Re: Rune vs Griswold...
I won? Hmmm. There's something fishy, here...
incognito said:
Dragon AND Dagon. Looks like the jokes on me Rune!
Sorry about that, but Dagon inspired me a whole lot more than the dragon did.
ALL the ingredients looked like they were hand picked for Rune, which is the hallmark of truly innovative and captivating writing.
Where do I send the check, by the way?
In past posts I have stated that my attention span can wane if a submission is too long. I read this post twice and didn’t notice on wasted second.
Given more time, my scenario would have been longer. There was no way it would have been shorter. I took a gamble.
There are faults to this entry, as there are faults to any entry submitted in short period of time. Rune explains that this adventure is suitable for 4, L10 characters. The Shadow Dragon, outside and by himself is at least CR12. With a 15 level Githzerai Monk (even without spells or class abilities the Gith gets feats, ability point increases, save increases, and BAB advancement) the adversaries get out of EL whack. If hostilities commence, and Rune has gone out of his way to indicate that the NPCs are provocative fight lethally…well – just expect fatalities.
Ah, and now to the defense! I'm so used to throwing encounters at my players that most people would consider insanely overpowered, that I sometimes forget that many groups have differing philosophies on the importance of a good challenge. I typically expect my players to outwit me in order to stay alive. They usually do.
But, on to my rationalization of the ELs. First of all, the Githzerai monk/cleric is essentially nothing more than a level 10 monk with extra hit points. At most, I'd give him CR11. This pretty much means the EL is, what 14ish? Considering that this is one of only two likely combats, that doesn't seem to bad to me, keeping in mind my philosophy presented in the previous paragraph. Ah, well.
Other shortcomings: I need more description of the trial. It is long, and ultimately without resolution, but with the attention to detail paid to other parts of this story, the big blank of happening during the trial is a let down.
Yeah, that, unfortunately, is the part that got axed due to time-constraints. I had hoped that I had given enough information on the motives of the gods (and Shadow Dagon) that this wouldn't be too hard to wing, but given more time, this would, of course, have to be detailed.
And what about the plane shifting issue? He mentions it by name, but you can bet that most parties are NOT going for reinforcements, they are getting the hell out of dodge!
Probably. It seems like kind of a non-issue to me, though, as I figured that most level 10 parties wouldn't be able to
all escape so easily. If they all do, well that's the end of that adventure, sure. But so what? If my party bailed out like that, I'd keep them
very paranoid that they could be summoned back at any time (an option I considered, by the way, but felt went counter to the motives of the gods).
Anyway, enough about that.
Griswold, I really liked where you were going with your entry and I'd love to see a more fleshed out version, if you ever decide to do so!
Mmmm. Mindflayers and fish.
