Experiences with P2: Demon Queen's Enclave [spoilers!]
- Thread starter MerricB
- Start date
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There's a Castle in the Shadowfell and Orcus is using it to steal souls from the Raven Queen.
It's easily the weakest of the nine WotC adventures. It's linear and railroady. The maps are ugly. The BBEG is forgettable. It's almost all combat with few or no friendly/neutral NPC's.
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Evilhalfling
Adventurer
anything to watch for with the bridge or battle with the temple matron?
would you tweak anyhting the second time through?
Im cutting and pasting this adventure into a one-shot serving as campaign wrap up, and those seemed liked good encounters to use. One of the party is 1/2 drow, and his family is sending him after the matron.
wow 30min fights? there is no way my group will move that fast. Two of the players went through H2 with thier characters, (ending @8th level) the other two have limited 4e experiance.
would you tweak anyhting the second time through?
Im cutting and pasting this adventure into a one-shot serving as campaign wrap up, and those seemed liked good encounters to use. One of the party is 1/2 drow, and his family is sending him after the matron.
wow 30min fights? there is no way my group will move that fast. Two of the players went through H2 with thier characters, (ending @8th level) the other two have limited 4e experiance.
Depends a lot on the DM and the group. H1, H2 and P2 are anything but wall-to-wall combat. H3 was a lost opportunity, and P1 saw my group exploring, bluffing their way past trolls, negotiating with dragons and otherwise amusing themselves.
Cheers!
This is what I did, so your storyline may need to differ.
Members of my original Winterhaven party are still alive, and not retired. However, one character did leave the group in Thunderspire. That character joined Bax and the Moonstair guards (and Etheran, etc.) in hunting down trolls in the Trollhaunt. He was killed by Skalmad.
Though the party doesn't realize it yet, thwarting Orcus has 'cursed' them. Orcus is plotting against them, and picking them off if they leave the 'fated' group of Heroes who are foreseen to defeat him. The departing hero's body was never found, so they can't attempt to raise him, and won't yet be aware of the problems with raising the dead that will arise in later adventures.
Skalmad, as he was harnessing the power of a Formorian cauldron to raise the dead, was approached by the drow, but NOT by the drow loyal to Lolth. Lareen and Zithirian sent drow loyal to Orcus to Skalmad to negotiate an alliance. A 'black cauldron' which can raise the dead as undead under your control is just the sort of thing Orcus would want to have. The party, of course, destroys the darn thing without even knowing that Orcus wanted it. Of course, both the drow and the trolls are just trying to use the other for their own advantage. The "war troll" in P2 is actually one of Skalmad's lieutenants that the drow simply enslaved when Skalmad's aid never materialized. Skalmad was able to unravel the secrets of the cauldron because the drow helping him were trained in necromancy (and they didn't use the cauldron themselves because they KNEW that Vard would possess the user, but they didn't let Skalmad know that!).
The party found documents on the drow in the Warrens (written in common, of course, since trolls don't read elven) which complained about and mocked Skalmad for his lack of assistance so far. They, however, don't know where these drow are, or what their plans are.
Etheran (the murdered noble of Therund) was killed by the Trolls, but he came to Moonstair because of cult activity in his own barony, and this cult activity is Orcus related. The party is returning Etheran's remains to the baron along with his ancestral sword, so they will have an opportunity to talk with the Archmage of Therund who has been investigating these occurences.
Of course, when the Baron tries to have Etheran raised, the party may also become tangentially aware of the problems with resurrection which come up in later adventures.
The Archmage will explain that he has been corresponding with Valthrun the Prescient (who they met in Winterhaven) and Nimozar the Green (the Wizard in Fallcrest, where most of the party has family). Fortunately, the party wizard knows Nimozar's teleportation circle 'code', so they can easily travel back to Fallcrest to talk to him, or they can make the short trek back to Winterhaven.
The party will learn that because they sealed the rift under the Keep of Winterhaven, Orcus has redirected his efforts elsewhere, and it appears that another planar rift has been opened. In addition, since Kalarel's star, which had been on the rise, was removed (as they killed him), Orcus has been paying more attention to other underlings vying for his favor. So basically, because they averted catastrophe in Winterhaven, now somewhere else is threatened and another Evil High Priest is arising. However, the sages cannot pinpoint this location.
The party has made a prickly contact with Gendar, the one-eyed drow in the Seven Pillared Hall in Thunderspire. They had frosty (at best) relationships with the mages there, and were very unlikely to ride to their rescue in any event. However, Gendar keeps his finger on the pulse of merchant activity in the Underdark, and he is aware of the unrest in the outpost of Phaerovul. Gendar knows that the outpost was built on the site of a former planar cyst, though he is totally unaware of the prophecies (Analects of Tzunk) which predict a new exarch of Orcus is ascending. He just knows something is rotten in Denmark (or in Phaervorul).
Gendar isn't loyal to the drow (as they are the ones who removed his eye), but he knows that anything which wrecks Phaervorul isn't going to stop there, and isn't going to be good for business. He's tried to warn the mages, but they view it as a standard civil unrest for the drow, and are just sending a diplomatic envoy to smooth over the issue and hammer down some trade pacts (especially since trade with the duergar has been abysmal since the PCs stormed their fortress). Gendar knows the party isn't going to rescue the drow either, but he's going to play on their sympathies for people in the Hall (the Halfling innkeep and her son, Deepgem the dwarf gem merchant, and others that the party befriended in that adventure).
Of course, once he gets wind that the PARTY is the reason for the shift of power (kill one favorite of Orcus and another gets more attention), he's amoral enough to at least threaten to reveal to the people of the Hall that their beloved heroes are the reason why they are in danger, if the players don't get down there and sort it all out (this is why the party has a 'prickly' relationship with him).
Of course, the adventure in Thunderspire is connected to Vecna, and one of the players (the party wizard) was just a little too curious about Vecna in the past. This both plays into his background and into his actions in Thunderspire. In addition, the servants of Vecna appeared in the Pyramid of Shadows as well. Vecna has been keeping his eye (pun intended) on the party for a great deal of time, and has been thinking about how to manipulate them into striking a blow against Orcus (and getting themselves killed at the same time).
If I really wanted to be insanely convoluted, the one-eyed Gendar would be an agent of Vecna himself, but actually he's just a delightfully self-interested and amoral guy.
Thus, I tied all of the adventures together in some way, though some of those ties won't become apparent for at least one or two more modules. Of course, you probably can't use all, or even a lot, of my particular ideas, but maybe they will help.
Nebulous
Legend
I've cut out probably 50% of the combat encounters in H3. Some i turned into roleplaying, others i just excised completely. I dovetailed it onto Thunderspire Labyrinth so it feels sort of like a continuation of that module, hunting Paldemar and all, but it does feel too long regardless. And pretty dangerous too, i've already killed 2 characters. But that was mostly just bad luck.
There's one nice little fit you could do. It isn't thematic, but there are links out there.
1) P1 starts with the Prince dead. He died fightin' the trolls. So, make this guy important early on. Have the PCs meet him early. Make his death a big deal to the players.
2) Moonstair. The town that is threatened by Trollhaunt is called Moonstair, and it has a doorway to the Feywild. So, in any Fey-related PC, tie their background to Moonstair. They grew up there. Their parents were refugees from the Feywild. A Half-Elf who was left on the Moonstair orphanage.
3) The BBEG of Trollhaunt is "Negotiating with Drow". The Pcs stumble acros him negotiating with two drow in his throne room. Easy to tie that plot-wise to P2.
4) Tuck some Drow in one of the ruins surrounding the Trollhaunt. Refugees. Or possibly doing experiments before heading back in.
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