Help! Running B10: Night’s Dark Terror

[Garnfellow]

Help! Running B10: Night’s Dark Terror

So a dear friend and long-time player in my various campaigns recently announced that he has joined the army for a four-year stint. He did four years in the marines about 12 years ago, but this decision was out of the blue and so came as something of a shock to all of us. And since we are in the middle of a war, and since we are all in our thirties now and many of us married and with kids, his decision is a pretty big, sobering deal for all of us.

In order to send him off in style, we have arranged a boys-only gaming retreat filled with Magic, miniatures, board games, and D&D, set for the last weekend in January. (We had initially offered him a trip to the city complete with bar-crawling and other adult shenanigans, but to his credit he said he’d rather roll dice.)

So a couple of weeks ago he casually mentions to a friend that he always wished he had finished Night’s Dark Terror, an adventure he had played in years ago with another group. I’ve never owned, ran, or played that module, but had heard really good things and this sounded like it would be a great surprise our Big Geek Retreat. I bought the PDF and have read it through quickly a couple of times.

It really does look like a great design – very advanced for 1986, and typical of the high quality material that came out of TSR UK. But it’s really more of a mini-campaign than a module, much less a one-shot game. So my mission is to pare this sucker down for one mammoth 8-hour session for 8 players. I need to compress, consolidate, and otherwise crunch this sprawling adventure down into something lean, mean, and utterly kick-ass. If Peter Jackson can do the whole LotR in nine hours, I should be able to do B10 in eight.

I’ll be using 3.5e rules, and have already converted the encounters for a 5th level party. I’ve got 12 pre-generated 3rd-level characters, and most of the players have selected a character. (The guest of honor will get to choose from the remainder.)

But I need some serious help from people who have played or ran this module – what parts should be cut? What parts must be kept? What parts should be changed, either because they didn’t work or wouldn’t in such a compressed setting?

Any and all thoughts would be much appreciated. Because of the very special nature of this game, I really want to nail this one.

 

[Garnfellow]

Initial Thoughts

Spoilers Follow – BEWARE!


I think I want to start the adventure close to the mid-point of the module, in the ruins of Xitiqa, and the climactic confrontation with Golthar, the leader of the secretive and nefarious organization known as the Iron Ring. I want the players to basically sit at the table and immediately roll initiative – just like the start of a good action movie.

The premise is the PCs are all members of an adventuring party that have completed earlier parts of the adventure together. Prior to the session I will circulate a background document for all players (except the guest of honor) that gives the backstory for the module up until Xitiqa. I’d really like to write it up a short piece of fiction.

So I know how I want to open the adventure – with a dramatic fight scene that will probably have Golthar narrowly escape.

And I’m pretty sure I know how I want to end the adventure – with a dramatic fight in an abandoned temple in the Lost Vallery, against an unspeakable, Lovecraftian horror known as the Kartoeba, the Thing in the Pit.

It’s the connecting material I am trying to sort out. The chapter headings read like this:

• Ruins of Xitiqa
• Journey to Threshold
• Threshold
• Toward the Black Peaks
• The Lost Valley of Hutaaka

One of the great beauties of B10 is the open-ended nature of the design. For each chapter, there are multiple ways for the PCs to advance through to the next chapter. And each chapter has a half dozen or more set pieces or placed encounters.

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I will have to dramatically reduce the available options without making it feel too much like a railroad. (And if it ends up being a total railroad with the illusion of freedom, awesome!)

I’ve probably only got time for 5–6 serious combat encounters, and maybe as many heavy role-playing encounters, for a total of 10–12 scenes.

The chapters “Journey to Threshold” and “Toward the Black Peaks” will probably only warrant one scene each. I am starting “Ruins of Xitiqa” at the very end, so that will only be 1 scene. Threshold, a town setting, probably requires 2 scenes, and the Lost Valley itself –the money shot -- probably requires 3 or 4 scenes. That puts me at 8 or 9 scenes right there.

 

[Lanefan]

When I read the header my first instinct was to scream loudly "NO! RUN A DIFFERENT MODULE; YOUR SANITY DEPENDS ON IT!", but then I read you've got a player who is keen on that particular adventure, so you're kinda stuck.

Night's Dark Terror spoilers coming:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
You're on the right track in ditching all the various encounters that come before Threshold (IMO they're a big waste of time anyway)...you could relatively easily write up a back-story containing the few bits of relevant information the party would have gathered in those encounters, and just start at Threshold. Or, to save even more time, you could skip Threshold and just have them start somewhere in the lower valley, before the spiral tunnel and the bridge (that bridge encounter with the statues is one of the very few highlights of the module; keep it if you can), and go from there.

Good luck with it!

Lanefan

 

[Garnfellow]

When I read the header my first instinct was to scream loudly "NO! RUN A DIFFERENT MODULE; YOUR SANITY DEPENDS ON IT!", but then I read you've got a player who is keen on that particular adventure, so you're kinda stuck.

Interesting: I haven't read a lot of negative comments about this one. Was the problem that the adventure was too open for your group? Lots of aimless wandering?

Thanks for the tip on the statues. That encounter hadn't jumped out a me on the first read.

 

[Lanefan]

Interesting: I haven't read a lot of negative comments about this one. Was the problem that the adventure was too open for your group? Lots of aimless wandering?

Oh, yeah. That, and they never did the least thing to find out whether there was any underlying connection between all the seemingly-random encounters. Oh, and they annoyed so many residents that nobody in the area would talk to them after a while... And, the PCs kept dying; there was complete turnover *twice* in the party between the time they started and the time they gave up.

Probably the worst DMing experience I've ever had was that bloody module! Though I did later use the lower valley (above Threshold) again for a different adventure with a higher-level group...and they still got thrashed on the bridge!

Thanks for the tip on the statues. That encounter hadn't jumped out a me on the first read.

In my game, the party were trapped on the bridge...statues in front of them, and lots of Gnolls behind them at the bottom of the spiral tunnel (I had the Gnolls afraid to enter the tunnel, otherwise it'd have been a TPK in seconds). A party of 7 was by this point reduced to 2 functioning PCs and a third who had fled the party (and was never seen again), they retreated and managed to sneak past the Gnolls by swimming down the river. And that was the end of the 8-month(!) Night's Dark Terror experiment; they went off and found other things to do, fine with me.

Lanefan

 

[Cthulhudrew]

It's a great module- well, mini-campaign anyway, but I will definitely echo Lanefan's comments regarding mortality rates. The last time I ran that module, my group ended up not finishing it after nearly half of their party died on the island in the Lake of Lost Dreams. (A big part of the problem was that they had a dwarf-cleric from Gaz6, and they have no turn undead ability, so that pretty well did them in).

As I see it, there are really two main sections to the module, with a bridging section. The goblin attack on Sukiskyn in the beginning can be its own adventure from start to end, as it's pretty straightforward and it is pretty involved (that combat alone took quite some time).

The other main part is the Lost Valley, which, again, can be an adventure (or even mini-campaign) of its own. The rest, as I see it, is pretty much just bridging the two, using the Iron Ring as the link (pun not intended, but appropriate). There is a lot of that middle section you can cut out, as it's largely just investigative.

What you propose sounds fairly good- start in Xitaqa, move to Threshold, then on to the Lost Valley. You've also got some wiggle room built in in case Golthar gets killed (as they have a ready made NPC to fill his shoes in such a circumstance).

If you go with this route, though, I'd make the Iron Ring have more of a presence in the Lost Valley than they currently do, as their role is pretty much the impetus of the module, but they disappear once the secret of the valley becomes clear (post-Threshold). Since you're cutting out the setup, you might want to play them up post-Threshold for adventure continuity. Maybe they've stirred up the Traldar or Hutaaka, or are somehow involved with Kartoeba (freeing it or trying to control it).

You could probably cut out the gnoll attacks on the way to the valley, if you really want to fit things into a smaller session.

 

[Garnfellow]

As an alternative, I'm also considering excising most of the Iron Ring stuff -- it's true that they don't play much of a role in the all-important Lost Valley chapter -- then starting the PCs a couple chapters later in Threshold (maybe with a showdown with Golthar there) and pushing most of the action to the mountains and Lost Valley.

So the progression would be something like this:

• Threshold
  • Confrontation with Golthar
• Toward the Black Peaks
  • Raid by Death's Head Gnolls
  • The Statues at the Pass
• The Lost Valley
  • ???
  • ???
  • The Temple of Pflarr
  • Catacombs of Karoeba

Thoughts?

 

[Mortis]

I've not played Night's Dark Terror so I can't advise you where to start and what to keep, but I thought that you might find these maps useful.

Regards
Mortis

 

[Huw]

Or, to save even more time, you could skip Threshold and just have them start somewhere in the lower valley, before the spiral tunnel and the bridge (that bridge encounter with the statues is one of the very few highlights of the module; keep it if you can), and go from there.

Well, I love the whole module, including the wandering around looking for stuff (great side plots!), but I agree that if you want any chance of finishing it in time, start at the valley, especially if your friend has alreay played the first bit. The statues are an excellent encounter.

We played this module to completion. Characters went from 2nd level up to 7th during the playing - pretty good going, since we were using 2e rules.

 

[Garnfellow]

I've not played Night's Dark Terror so I can't advise you where to start and what to keep, but I thought that you might find these maps useful.

Outstanding find! Many thanks.