Durn's War of Fire and Ice Campaign Discussion

[Daern]

A brief recap: The party was uninterested in going up river so they built some boats and went down stream. After some fishing for flaming trout the had an accident with a log and while they were repairing the boat, they encountered the fleeing Tiljann and Saved her from the Rebels.

They refrained from killing anyone and used Diplomacy and Intimidate to drive the rebels off. This impressed Tiljann and she trusted the heroes. (This is where I began to get bogged down in the amount of exposition)

The party made it to the Lake Village and encountered the leaders, talked to some depressed Seela, had a creepy encounter with Vuhl, and the Bard had a date with Tiljann wherin she taught him the Song of Forms.

They learned that there was a love triangle and decided to go kill the hag and talk to the Dryad. This was easily done, and presenting the lock of hair made Timbre amenable to discussion. We ended with the group charging down to the lake to take on the Stag/Dragon!

I think a key difficulty beside the crazy contradictory mix of info is judging how to lay the cards on the table and just put the story together. There is a hero who defeated the stag, and there were women who loved him, and there is a sword and there is a tree.... this is a REALLY complex story and I'm a little bummed that I didn't put it together very elegantly for the players, but over all I think they were fully engaged and we had a great time and that's what matters most!

 

[Daern]

Session 10

Today the heroes of Gate Pass defeated the Indomitable Stag and freed the forest of its flaming curse. They slew Guenevere, Vuhl slew Timbre, and they slew Vuhl, and Kazyk as well. They are still quite confused about who really started the fire, but ready to move on. I think there were one or two too many sessions in the Burning Forest. Despite an interesting story, it can feel repetitive.
I continued to confuse myself as I ran through the endgame of this module.

The battle with Indomitability was anti-climatic. They took him down pretty easy (he never made it to the surface), then killed Kazyk after some abortive negotiations. Vuhl fought for a moment, then escaped by physically dominating and passing through the sorcerer, who now will take over as the receiver of prophecy.

The swimming battle strained my ability to suspend dispbelief. I didn't see what was to prevent the party from just taking potshots at Indomitabilty

Highlight of the session: Kazyk reapearing and making a final demand, offering to help in the battle against Vuhl in exchange for the Case of War Secrets. Of course this didn't happen. Then I played Kazyk poory and he died.

I ended up adding Vuhl to the mix along with the devil and hordes of minions. It worked out ok, but I really was hoping to drop at least a couple.

I'm looking forward to some more straightforward adventuring. I think next session I will use the side trek from Dungeon, "Treed!" intstead of the skill challenge through the mountain.

 

[sfedi]

Wow, that was intense.

I feel you man, I'm having the same problems as you.
I have an easier time than you because we play slower, so I have more time to piece the things together and prepare for a session.

And now that you have finished the adventure, what would you say are the key points when running this module?

 

[Daern]

This was an adventure that started out fairly straight forward and turned out to be really complicated. My players are still scratching their heads and some want to backtrack to try to put the pieces together. They suspect the Eladrin, but aren't sure.

I think the mod could use a bit of simplification. Its sort of a railroad wherein the options get a little muddled. I think I would make the Eladrin involvement a little more obvious and maybe skip a couple of early encounters on the road. The party skipped a bunch of encounters in the middle by choice. They were not interested in back tracking the goblin cave, and honestly I wasn't either.
The set pieces with Khadral were really neat encounters but, on review, felt a bit like a side quest.

I think having the solos at the end be skirmishers and controllers is a little weak, but mostly I played the monsters poorly. Solos and elites are complicated! I recommend redesigning them so that you are extra familiar with the monsters.

I still think its a really great and inspiring module, but there are a ton of little plot details that are hidden in various places in the text that I think sort of doing a DM's outline of everything and really trying to work it out for yourself ahead of time would help...
I guess its just an Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game!

The campaign is looking forward to a return to civilization!

 

[Daern]

Session 11

The story now returns to civilized lands as the heroes descend out of the Two-Range Pass into the Kingdom of Dassen. Rather than play out the mountain skill challenges, I decided to simply describe the travel and offer a couple of side-encounters. The first was a trail in the snow that lead to a dragon ice- cave (map taken from Pyramid of Shadows). Hoarfrost had a little monologue and a man-servant. The Bard parlayed and convinced the dragon to allow he and two companions to bring a load of treasure into the room. Since this split the party a bit I allowed it. It was the only good move I made. The poor things got critted about five times and barely got a breath weapon off (to poor damage). A 9th level solo brute in advantageous terrain with a 5th level artillery helper still didn't have a chance. Oh well.
Next, the heroes came to the town of Cornerwood and encountered a surly patrol. They also noticed markings of a marauding beast which they assumed was the dragon but it turned out to be an Owlbear when they ventured forth the next day to find a missing wizard.
In general I'm taking the opportunity to add optional side quests and such while I try to throw in a lot of world plot info through various npcs. It was nice to have a little town session with the bard breaking the ice at the Palace Inn and the fighter negotiating with a black smith and stuff like that.
Next session will include an audience with Cadrick Red-Hand the Bastard of Rego, an ill-tempered illegitimate son of Rego consigned to the backwater of Cornerwood. Then it sounds like they want to roll down the river.
The module seems unclear to me about this section. Is it a riverboating route or a trail along the river? What's in that wood? They sound interested in seeking out Rego and Lady Timor as well. I don't think I'll make that easy, but I guess I'd better prep for it. Any ideas?

 

[Daern]

Sesssions 12 and 13: Shelter from the Storm

The last two sessions have changed the pace alot. Some players have switched around and so have some of the characters they are playing. We have two original characters and three original players from the start of the campaign as we begin Shelter From the Storm. And Ahleena, whom I am trying to kill off, to the great amusement of the group.

I threw them into a little side Delve while they traveled through the Thornwood Forest. I'm trying to allow this section to be loose and open ended while laying out a lot of groundwork for Banquet. Honestly, I'm much more excited about that module than the Shelter scenario, which i may abbreviate quite a bit (refugees, terrorists, politics, council, drama, dungeon, and done).

I've been establishing Lord Rego's animosity towards Seaquen and general gloomyness. The players came to his castle and wanted an audience so I suggested that spending a lot of money and offering gifts would attract his attention. They threw a big party at the local inn, blowing much of their hard earned loot, while Bards sang of their exploits. That got things going and they were invited to a more modest feast at the dour castle of Rego who complained to them about refugees and wizards and all the other dukes of the realm. He was made friendly however by gifts of treasure and artifacts of Dassen's heroic past. Rego told them a fair amount about the politics of Dassen and suggested that instead of wasting their time in Seaquen, they should just wait around for the big Council of Nine in a month's time. Of course, Ahleena was not pleased by this.

Anyways, I plan run a series of RP encounters and just the one key swamp fight before Seaquen, then, after a bit of exploring and getting the lay of the city, move right into the Seaquen Council scene.

 

[Daern]

Seaquen Council

I have an idea for the Seaquen Council scene that I will hand out Councilor cards to each of the players so that they may play out the speeches and arguments given by the various luminaries. Might be fun. It will keep me from blabbing on and on while the players tune out.
Thoughts?

 

[Marius Delphus]

Bounce the idea off your players first -- they might actually not mind settling in for a good story. OTOH, they may champ at the bit to give "voices" to some of the NPCs. But I would ask first.

If they go for it, make sure you know whether your group is better at impromptu script reading than they are at improv. You might need to do a bit of scripting.

Finally, reserve Giorgio for yourself as DM. No DM running the incomparable War of the Burning Sky campaign should ever be denied the incalculable pleasure of unreservedly hamming it up as one of the saga's most memorable and accomplished public speakers (just ask him).

[sblock]Also, of course, he's one of the bad guys. But you should take pains to keep your players from realizing that; instead, make sure they understand you've merely picked out one of the NPCs for yourself -- the most awesome one (just ask him).[/sblock]

 

[Daern]

Yeah, I was planning to keep that one, and probably Shalosha as well. I'll give them a synopsis. They can read it or run with it...
Can you tell me a bit about how you ran Giorgio and Shelter in general? I haven't got a firm handle on it yet.

 

[Marius Delphus]

Well, I hope it is not impolitic of me to say I haven't actually run any of the adventures, but I do feel familiar enough with them (after having done the layout... in this case three times) to throw in a few comments.

That said, I would just make sure Giorgio comes across as the stereotypical bombast: full of sound and fury (as it were), signifying nothing. He has a puffed-up sense of his own importance, and the more so regarding things he himself deems important. And your players ought to be very comfortable writing him off as simply that. We boldfaced words throughout his speech to make sure the DM understands he doesn't merely look like a rock star; he is one (in the context of the game world), and he feels as though he is worthy of all the adulation he gets and more (just ask him).

So in short, Giorgio in the Seaquen Council scene should be an event, and not merely a participant. Same goes for Shalosha, and when she enters the picture I would actually recommend bringing to a close the "player participation" and taking the reins back. It's important to make sure nobody blows the lid off the end of this scene by overreacting... unless it's the PCs, who are entitled to do whatever they feel like.

Regarding the adventure as a whole, I would just say "pressure cooker." Ratchet up the tension bit by bit -- the ever-worsening weather gives you a terrific tool for this. It won't stop raining for most of the adventure, and if you take pains to describe the weather in a slightly worse way each time the PCs have a chance to notice, the players should respond well. (Weather has hardly ever been a factor in the games I've run, so continually pointing out how bad the weather is getting would alert my players to the fact that something's up.)

It's all in the details. Near the beginining of the adventure, things are sodden and depressing. People shake off the rain as they enter buildings, everything is damp and slick, and travel by anything but well-maintained roads is unpleasant at best. As things progress, everything stays wet, the sky darkens, and rumbles of thunder are heard. Wagons splash through puddles, people grouse about the weather, and some even complain that the rain should never last this long. By the time the Wayfarers put on their play, there's a stiff wind, lashing rain, and chop in the harbor. It's impossible except by magic to keep dry outdoors, public places keep their fires burning all day and night so patrons can dry off, and it's worryingly dark and dismal even at noon.

In all, that should lend some gravitas to the unfolding events.

HTH.