Tyranthraxus
Explorer
I sorta started these for really new expeditons scenarios that were releasing over at WOTC and then realised all expeditions scenarios are essentially new for people
What follows are my thoughts on the scenario after recent running (ran it twice in 2 weeks)
1st Running: V Strong. ( 7 players)
Ths group is consistently the same group of players at a local store and I think that has helped them with their inter party work ethic and loyalty. Most are 4th level and some nearly 5 and this was my first running of a scenario at V Strong ( I was a little worried)
Furgis is a very interesting character. I played him very.. roguelike. He obviously has issues with trust and his mole appearance dosnt help. His questions to party members were strange and everyone was shocked when he pushed a random sailor overboard. The reveal of the Giant Octopus (which I never really 'used') was quite cool and the flood of Cultists/ Reavers/ Knights and finally a Crushing wave Caller which was really cool. Furgis actually won init and ran from the stairs leading down to the Codex which he started yelling about and the players had no idea about.
Like my other running of this, the amount of forces didnt really phase the party and they considered themselves pretty powerful by this point. I dont think any outnumbering would of shaken them outta this. The sailors on board of course fled.
After 4 rounds, a lot of the cultists had died and I had the Knights working together to take down the Cleric who has the highest AC. I had 3/7 down by this point and Furgis was hanging back.. not willing to risk running off by himself without protection although pretty much safe from attack. Of course the characters wouldnt leave the fallen ones down and thanks to some quick healing most of the characters got up.
To get taken down by a Tidal Wave from the Caller which looked fairly awesome. The octopus was trying to take out the boat (and was never attacked in either game). In essence due to the Tidal Wave, I had 6/7 characters down and Furgis was knocked out too. One character used a potion of flying to flee and then came back and luckily the characters down self stabilised. The Cleric ( a Water Genasi) had a major issue with the Caller who was also a Water Genasi. I kinda liked that.
So after a pretty one sided fight to retrieve the codex (this ran much faster than the Ship battle), the Party fled into Mulmaster to hide/seek refuge and flee the city. I cant put my finger on it , but this section was a bit of a letdown for me. I quickly had players wanting to contact the Factions for help (and to be honest, I also tend to feel a disconnect withe characters and factions a lot of the time). They were directed to a particular contact who would help for favors (essentially downtime or gold) which they of course had a fight over who would actually pay the costs: could they all share it out? . It was a little confusing (the chase scene felt a little flat)
By this time the party had more of less tired of Furgis who kept reminding him he had paid them good money to protect him (although a player wanted extra danger money!).
We then moved to the meeting with the Hammers. I liked this. We had a standoff as they informed the party of Furgis treachery. The party were actually willing to hand him over quicksmart and then the Black Earth attacked.
Now Ill phrase at this point, I was exicted to get my Earth Elemental Pawn out to use here. Ive not run many 5-10 tier scenarios and Ive had the Earth Elemental been waiting for a moment like this.
We had 2 battles here. I used pawns to repesent the Hammers who were fighting imaginary monsters of their own on the far side of the Cavern. Every round one would drop as the party tried to race to go help them out.
However the party again was getting taken down by a combination of the Earth Elemental and the Young Xorn. The cultists really dont have a chance.. in this party we had 18 -20 acs on 3 characters so they are hard to hit. Not a big problem for the Young Xorn, Elemental or Hook Horror. ( I love how connected the Monsters feel.. no random monster tomfoolery here). Again I had characters in death saves in a couple of rounds. I eased back a bit with the Elemental (but not much) and the GreatSword wielder was the difference here as even at half damage he was getting the better of the Elemental. Still at the end of the battle 5/7 players were down and the race for stabilisation commenced.
Furgis had died during this battle as his back line became the front line of the Xorn and he got eaten. Leaving the book behind.
After some convincing the party continued on, had a freak out moment when they met the Archmage/ Drow merc .. the Dwarves led the discussion more or less.
The final battle actually in difficulty was less than the Hammers battle. The Stonemelder though I want to point out here. I like his spell list more than the Caller (who I equate him too). The full power Xorn was a nightmare too. I think the Wizard used all his spells (long rest previously) in this Battle and was in Cantrips for a bit of the battle. It was very touch and go.
The StoneMelders Deathburst ability actually took down 3 characters! Way to go sir!
*****************
Average, 5 players
My second running of this was with a group that can at times feel more like your standard OP group. Very different choices and tastes. There were 2 Rogues (who were almost carbon copies) of each other, a Barbarian, Ranger , Warlock (2 players who were signed up didnt show).
It was actually a much quicker running.
The boat scene played out much the same as the first running with the players not trusting Furgis already. I had cultists , reavers and Dark tide knights here and Furgis took a hit or 2 as he went for his book. I even had a player at one point wander out loud if he should just leave with his life intact. The cultists again didnt threaten enough and it was the Reavers and Knights who were getting the job done. Nobody dropped but everyone was definetly feeling outgunned. When Furgis made for the gangplank so did everyone else (even a character used ship rigging to get off the ship).
Thus no grotto but an interesting chase scene. Most of the players at this store are what Id term.. new players. Some may have played for a while ,but making up what they are going to do on the fly dosnt come naturally to most of them. They need to be able to order out what they are going to do , so ask others at the table. This can mean init takes a while as players um and arr but they still get things done. One character was a former Mulmaster Street Urchin and this was his playarea... he did great! (and was the most experienced gamer on the table so perhaps a link there)
Now meeting a contact here was ... interesting. I asked if anyone wanted to meeting with their faction contact (2 /5 are 'factionless' ) and nobody seemed interested to that (A lof of people at this store seem to have major disconnects witrh their factions). One guy was a criminal and consulted a fellow criminal and in term later discovered this guy actually was a faction contact but wouldnt pay the Contact to help him out (it thus denied the party any non combat exp). Again this section felt a little frustrating.
Not wanting to stall here, Furgis kept saying they must go down (of which a couple of players actually said 'I hope he dosnt mean the underdark'). Furgis did.
This group didnt like Furgis at all. Although they are generally distrusting of all the NPCs they meet. Heading down following Furgis, they also encountered the Hammers .
This is where things diverged. One of the Rogues, Alias (and the character/player most likely to um an arr as he plays a game on his Ipad) turned on Furgis after the Dwarves had called him out and coldly stabbed him through the gut (assasinate). No warning, no talking. Furgis died pretty much instantly still clutching his book. Now the Rogue is CN, so I didnt have much issue (also is anyone else noticing the amount of CN's around? Zounds!). It was just a WHAT! moment. No sooner had it happened though then the Hook Horror and others attacks.
The cultists here seemed deadlier than the others. Not sure why. The Barbarian was essentially taking on the HHorror solo and the Warlock was getting through to the Xorn when he could hit. The Dwarves were also taking their hits, and the group barely survived this. I had 1/4 left standing with 2 Dwarves and a missing Codex.
The Dwarf Cleric helped the group out and they long rested. Now I did think about the Gargoyle here but the group had been having major issues with Battles the whole game so I decided against it. Felt bad not to include it, but I thought the threat of the bad guys here was still powerful for this group.
Meeting with the Drow went as well as expected, against no trust on either side. The last battle went better and perhaps I could of included the Gargoyle. The Ranger made quick work of the Priest and the Xorn was taken down mainly due to the Hex.
******************
So thats both runnings done. The first group had a better time of It I think even if it ran to 5 hours (3.5 to group two).
I liked running this , bar the 'Find place to hide' part of the story. It just feel like it fitted with the premise of the story.
I also was unsure on what to actually do with the Drow in the Node fight. Does he help the party? Does he stand back and watch? Wasnt sure. i may of used him in the last battle for group 2 if it had of been more dire, but there were multiple crits in that last battle so not needed.
This has been a long post but I wanted to get it all out on the written record before I forgot parts.
Matthew
LC for Western Australia
What follows are my thoughts on the scenario after recent running (ran it twice in 2 weeks)
1st Running: V Strong. ( 7 players)
Ths group is consistently the same group of players at a local store and I think that has helped them with their inter party work ethic and loyalty. Most are 4th level and some nearly 5 and this was my first running of a scenario at V Strong ( I was a little worried)
Furgis is a very interesting character. I played him very.. roguelike. He obviously has issues with trust and his mole appearance dosnt help. His questions to party members were strange and everyone was shocked when he pushed a random sailor overboard. The reveal of the Giant Octopus (which I never really 'used') was quite cool and the flood of Cultists/ Reavers/ Knights and finally a Crushing wave Caller which was really cool. Furgis actually won init and ran from the stairs leading down to the Codex which he started yelling about and the players had no idea about.
Like my other running of this, the amount of forces didnt really phase the party and they considered themselves pretty powerful by this point. I dont think any outnumbering would of shaken them outta this. The sailors on board of course fled.
After 4 rounds, a lot of the cultists had died and I had the Knights working together to take down the Cleric who has the highest AC. I had 3/7 down by this point and Furgis was hanging back.. not willing to risk running off by himself without protection although pretty much safe from attack. Of course the characters wouldnt leave the fallen ones down and thanks to some quick healing most of the characters got up.
To get taken down by a Tidal Wave from the Caller which looked fairly awesome. The octopus was trying to take out the boat (and was never attacked in either game). In essence due to the Tidal Wave, I had 6/7 characters down and Furgis was knocked out too. One character used a potion of flying to flee and then came back and luckily the characters down self stabilised. The Cleric ( a Water Genasi) had a major issue with the Caller who was also a Water Genasi. I kinda liked that.
So after a pretty one sided fight to retrieve the codex (this ran much faster than the Ship battle), the Party fled into Mulmaster to hide/seek refuge and flee the city. I cant put my finger on it , but this section was a bit of a letdown for me. I quickly had players wanting to contact the Factions for help (and to be honest, I also tend to feel a disconnect withe characters and factions a lot of the time). They were directed to a particular contact who would help for favors (essentially downtime or gold) which they of course had a fight over who would actually pay the costs: could they all share it out? . It was a little confusing (the chase scene felt a little flat)
By this time the party had more of less tired of Furgis who kept reminding him he had paid them good money to protect him (although a player wanted extra danger money!).
We then moved to the meeting with the Hammers. I liked this. We had a standoff as they informed the party of Furgis treachery. The party were actually willing to hand him over quicksmart and then the Black Earth attacked.
Now Ill phrase at this point, I was exicted to get my Earth Elemental Pawn out to use here. Ive not run many 5-10 tier scenarios and Ive had the Earth Elemental been waiting for a moment like this.
We had 2 battles here. I used pawns to repesent the Hammers who were fighting imaginary monsters of their own on the far side of the Cavern. Every round one would drop as the party tried to race to go help them out.
However the party again was getting taken down by a combination of the Earth Elemental and the Young Xorn. The cultists really dont have a chance.. in this party we had 18 -20 acs on 3 characters so they are hard to hit. Not a big problem for the Young Xorn, Elemental or Hook Horror. ( I love how connected the Monsters feel.. no random monster tomfoolery here). Again I had characters in death saves in a couple of rounds. I eased back a bit with the Elemental (but not much) and the GreatSword wielder was the difference here as even at half damage he was getting the better of the Elemental. Still at the end of the battle 5/7 players were down and the race for stabilisation commenced.
Furgis had died during this battle as his back line became the front line of the Xorn and he got eaten. Leaving the book behind.
After some convincing the party continued on, had a freak out moment when they met the Archmage/ Drow merc .. the Dwarves led the discussion more or less.
The final battle actually in difficulty was less than the Hammers battle. The Stonemelder though I want to point out here. I like his spell list more than the Caller (who I equate him too). The full power Xorn was a nightmare too. I think the Wizard used all his spells (long rest previously) in this Battle and was in Cantrips for a bit of the battle. It was very touch and go.
The StoneMelders Deathburst ability actually took down 3 characters! Way to go sir!
*****************
Average, 5 players
My second running of this was with a group that can at times feel more like your standard OP group. Very different choices and tastes. There were 2 Rogues (who were almost carbon copies) of each other, a Barbarian, Ranger , Warlock (2 players who were signed up didnt show).
It was actually a much quicker running.
The boat scene played out much the same as the first running with the players not trusting Furgis already. I had cultists , reavers and Dark tide knights here and Furgis took a hit or 2 as he went for his book. I even had a player at one point wander out loud if he should just leave with his life intact. The cultists again didnt threaten enough and it was the Reavers and Knights who were getting the job done. Nobody dropped but everyone was definetly feeling outgunned. When Furgis made for the gangplank so did everyone else (even a character used ship rigging to get off the ship).
Thus no grotto but an interesting chase scene. Most of the players at this store are what Id term.. new players. Some may have played for a while ,but making up what they are going to do on the fly dosnt come naturally to most of them. They need to be able to order out what they are going to do , so ask others at the table. This can mean init takes a while as players um and arr but they still get things done. One character was a former Mulmaster Street Urchin and this was his playarea... he did great! (and was the most experienced gamer on the table so perhaps a link there)
Now meeting a contact here was ... interesting. I asked if anyone wanted to meeting with their faction contact (2 /5 are 'factionless' ) and nobody seemed interested to that (A lof of people at this store seem to have major disconnects witrh their factions). One guy was a criminal and consulted a fellow criminal and in term later discovered this guy actually was a faction contact but wouldnt pay the Contact to help him out (it thus denied the party any non combat exp). Again this section felt a little frustrating.
Not wanting to stall here, Furgis kept saying they must go down (of which a couple of players actually said 'I hope he dosnt mean the underdark'). Furgis did.
This group didnt like Furgis at all. Although they are generally distrusting of all the NPCs they meet. Heading down following Furgis, they also encountered the Hammers .
This is where things diverged. One of the Rogues, Alias (and the character/player most likely to um an arr as he plays a game on his Ipad) turned on Furgis after the Dwarves had called him out and coldly stabbed him through the gut (assasinate). No warning, no talking. Furgis died pretty much instantly still clutching his book. Now the Rogue is CN, so I didnt have much issue (also is anyone else noticing the amount of CN's around? Zounds!). It was just a WHAT! moment. No sooner had it happened though then the Hook Horror and others attacks.
The cultists here seemed deadlier than the others. Not sure why. The Barbarian was essentially taking on the HHorror solo and the Warlock was getting through to the Xorn when he could hit. The Dwarves were also taking their hits, and the group barely survived this. I had 1/4 left standing with 2 Dwarves and a missing Codex.
The Dwarf Cleric helped the group out and they long rested. Now I did think about the Gargoyle here but the group had been having major issues with Battles the whole game so I decided against it. Felt bad not to include it, but I thought the threat of the bad guys here was still powerful for this group.
Meeting with the Drow went as well as expected, against no trust on either side. The last battle went better and perhaps I could of included the Gargoyle. The Ranger made quick work of the Priest and the Xorn was taken down mainly due to the Hex.
******************
So thats both runnings done. The first group had a better time of It I think even if it ran to 5 hours (3.5 to group two).
I liked running this , bar the 'Find place to hide' part of the story. It just feel like it fitted with the premise of the story.
I also was unsure on what to actually do with the Drow in the Node fight. Does he help the party? Does he stand back and watch? Wasnt sure. i may of used him in the last battle for group 2 if it had of been more dire, but there were multiple crits in that last battle so not needed.
This has been a long post but I wanted to get it all out on the written record before I forgot parts.
Matthew
LC for Western Australia
