Forge of Fury: Deathtrap? (spoilers)

[Grayhawk]

As I'm currently DM'ing The Forge of Fury, I just thought I'd bump this thread to see if anyone else have any FoF experiences they'd want to share.

For instance, did any of you feel the need to add any content of your own?

Did you replace any critter, trap or treasure with something you deemed more appropriate?

 

[Ranes]

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.

You're quite right about stealth not being a real option. I was just trying to make the point that the whole approach of the PCs was somewhat cavalier. I guess I over-egged it with that remark.

Yes, Nightscale was juvenile after advancement. And yes, I used his darkness ability. And yes, it caused havoc.

 

[jasper]

Well the dice were with the party and against the roper. Of course the party at the roper encounter had at least 8 members. They started off scared. The drizzit clone shot an arrow at mr roper. His attacks too her str to 0. And after that I could hardly hit the party. The party, after see spells being laugh at and mr roper ignoring the tap dancing monk on its head, dog piled it and toss in the stream. of course darryl was of no help. Check out darryl the stoned sword story hour which is buried. Look around march of last year.

 

[Klaus]

Here are the alterations I did for FoF:

- Changed the troglodyte leader from Sorceror to Cleric: more in line with the trog's favored class, works well with the armor he's wearing and he gets to use death knell on his pet giant lizard for that "bad mo-fo" scene).

- Had the trogs worship the roper intead of Nightscale: this added more reason for the Tentacled God (the roper) to be there. Also, carvings on the trog shrine (which I added) hinted that fire and offerings of meat kept the god's anger at bay. Of course, Cthulhu is a buddy of the Tentacled God.

- Kept Nightscale's stats as is, but changed its size to Large. Dropping a 10x10 counter of a black dragon on the board made the PCs jump just right. Also, I played Nightscale as overcomfident, instead of plain deadly. One of the PCs summoned a celestial shark into the water, so the dragon hesitated into retreating there.

- The PC cleric used Speak With Dead on the dwarven corpse in the cell near the roper, asking about what to look out for when going to the lower level. The corpse replied "Watch out for the 13th". That allowed them to bypass the alarm and caught the duergar by surprise.

- Added a collapsed Underdark entrance near the Black Lake, to justify the duergar's presence.

 

[Davelozzi]

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.

What's this tree token that you guys keep talking about? I've ran Sunless Citadel once, and read both it and Forge of Fury at least three times each and I don't remember it. Something to do with the Gulthias Tree, I assume?

 

[Ozmar]

Our group killed the roper, but it was tough. I don't recall what level we were (probably 4 or 5), but the roper ate half our party. I recall that my character was drained to 0 str in the first battle. The roper ate our dwarven rogue, and we retreated. I was glad that my companions dragged me to safety.

Later (after gaining some experience and companions) we returned with a plan. We used harpoons to spear the roper and dragged it into the stream. Some of us ended up in the water fighting it, and we managed to drown it before all of us died. I remember that we set up a net down stream to catch people who fell in, and I ended up clinging to that net for dear life before the battle was over.

We never killed Nightscale. He killed half our party, and our ranger grappled the dragon in the water (the fool). He managed to survive, somehow, and we also managed to drive Nightscale off. We retreated, but when we returned, he had fled. We never saw him again.

It was a good dungeon. Very deadly. Only two of us managed to survive from the Sunless Citadel up through Forge of Fury. So by the time we were in the next module, we were the "grizzled veterans".

Ozmar the Veteran

 

[Grayhawk]

What's this tree token that you guys keep talking about? I've ran Sunless Citadel once, and read both it and Forge of Fury at least three times each and I don't remember it. Something to do with the Gulthias Tree, I assume?

It's a Quaal's Feather Token from 'The Sunless Citadel'. It's part of the Kobold queen Yusdrayl's treasure lying on the altar-top behind her throne.

If you don't get it by stealing it or by defeating the kobolds, you can get it as a reward for bringing back their white dragon, Calcryx.

 

[Liquidsabre]

Very cool and what a great way to deal with a part of the Forge there Ozmar. By all means those 2 survivors should indeed be the Vets of the group!

Davelozzi: There was a Quals Feather Token: Tree as a treasure item in the Sunless Citadel somehwere.

 

[frog]

Ah yes...Forge of Fury. Where the phrase "Kiss the lizard" first originated in our group. Our female elf rogue was sneaking ahead to scout area 20 in the Glitterhame (without a light). She rolled 19 for her spot and didn't see a thing (it was dark...remember?) and got smacked with a sneak attack from the giant lizard's sticky tongue. She boldly rolled her save...

...and got a 1.

And so the term "Kissing the lizard" joined our gaming lexicon.

Fear the Frog

 

[Grayhawk]

Here are the alterations I did for FoF:

- Changed the troglodyte leader from Sorceror to Cleric: more in line with the trog's favored class, works well with the armor he's wearing and he gets to use death knell on his pet giant lizard for that "bad mo-fo" scene).

- Had the trogs worship the roper intead of Nightscale: this added more reason for the Tentacled God (the roper) to be there. Also, carvings on the trog shrine (which I added) hinted that fire and offerings of meat kept the god's anger at bay.

- Kept Nightscale's stats as is, but changed its size to Large. Dropping a 10x10 counter of a black dragon on the board made the PCs jump just right. Also, I played Nightscale as overcomfident, instead of plain deadly.

- Added a collapsed Underdark entrance near the Black Lake, to justify the duergar's presence.

I just re-read the thread, and those are some nice changes!

The party I'm taking through FoF cleared most of the top level this week (only the flail wielding orcs remain), and I think I'll incorperate some - if not all - of your changes when they get to the levels below.

Klaus, how did you do the hints on the trog shrine, without just giving the information away?