My party will shortly be heading to Noanar's Hold, to drop off the crated harnesses from Triboar, one of the 'reward missions' from that town, they have several of these missions to do on their way to Citadel Fellbar and then onto Duke Zalto's crib.
Now that's an interesting place, an exclusive hunting lodge on the edge of the Big Damn Forest. The owners have become undead, but that doesn't stop them from continuing to hunt, long pig being a particular favourite target.
Now the party, 7 x L7 characters, will roflstomp five basic wights. So I've devised a souped-up challenge for them.
Let me know what you think, and whether this is too dangerous.
All the baddies retain wight abilities and vulnerabilities.
Well this fight went badly...for me!
Thanks to some clever defensive play on my players' part (man,
Conjure Woodland Animals is disgusting!), my guys got stomped but good. Obviously five fighters are only effective if they can actually connect!
Anyway, my campaign overview is taking excellent shape now.
Having cleansed Noanar's Hold (and thus the surrounding forest), they will be greeted by a bunch of 'grateful' elves who will take them on a shortcut through the High Forest. If the party wavers, the elves will make a secret signal of the Emerald Enclave to the PC druid to indicate that they should come along.
They will be taken to Shadowtop Cathedral, and I will really amp up the creepiness of the trip, anyone that isn't elf-friendly or EE-friendly is going to feel very oppressed.
At SC, the treant will explain what the EE has learned, that the Ordning has been broken, and each Giant Clan is trying to prove it should be selected as the next overlord.
They will also see a bunch of Tree Ghosts. I have put a lot of effort into painting the Tribes to the players, and one PC is actually a Barbarian which has worked out well.
At the next stop (Olostin's Hold), they will be met by a breathless Halia Thornton, who has travelled non-stop from Phandalin. She will reveal that Wave Echo Mine was raided by a group of six Fire Giants, who killed no-one (weren't there for that). It seems like the giants spent two days digging out the front entrance and then "unplugged" the Forge and carried it out. Last seen heading north-east, presumably towards Ironslag. But some kind of crazy magic will be needed to light the forge again, normal heat won't do it.
(If you recall, I decided that the "Forge" was actually the engine of the Vovinode).
Halia is a member of the Zhentarim, and she will reveal that one of their own was seen with the FGs. (This is Jasper, later to be seen inside Zalto's maul.
) ). This dwarf appeared to be helping the FGs, cooercion is presumed..
Halia knows that the party are heading to Ironslag. They are to find Jasper and rescue him so the Zhentarim can chat with him. In exchange the Zhentarim will owe the party a favour (Nice!).
I decided that the Zhentarim are also the ones sponsoring the 5000gp bounty on The Weevil (whom I relocated to Sundabar).
The party already is aware that the Zhents have put a bounty on Felgolos and that he can shapechange into a halfling (they met the latter and figured out what had happened from mysterious tracks!)
At Everlund, they will get introduced properly to the Harpers, including the teleportation network. I'm thinking of having the drinks at Dral's (see Triboar missions in SKT) be served a set of shot glasses...everyone gets one red cup and one blue cup... #WhatIsTheMatrix.
I'm thinking rather than sleep / teleportation, it is actually a potion (or spell or something) of Etherealness, those PCs that drink from the Red cup are greeted in the Ethereal plane by a Harper escort. Or something.
En route to Silverymoon, they will be part of a convoy (or come across such) that is attacked by Red Tigers. Big fight, lots of mooks. I'm thinking:
20-30 tribal warriors
5 berserkers
3 shaman
1 L6 Tiger Barbarian. (I'm not a huge fan of the basic Tiger stuff. I'm planning on tweaking their first ability to allow them to leap over opponents without triggering OAs, with enough of a run-up. That sounds thematic and useful).
1 L11 Tiger Barbarian
At Silverymoon, they will learn that the furnace at Gauntlgrym mysteriously shut down, and the dwarves are going nuts in the Underdark trying to find someone / something. (The Drow stole the Dawn Titan and are heading towards Ironslag).
At some point after that, the party will come across a bunch of dead drow and dwarves (some cave system that is a "high point" in the Underdark), with a clue that the Drow are headed to Ironslag. They should be able to put two and two together at this point.
At Silverymoon they can find some magic items, guarded by (probably) twice as many Cambions and mages as described. I will also soup up the magic item rewards.
I haven't fully figured out Sundabar yet, should be a fun encounter, with options for persuasion, deception, stealth or combat. I love those kinds of situation, really empowers the players.
Felbar will be basically as written, as will Ironslag, although I may well be borrowing the Steroid Giant options that someone posted on this forum (FG Duke and FG Pyromancer).
I was given a copy of Cloud Giants' Bargain, not read it yet, might be able to tie that in somehow. I gave them their first whiff of cloud giants, Harshnag, and the Uthgardt last week.
