Durn's War of Fire and Ice Campaign Discussion

[Daern]

I have simply given them 4 scrolls of endure elements. I don't believe they have the ritual otherwise. The main problem with following the river I think will be that it is small and shallow and not floatable. And the banks are overgrown with flaming brush. So an attempt to take the river route will mean a day of wasted travel, perhaps eventually arriving at the 'bottom' of the first bridge encounter.

 

[Daern]

Finished the Scouring of Gate Pass!

The first adventure is in the bag! We moved right on into the Forest.
After all my planning and rejiggering the Inquisitor, I went and forgot to use his Dispel Power when I had the chance (a sorcerer area effect that killed two creatures). Oh well. I'm certainly glad I made him an 8th level elite. He still got his ass handed to him. I wanted to scare them and I'm not sure I did enough, which is to say I didn't drop anybody. I kept holding back and rolling random targets for arrows instead of focusing fire. (Got to play for keeps in the Fire Forest.)

On the up side, my players are so jazzed they are demanding to play again on Tuesday!

 

[DragoonLance]

As I'm planning on running this myself I really enjoy your write ups and comments here. Thanks!

 

[Daern]

Session 5 will be today: I've decided to make Khadral a Kenku Bard (warbler) as this ties in with my campaign world... further I've decided to have him replace the elemental goblin in 'Unnatural Hunt', so he gets introduced, then runs away, then they find him again after the Infernal encounter. I'm replacing the Goblin tribe with Kenku as well (I just like them), so the Khadral character will be an outcast from the tribe... we'll see how it goes.

Today I want to remember to use smoke clouds alot to break up the battlefield... keep the combatants moving around.

 

[Daern]

Session 5

Today the heroes traveled through the fire forest, beset on all sides by fiery bats and hellish wolves. They slew all-comers, rolling through an encounter with 2 fire bats, then another with a colony of bats and a fire bat over the ruined bridge, then finally an encounter with the devil Kazyk, six minion wolves and a hell hound. The ripped through all of these with ease. Kazyk barely escaped! I used moving smoke clouds, but I started them on the edge of the mat so they weren't very effective...
Basically, the session was great for plowing through a bunch of encounters and getting a lot of plot in, but I felt like my encounters got mowed down... maybe my players are getting better...
The highlights for me as DM were previewing the Khaadral character (which I have made a kenku and used to replace the goblin in the "Hunt" encounter), establishing the "indominability" of the forest creatures with the "rekindle" characteristic, and also referencing the Shahallesti again with the "elf gold" ledger, and also a statue I added as scenery to the battle with Kazyk, a statue in a fountain of a robed elf in a gesture of friendship that says, "A gift of precious love from King Shaladeel, friend of the Elves of Innenotdar" (sort of a statue of liberty) This gives a hint at the history of diplomatic relations in the forest...
Finally, they know that the Inquisition is still after them and the case...
I'm looking forward to getting a little dungeoning in next session after meeting with Khadral, and then they can get to the heart of it and start making some decisions again! Its a linear little bit on the Elf Road...

 

[Daern]

Session 6

Sunday's game was short but fun. The fighter's player was missing so I had him go catatonic from the intensity of a night of visions and such (this character his unknowingly tied to the trillith, so he's been taking over the role of Cristin as seer).

The group encountered the Khadral character, which I have changed to be a kenku and had fun RPing with a friendly character for awhile. He told them some crazy stories, half of which seemed true, and then asked for help rescuing a dryad, if only they would help get some components for the ritual. There was some good discussion about wasting time in the forest. I had Torrent vehemently disagree with getting sidetracked but then be persuaded by the moral logic of the party. Then they were off!

The investigation of the alarm and skeletal remains went well: here was the remnants of a battle between an eladrin knight and a group of Kenku (which have replaced the goblins. Khadral is a kenku who has returned to the forest to try to lift the curse from his flock). Why were they fighting? What was an eladrin knight doing in this land of forest elves?

I drew out the big mushroom cavern, with little mushrooms scattered around the place, and played up that they were pressed for time. Then I
around the group asking for Nature checks. They managed to gather 11 of the 12 needed before my numbers came up for the Myconid attack.
It was sort of a mellow battle. The stock myconids are only 3rd and 4th level, so the pcs plowed right through them, and marched back to the grove for some nymph rescuing action...

It was a nice, light session without much danger, but some more good plot development. I'm looking forward to running them through the ritual and rescue encounters because they are going to pile onto each other and it will get hard at the end, I think. Check out the sig below for more.

 

[Daern]

Session 7

Yesterday my players barreled through the Ritual of Khadral, Saved the Dryad children, Saved Khadral, Battled Myconids, stayed in the cave to collect more mushrooms and then battled more myconids, then spent several days resting before continuing down the road where they were ambushed by Indominable Stags and Fire!

We played four encounters in about 4 hours... much more than usual.

Notes: I liked the whole set up of the Ritual and the double rescue, it makes for a great back to back encounter, but a DM needs to really think it out ahead of time to make sure you know what sequence of events is and what all the different characters are doing.

The Skill Challenge to Rescue the Children was a little shaky. I like the time squeeze element, but with a map drawn and combat running, the abstract nature of the multiple checks clashed with normal combat. The players asked, "Why can't I just jump that chasm? I almost think the whole encounter would run better without a map. Also the DCs were very low, so there wasn't a whole lot of tension there. On the other hand, the "Desecration Response" angry trees hazard was very effective and managed to trap Torrent and beat her to the ground.

This was my chance to kill Torrent. I am not a fan of hang around NPCs, and I've grown tired of her, but the players were worried and made sure to rescue her immediately so I let her live. One player said "She's our heal battery", which is another good reason to get rid of her, but the others wouldn't move on and leave her in the forest, so she recovered, though I'm thinking she should have some lasting injury...

I had the Dryad make a death speech, telling the story of the Song of Forms and the Elf Hero defeating the Dragon under the lake.

They did alright with the "Test of Fire" encounter (I made the Stag Elite, and dropped a cinder cloud in the middle.) The whole place was a danger zone. Nobody dropped, but the players were a bit worried. The session ended with the Stags rekindling and Indominability making himself known.

I'm stoked for the adventure to turn to a more investigative style. I feel like every encounter so far has added some bit of mystery and deeper story to forest, but now it is definitely time for them to start going after stuff themselves. I'm also looking forward to bringing Kazyk back to make his offer, so they remember the Ragesian threat.

All in all, the Fire Forest of Innenotdar is a great module!

 

[Daern]

Session 8

We played a midweek session last night... picked up with Indominability's offer. They all said yes, not realizing that the 40 tongues they must silence are cute little faeries.

The exploration of the tower was interesting... they breezed right through the traps and immediately dropped the Dream Seeds, all except the sorcerer and Ahleena, who got romantic. My advice for DMs is have some good stuff prepared for this: prophetic imagery, tantalizing tidbits and all that.

The party went straight to the shrine, and spoke with Eteranth, Knight of the Lily. It was an emotional rp encounter as it became clear that the Shahalesti did something shady, and this honorable knight realized it as well. Unfortunately I was a little unclear about this guy's backstory... at first I said he had died long ago, but then I had to backtrack when I told the story of Torfendor... then I said that he had died fighting orcs during a skirmish with Ragesia. Anyways, I got a little flustered and forgot to ask the party to get Torfendar's remains. At this point, there has been a lot of mysterious stuff and they know there is a big mystery, but it is pretty confusing to them. I think that's a good thing.

It looks like the party wants to go directly to the lake and free the dragon, so I need to figure out what plot I need to make sure gets in there. I am going to offer the Rescue of Khadral in the form of flashbacks and premonitions, but I don't expect them to backtrack or go up river.

I am trying to decide who's offer I will present next, Kazyk or Tiljann. Perhaps Kazyk will approach them immediately and the can rescue Tiljann as they travel downstream... any thoughts?

 

[Daern]

Visions of the Dream Seeds

I wasn't satisfied with what I described in the Dream Sequence session, so this is what I just waved to my players in anticipation of the next session...

The brothers descended into a hallucinatory reverie full of fires and armies marching.
The Torch of the Burning Sky lights a web of fire that arcs over the skys over the whole of the Lands of Neradia, from Asgulan, to Gate Pass, Ragos, to Sindaire, Dassen, Ostelin, Delver's Dale, and even the Penninsula of Seaquen, pierced only by the indelible edifice of the World Mountain, Koshtra Belorn, whose impassive peak looks down on the swaddled lands from the unassailable heavens....

Fire and Ice! Everywhere armies trudged through snow and over frozen rivers, lugging the tools of battle.
Here an orc climbs a crenellated battlement, but is thrown back by a soldier's pike,
adrow leans over a luxurious couch,
a dragon dreams in its subterranean cave thrashing about on its bed of gold,
a king awakes from sleep with tear streaked eyes
graceful ships sail,
storm clouds gather over the sea
monks chant in their halls,
books are thrown upon a pyre and their owners follow,
a forest burns,
there a delicate gauntlet passes a torch to a crow's beak,
a slim winged girl takes flight from her people, who stand dejected, but still murmuring a soulful tune...​

It was not a restful sleep. Each man awoke describing similar visions, but each also had memories that no other could understand.
Please write a few words about your character's dream. Something from his personal history or perhaps his destiny... (50xp)

 

[Daern]

Whew! Almost through! I must admit this session nearly broke my poor DM brain. Once the party gets to the Seela village there is ALOT of exposition to do. All kinds of hints and conflicting info needs to be sorted out, and alot of RP is to be had. This is all well and good, but some characters have a whole half page of info nuggets to impart and when the RP challenge goes off track...

Basically, I had a hard time keeping it all straight in my own head, so doling it out to the players was quite difficult. All the info is scattered throughout various skill challenges and side bars and such and as I got into the action I realized that I didn't have as firm a grasp on the backstory as I thought. I muddled through it, but I fear I spent a fair bit of time reading random bits of info I thought might help. They did finally piece it together more or less, and despite initially wanting to just let the Seela end their suffering and give in to despair, they seem to be about to follow the Burning Dryad right to the lake. Next up, the Showdown, I gotta make this good!