I've currently run three sessions of P2: Demon Queen's Enclave and we've barely scratched the surface of the adventure. It feels the most sandboxy of the Wizards adventures so far, and I'm having a lot of fun running it.
BEWARE: SPOILERS BELOW!
It also reveals its full potential when the DM is prepared to add to what's in the module. There are correspondences with Vault of the Drow, which you'd never want a novice DM to run, but with a veteran DM could give some incredible play experiences.
The first session of the adventure saw the group meet Valthrun the Prescient in his tower, have a banquet in their honour, and then descend into the Underdark, encountering a few monsters and strange places that had very little to do with the real adventure at all. A lot of this was my invention, but it's something that is suggested by the adventure. Make the descent special, it said, and gave a few examples. I took those ideas and added my own and so we had a fun session that took the PCs close to the outpost, but not actually to it.
The second session saw the group reach the drow outpost proper, with encounters mostly from the adventure: the fanglord and the ghouls; the spider bridge, and the gladiator slaves. I'm trying to emphasize the chaos of the situation: the outpost is shattered, with fighting still going on. The group knows that an Exarch of Orcus will be rising here (thanks to Valthrun's information), but more than that they're not aware of. They went to the gladiator compound because they saw the goblin guard patrolling, but the minotaurs just didn't want to talk and we had a combat to close the session.
The module suggests the fanglord as a possible creature that might talk to the group, but I didn't run him that way. He escaped, though, and might possibly return later. Perhaps after the group is ready to return to the surface.
The third session had the PCs meet their first "talking" NPC: the drow necromancer. His outlook on life is one that one of the PCs relates to, and the two of them just clicked.
Inspired by the advice in the adventure, he's sent them to kill the Matron, who he implied was responsible for the chaos. She wasn't, of course, and it should be very interesting to see if they realise that they're dupes... or if they even care!
They also rescued a drow slave from another undead-infested building, whom, I admit, I've given rather short shrift to. She could be developed into a really interesting character if I felt like it, but I feel that I'll mostly ignore her in favour of other characters and encounters.
Now the PCs are on their way through the streets of the outpost to the temple (where the Matron is). We had our first big set-piece encounter with a chaos rift, ghouls and vrocks - and the module's poster map. I've run a lot of this game without minis, but they came out for this battle, which saw the group moving all around the winding streets and the wizard immobilizing a lot of the foes so that the group was not pressed too hard.
So far, we've had only SIX actual encounters of the adventure. There's a lot of exploration and roleplaying going on here. The combats (as usual for our group) don't take too much time: 30-40 minutes on average. The group seems to be stronger than a lot of the encounters, but that isn't bothering me overmuch: it's more fun for the players if they're mostly winning. The controllers of the group (warlock and wizard) make a big difference on the battlefield, and the cleric (melee), who is a relatively recent addition, has meant the group can adventure lot longer than they used to.
Alas, two of the three sessions have run shorter than normal due to Real Life(tm) interfering. With any luck, the next session will run full and we can see what happens when the PCs actually meet the Matron.
Is this the best of the Wizards adventures so far? It seems to be, although thematically I really enjoyed P1 King of the Trollhaunt Warrens. The Paragon level adventures seem to be playing much better than the Heroic level adventures. E3 arrived on the weekend, so I now have the entire sequence - and the Epic ones look like my group will really enjoy them.
Cheers!
BEWARE: SPOILERS BELOW!
It also reveals its full potential when the DM is prepared to add to what's in the module. There are correspondences with Vault of the Drow, which you'd never want a novice DM to run, but with a veteran DM could give some incredible play experiences.
The first session of the adventure saw the group meet Valthrun the Prescient in his tower, have a banquet in their honour, and then descend into the Underdark, encountering a few monsters and strange places that had very little to do with the real adventure at all. A lot of this was my invention, but it's something that is suggested by the adventure. Make the descent special, it said, and gave a few examples. I took those ideas and added my own and so we had a fun session that took the PCs close to the outpost, but not actually to it.
The second session saw the group reach the drow outpost proper, with encounters mostly from the adventure: the fanglord and the ghouls; the spider bridge, and the gladiator slaves. I'm trying to emphasize the chaos of the situation: the outpost is shattered, with fighting still going on. The group knows that an Exarch of Orcus will be rising here (thanks to Valthrun's information), but more than that they're not aware of. They went to the gladiator compound because they saw the goblin guard patrolling, but the minotaurs just didn't want to talk and we had a combat to close the session.
The module suggests the fanglord as a possible creature that might talk to the group, but I didn't run him that way. He escaped, though, and might possibly return later. Perhaps after the group is ready to return to the surface.
The third session had the PCs meet their first "talking" NPC: the drow necromancer. His outlook on life is one that one of the PCs relates to, and the two of them just clicked.
Inspired by the advice in the adventure, he's sent them to kill the Matron, who he implied was responsible for the chaos. She wasn't, of course, and it should be very interesting to see if they realise that they're dupes... or if they even care!They also rescued a drow slave from another undead-infested building, whom, I admit, I've given rather short shrift to. She could be developed into a really interesting character if I felt like it, but I feel that I'll mostly ignore her in favour of other characters and encounters.
Now the PCs are on their way through the streets of the outpost to the temple (where the Matron is). We had our first big set-piece encounter with a chaos rift, ghouls and vrocks - and the module's poster map. I've run a lot of this game without minis, but they came out for this battle, which saw the group moving all around the winding streets and the wizard immobilizing a lot of the foes so that the group was not pressed too hard.
So far, we've had only SIX actual encounters of the adventure. There's a lot of exploration and roleplaying going on here. The combats (as usual for our group) don't take too much time: 30-40 minutes on average. The group seems to be stronger than a lot of the encounters, but that isn't bothering me overmuch: it's more fun for the players if they're mostly winning. The controllers of the group (warlock and wizard) make a big difference on the battlefield, and the cleric (melee), who is a relatively recent addition, has meant the group can adventure lot longer than they used to.
Alas, two of the three sessions have run shorter than normal due to Real Life(tm) interfering. With any luck, the next session will run full and we can see what happens when the PCs actually meet the Matron.
Is this the best of the Wizards adventures so far? It seems to be, although thematically I really enjoyed P1 King of the Trollhaunt Warrens. The Paragon level adventures seem to be playing much better than the Heroic level adventures. E3 arrived on the weekend, so I now have the entire sequence - and the Epic ones look like my group will really enjoy them.
Cheers!
