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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Colmarr" data-source="post: 5658515" data-attributes="member: 59182">Story hour updated. Another enjoyable session, again split about 50:50 between roleplaying (with the NPCs aboard the coaltongue) and combat (the saboteurs). I'm pleased to say that I don't think my players even considered the possibility that the Duchess would be involved in any nefarious activities that might occur. They certainly didn't pay any particular attention to her above and beyond the other NPCs who were onboard. In fact, other than the dignitaries that I specifically put in their faces, they didn't proactively seek out anyone other than Governor Stanfield. That might be an artifact of coming out of a campaign based heavily on WotC modules (most recently Revenge of the Giants) and their limited cast of interesting NPCs, and ordinarily I might lament it, but it certainly worked in my favour here.  They became instantly suspicious when Sokana wouldn't open the door to the observation cabin, but even then they thought they would discover the duchess as a victim. When Thornt looked out the window and saw Ethelyn sinking beneath the waves, the shock among the other players was priceless.  I know Erik's player is already hooked. He told me today that he's really excited by the way the adventure has already established so many factions for the PCs to interract with (the Unseen Court and its adherents, the RHC, the crown, the dockers, the city government). Unfortunately, but the time the saboteurs were down, it was almost 1 am and we needed to call the session before the boiler malfunction was resolved. I got an email from Erik's player the next day saying that he had figured out that they needed to fire off the brand. I'm not sure whether they would have figured that out if I hadn't called the session early but instead kept the pressure on them. They have 15 rounds until the boiler goes catastrophic, and I think it's safe to say that they'll be able to calibrate the brand in that time (with or without Massarde's help). So, RangerWickett needn't worry about this particular group. Unless they're mind-numbingly unlucky, they won't be dying in an inferno. The good The multi-location design of the Coaltongue worked very well to spread the PCs out and allow Sokana to reach the boiler with the amber rod. Cassi and Thornt spent a few rounds fighting Ilton and Tok and Willheim spend a few chasing down the magazine-bound sprite. By the time everyone turned their attention back to Sokana, she had done what she needed to do. The bad I'm glad they did allow themselves to be spread out like that, because if they had focused solely on Sokana like I feared they would then it could have been a very short chase. If I weren't using Maptool and desperate to use the great battlemaps that [MENTION=8701]d20Monkey[/MENTION] has prepared, I might have made most (if not all) of the lower decks mesh rather than wood. Just so Sokana had more opportunity to teleport down closer to the boiler. I was a bit dismayed to realise that Sokana has no melee powers after she disposes of the amber rod in the boiler. While techically the Amber Rod power doesn't require her to be holding the item, I'm not the sort of DM to overlook common sense issues like that. It also felt a bit odd for her only ranged at-will (Searing Barrier) to be a wall spell, but it turned out to be pretty useful once the PCs clustered in front of the firegem bin. The ugly While I generally agree with EN Publishing's decision not to mark monster positions on the battle map, the absence of them caused issues for me. I started the combat with the engineers in the main room of the Engine deck waiting for Sokana. The tactics for the encounter state that the engineers' first action during the fight is to disable the boiler relief valves. Only after she turned up did I realise that there's a wall between the relief valves and the area where the engineers had started. In order for them to get there, they would have needed to climb to the berth deck (meeting the onrushing PCs head on) and then back down into the engine room.  The one engineer who tried it died in less than a round and I was forced to use the other solely as melee support for Sokana. If I had my druthers, I would probably start at least one of the engineers in the engine room at the aft of the ship and have him emerge behind the PCs after they chase Sokana past. Of course, if I'd done that with both engineers, the PCs might have only 5 rounds left on the countdown instead of 15 and I might be looking at an early end to the campaign after all.</blockquote>

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