoE for my group last night, after spending the first part of the session converting everyone into Gestalts (7 players, so I've added additional foes, but the path is pretty deadly as is, so I thought a little extra oomph would help... of course, the NPCs also get to be gestalted). Dwarf Fighter/Rogue, Half-Orc Paladin/Fighter, Human Dragon Shaman/Warlock, Human Monk/Scout, Catfolk Rogue/Swashbuckler, Human Sorcerer/Warmage, and Aasimar Healer/Favored Soul, for the curious.
After a little dealing and bribing (one of my players is a big briber- 100gp each to a pair of guards, giving a +20 on Diplomacy according to the adventure), they entered the mines. At the bottom of the elevator, they quickly dispatched a trio of tieflings (who did open up with a 13 damage sneak attack arrow on the Paladin, and another who nearly cut the Sorcerer in half). I was expecting them to go to Hextor first- the Paladin being of Heironeous for starters- and was anticipating the meatgrinder that the temple is. Well, the Paladin did rip down the Hextor banners, but the decision was made to go after Vecna first; they figured the Hextorians were warned, and the other door led to an unfinished cavern, so why not Vecna.
The Labyrinth. I considered working around it some way, but decided to give it a try. It was a lot to keep track of, and kinda frustrating as I was trying to draw out the map as they moved around. The opening was a great surprise, as one kenku opened a wall behind the party, a second moved out into the corridor and shot the Paladin (bringing up rear), gaining sneak attack and skirmish (gestalt rogue/scout seemed a good fit on the kenku), and he used a free action to open the next wall, and a third moved through the newly opened wall. They beat out almost all the party in inititive, so they quickly moved through the second wall, closing everything behind them. A prolonged battle ensued, as the party hunted for the kenku (and found the dire weasles), and the kenku kept popping out of walls and taking shots (sneak attack was hard to get, but they could often get enough movement for skirmish, and D8+D6 adds up fast). Eventually, the situation was getting to all of us (particularly the paladin, who kept double moving to catch up with the kenku, who would promptly shut a secret door in his face before he could strike), so I moved things to a swift conclusion. A final out-and-out melee took down the last of the kenku (and almost some party members, as the lead Kenku made use of all three Fireballs on his necklace, relying on evasion to avoid damage and spread to deal it).
All in all, it was a fun, memorable, challenging and sometimes frustrating fight. Not the sort of thing I want to do often, but an interesting change of pace. I let the characters find the Kenkus' treasure before we stopped for the night, and I awarded 1.5X experience (putting everyone very close to 4th level) for the difficulty of the labyrinth. In two weeks, we pick up with the characters entering the Faceless One's lair, where I am sure they will be happy to pay him back for the labyrinth experience.
