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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ranes" data-source="post: 1421390" data-attributes="member: 4826">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.</blockquote>

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