Forge of Fury: Deathtrap? (spoilers)

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Our group near-TPK'd in the Forge (one survivor out of a party of six). They'd actually made it past the roper (by bribing it with the body of one of the party members who'd been killed by the troglodytes).

Entering the Forge itself, though, they picked a fight with the residents (I'd replaced the duergar with CR-equivalent drow). The drow fall back to reinforce; meanwhile the party splits, opens a few more doors, and starts a fight with some undead, as the drow return with some reinforcements, including a wizard.

While I was tempted to pull punches and allow them to survive, I decided it was important that they learn a few lessons, like:

1. Don't split the party.
2. Don't get into two fights at once.
3. Don't let the bad guys reinforce.
4. When in doubt, the fireball-tossing wizard should be the primary target.

Read about it in Banewarrens d20, diaglo's story hour ...

 

[Klaus]

My 3-PC party had SOME difficulty, but not much. The half-elf wiz3/Rog1 and the Rgr4 sneaked up ahead and took care of the orc sentinels. The Clr4 then cast silence on her helm and they approached the front door, which was slightly ajar. Upon entering, they were fired upon by the orcs across the bridge. The half-elf aimed at one, while the ranger readied an arrow against the direction where an attack came. They killed these orcs in two rounds. They then proceeded to killing Great Ulfe (at one point only one character was standing, and it wasn't the cleric!) and cleaning the barracks. Old Yarrack decided to run for it, making all secret passages obvious as he went (and the ranger and his wolf followed). They took care of the remaining orcs (and the adept) with no further problem.

I changed the Troglodyte sorceror into a cleric (to make him Iconic), and turned the roper into a Tentacled God worshipped by the trogs. I even turned the trog lair into a shrine where the PCs found clues that the trogs used open flames to keep the Tentacled God's fury at bay. When the PCs got to the roper, the ranger was hit by tentacles while the other two PCs rained alchemist fire upon it. The cleric summoned a thoqqa (3.0 back then), which totally DECIMATED the roper (by this time the ranger's player was rolling for the thoqqa, so that was vindication).

The toughest fight was Great Ulfe (relatively), but they were terrified of Nightscale.

 

[stevelabny]

Wow, I made a two page thread in the RPG section. Who knew?

To all who responded: thanks for all your advice, tips, stories. I'm sure all of it will help in some way.

Fun? Yes, I'm pretty sure we're all having fun, as in between sessions I keep having players asking me when the next sessions is, and trying to schedule impromptu sessions in the middle. To me, thats usually a good sign.

For the future of the module: I like the idea of having Ulfe on the entry ledge when the party shows up, thus forcing them to either make a plan, wait out a changing of the guards, or look for another entrance. Should at least make them consider the options.

The roper: I like the idea of having the trogs "worship" the roper and giving clues to fire being its weakness. I'm definately going to leave it in because it is a great example of not being able to win every fight. (or at least, sure looks like one)

If only they would have take the potion of fire-breath out of the Sunless Citadel. I could always try to work something similar into one of the piles of treasure in the forge, just to give them a chance if they do try to fight it.
But I will definately have the roper say something to imply it is open to negotiations once its grabbed a PC.

 

[bweenie]

the roper...

*but the roper I just took out, because it was an encounter diplomancy seemed to be the only option for, but it gave far to few hints that the monster was too tough... *

When Too-Pork the Black and his brave friends were adventuring in the Forge of Fury, we were oh so suspicious of the 'stalagtites' on the other side of the stream. Thus we crept along the wall and when we got roped by the roper, we were very far away from the thing. In any case, we came back and and kicked it's butt by jumping across the stream and hacking it from all sides...remember that flanking bonus works wonders against high AC creatures. As far as diplomacy...in 'death world' (our nick name for our campaign) there was no opportunity for diplomacy...it was 'come on mr. roper, won't you please negotiate...?' "Screw you, I'm hungry, haha!"

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Did anyone else run a mostly inexperienced group through this adventure? How many character deaths? How did they avoid a TPK? Is there something else I can be doing to encourage survival that isnt leading them around by the hand?

I went through this as a player. Your group does not sound all that different from how we played it, except our group was a little bigger and better balanced. We had a tough time at some points, but we made it through it with everyone intact. Actually for us the brown bear was a tough part and after we came really close to losing a couple of party members fast we backed out from that and went for the frontal assault.

Of course the Dark Dwarves weren't easy and we needed to change our pants when we ran into dragon, but we all survived. I don't know how likely that will be for your group with them being so light in the spellcasting area.

And I think we managed to miss the roper altogether - I don't remember it at all, but I know we never explored some parts of the place.

 

[jgsugden]

Someone should make a note on the title of this thread to note spoilers ...

I played through this adventure early on in 3.0. Our party was a gnome paladin, a 1/4 elf sorcerer (my character ... I botched the rules and ended up with a PC that had all the benefits of a half-elf and a human), an elven bard (con 6) and a few assorted NPCs that changed over time.

We tried the frontal assault and found it to be no problem. The DM, a little frustrated with our success, decided to throw everything at us all at once in the bridge room. My sorcerer managed to cut down the bridge while many enemies were trapped on it.

The thing that really stands out in my mind was how we used the Tree Token we found in the prior module: The DM let us activate it sideways and make the tree into a bridge to get us across the chasm.

 

[Grayhawk]

The thing that really stands out in my mind was how we used the Tree Token we found in the prior module: The DM let us activate it sideways and make the tree into a bridge to get us across the chasm.

I just started DM'ing Forge of Fury last session, and the party failed to neutralize the Orc guards, so when they came to the mountain door it was locked.

At one time - while they were being pelted by arrows from the arrow slits - they actually talked about whether they could use the Tree Token to break down the door, maybe by activating it sideways and using it as a ram.

In the end the Half Elf Fighter managed to kick the door in (Str check DC 25) with the help of a Bull's Strenght spell, a Heroism potion and the aid of the Dwarf Ranger.

 

[Ranes]

I ran FoF in 3.0. It minced the party, whose tactics had been going steadily from bad to worse from the beginning.

The party consisted of six PCs, all of whom were close to 4th level when they reached the mountain door. Like your group, they went from an initially stealthy approach to all-out assault. Because of the size of the party, I had made some changes to the module. The orcs, for instance, were fighters, not warriors and there were a few more of them. Their tactics were logical. Within two rounds of the PCs penetrating the mountain door, every orc on the level was aware of the intrusion and playing its part in a co-ordinated counter-assault. Nevertheless, the party was victorious without suffering any fatalities. They secured the first level and made camp. Fair play to them. They also won enough xp to make it to fourth level. I explained that I was going to let them benefit from the level advance in the field but that there would need to be some downtime for training and research before I would allow them to benefit from a further advance in level (ie to 5th).

I thought he party's next challenge would be the troglodytes, which I had advanced a couple of and increased in number. Nevertheless, despite having been weakened by the stirges, the party wiped out the troglodytes in a manner that all the players enjoyed and which put a serious question mark over the dwarven fighter's previous alignment tendencies. The party avoided the area with the bear altogether and proceeded to venture deeper.

The ooze and the roper proved more interesting. The party failed to spot the roper until one of its tantacles was yanking the wizard in its direction and it was yelling, "Oi you! Get in ma belly!"* Nevertheless the party just managed to save the wizard and killer the roper.

* A linguistically gifted bard recognised Undercommon in a Glaswegian accent.

The duergar and the allip proved much more difficult and neither were entirely defeated by the party. This is where the party really fouled up. One was unwise in his interaction with Idalla and had been kissed by her, a second before her disappearance. I made the Will save in secret;the cleric (for it was he) failed. However, rather than have Idalla clue the party into the dragon's lair beneath (with a lie that turns out to be inadvertantly accurate - I didn't like that), I allowed the investigative party to discover a report (in the library) made in the final days of the dwarfs' occupation. The report is of a black dragon being sighted as it emerges from the lake outside and flies away. Added to the report is a footnote ordering a patrol to investigate the possibility that the dragon may have left an egg behind...

The PCs had discovered the smithy itself and forced the duergar to retreat. However, they had consumed much of their available power. The cleric was as yet unaware of the negative level he was suffering.

The party had spent a few sessions and over a week of game time getting this far. They had also accumulated enough experience to advance to 5th level. I had repeatedly advised them, subtly and not so subtly, to return to town, resupply and train for that level. Not only did the players disregard this advice, despite having registered the dragon clue, they decided to continue exploring without rest. That's right. After encountering Idalla and fighting an exhausting, inconclusive, running battle with the duergar, the PCs pressed on and descended to the Black Lake.

They carried light sources, nice, big lanterns. They made no attempt to move silently. In fact, their bard was singing. I had advanced Nightscale one category.

The fighter, necromancer and bard died. The ranger and rogue both nearly drowned.They lost much of their gear but both escaped the water as they were swept through the roper's lair. Nightscale allowed the cleric to leave by climbing back up the ladder, completely naked. Why can't an evil young dragon have a juvenile sense of humour?

The ranger and rogue are currently engaged in a heated, if whispered, argument about mounting some kind of a rescue mission. The cleric is hiding and praying. And getting hungry.

I hope your group fares better. If they can't, then I hope they have fun dying. Mine did.

 

[Saeviomagy]

That's not a function of the module, that's either your DM or how you entered the area. The encounter is staged so that you can neogitiate with the creature, offering it food, even if you don't currently have any, or talking your way out of fighting it.

Fundamentally:
PC's walk into area.
Surprise round
Roper grabs first PC(a rogue), strength drains him to unmovingness, hauls him 10 feet. Says something along the lines of "hmm, yummy". At this point everyone's pretty scared of something that does that much strength damage, but we figure "hey, it's got our pal, we have to save him".

Party fighters charge, rage, whatever. Do some damage, but not much.

Round 2
Roper fires off strands, attracts attacks of opportunity from 3 characters. It drains one of the 3 front-rankers to unconsciousness, but the other two get lucky with saves and merely get stuck. Which, incidentally, does nothing if you're already next to the roper. The remaining two attacks... Can't remember.

Two remaining characters get lucky, and polish off the roper.

If a party of 3rd-5th level characters beat it, then I usually suspect that the DM 'softened' the encounter a tad, or gave them a freebie involving it's fire vulnerability. Any creature that can deliver 6 attacks at 50 feet, has an AC of 24 and SR of 30, and each of those attacks does 2d8 Strength damage and grapples the target should be ripping up a party of that level.

The strands DON'T grapple - the only thing they do is draw you closer to the creature.

I don't think we used fire against it. I'm pretty sure the wizard wasted his goes trying to hit it with magic missile.

The problem with the creature is that it starts off what is supposed to be a 'diplomacy' encounter with an unprovoked attack.

There aren't going to be many players which will try for diplomacy in that situation.

Furthermore, because it grabs people, most people will be loathe to retreat and leave their buddies behind.

IF the creature specifically waits for the party to be in the room, then threatens them, perhaps you'd end up with a diplomatic solution. As-is it simply shows up as another combat encounter, and most players treat it as such.

 

[Saeviomagy]

They carried light sources, nice, big lanterns. They made no attempt to move silently. In fact, their bard was singing. I had advanced Nightscale one category.

Frankly - the PC's usually have no option whatsoever BUT to carry light sources - most of them are totally blind in the dark, and most monsters can see in it. Which typically blows stealth totally out of the water. In somewhere like nightscales lair, you may as well bring a brass band - there's no way you could sneak up on him.

I believe nightscale is a juvenile after being advanced, correct?

Did you use his darkness ability? If so, that's probably what killed the party.