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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WinnipegDragon" data-source="post: 2303219" data-attributes="member: 4578">Well, I guess I have to say that I'm disappointed, I wasn't expecting to lose but of course no one does.  Having said that, there are a few things I would like to clear up, some design decisions to explain, and some points I want to make, starting with the plot issues mentioned by Carpe.First the issue with the King confiding the child's heritage to the party.  The only reason the King is providing the information is that the PCs are going to find the child now, and they are going to see he's a least half-Drow anyhow.  Why wouldn't the King tell them this in advance?  I guess don't see the issue here...Second, the Kings plan *was* to announce the child dead in childbirth.  With the child missing and the kingdom aware he obviously cannot do this.  What he does after the child is returned depends on the decision and the ability of the party to sway him to either slay it or spare it.  That event is not scripted because the outcome is not dictated by the module.  Maybe it wasn't clear but I thought that it was implied.As far as the rest of the world being 'incompetent' in finding the child, I am a firm believer that he party should be the drivers of events in a campaign and whether you choose to see it as CRPG/Final Fantasy or not, I prefer it to linear railroading.  It's a matter of taste I guess.  I left several clues that can be discovered in various ways so that parties of different makeup would be capable of advancing in the adventure.The ingredients:The Cold Iron Xbow:  This is an enigma.  A missile weapon made with an exotic material is useless in and of itself.  The Xbow does not magically make it's bolts cold iron as well, so it's useless against a Fey unless you plan on beating them over the head with it.  The slaying quarrel I used actually fits the game mechanics, so I thought it was an appropriate use.  I don't think it renders the cold iron property useless; it's useless unless the ammunition is taken into account anyway.The Owlbear:  The half-fey nature of Backu is not just to make it tougher or to give the Xbow a meaning to exist at all.  The half-fey template gives the Owlbear the ability to fly, which is how the child was removed from the Castle without alerting the guards at the gate.    I'm not sure why it was considered 'arbitrary'.  I didn't want any random Owlbear fights so I went this direction.The Hill of Bones:  What can I say; I didn't want a literal pile of bones.  I trust the DM to set the tone here, mostly because I was at 3,500+ words already and I didn't think adding more atmosphere was worth any more expansion.  The final scene with the King and child using this backdrop was the key part of the adventure, I thought.The Elf Child-Prince:  I went storyline versus interactivity with this ingredient.  I thought the life or death decision in the hands of the PCs took it out of the MacGuffin range.Blind Loyalty:  I thought the literal blindness of Othalu had more potential, but I left that in the DMs hands to play, either through RPing or combat.  Originally, the plot was written such that her blindness prevented her from realizing that the child was half-Drow, but it made a plot issue where one would wonder why she would risk her life to save the child.Sage:  I wanted Othalu to have some inkling of the child's destiny to strengthen her 'sage-like' attributes, but it ruined a good part of the King's motivation to cleanse his line of the Drow taint, so I removed it.  It did weaken her character a bit, but I thought the unknown Drow sage's prophecy compensated for it.  Maybe it's a bad decision in hindsight.So having said all that, I guess I sound a bit bitter.  My apologies for that, but I guess I am a bit bitter.  I'm not really sure how I lost this one, but so be it.  Good luck in round 2 Stormborn!</blockquote>

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