Issues with Kazyk encounter in Indomitable Fire Forest of Innenotdar

[Vanuslux]

I want to say that overall Kazyk is a great villian, but there are a few things I feel the adventure slipped on.

First, it's terribly jarring that act one has Kazyk sending a message to the party and having the text of act one clearly stating that he attacks the party if they don't give up the case that they expended so much effort in the first adventure to get then having the encounter with him in the second act not give any acknowledgment to what happened in the first act.

I'm assuming that the Kazyk's Offer encounter in Act Two is supposed to be what happens if the party leaves the case and takes the femur...though it isn't totally clear that's the case since there's no reference made to the hellhound messenger or the deal or what Kazyk has done with the case that the party abandoned or the femur or anything whatsoever.

Also, the adventure could have stood to take the possibility of the party not having the case into consideration, especially since that's a clearly laid out possibility in the first adventure. Everything written about the Kazyk and his interactions with the party openly assumes the PCs have the case.

How should Kazyk's actions and motivations be different if the party doesn't have the case?

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Thats a hard call. In my game the PC's don't have the case itself...but they have the contents. So the text as written works almost perfectly.

If they had not sent the case, I would alter it slightly that somehow Kazyk's master learned of the Fireball Scroll the group should be carrying...and of its secret message. This not only might trigger them to wonder why its important enough to send a demon.. or it might back-fire by having them *not* wonder and just hand it over... in which case Module 3 may get a wee bit harder to fit right


It is a bit of a hard row to hoe without the case...

 

[Vanuslux]

I haven't had a chance to really read through the third adventure yet...I'm going to be pretty peeved if there's significant plot points regarding the case there too and, as with the second adventure, there's no thought given towards what to do if the party doesn't have the case (either because they never got it or because they gave it up to Kazyk in the second adventure).

At any rate, I'm planning to change Kazyk's motivations so that his mission is specifically to kill Torrent (regardless of whether she has the case or not) and he sees setting the party against Indomitability as a good way to soften them up. If she survives the fight with Indomitability, Kazyk will jump in just as Indomitability goes down to take her out. Then he'll pop out. I like this because it eliminates Torrent, which will take away the party's role as an entourage to an NPC on her mission and make it truly, fully their own quest. It also will hopefully set Kazyk up for a future reappearance of my own designing, as I'm fond of him despite my issues with how his encounters are written.

 

[RangerWickett]

The idea is that Kazyk fights the party, realizes he's not quite strong enough to take them by himself (hopefully; if things go badly he might beat them), and then retreats. When he next comes to the party he's more cautious, looking for an angle to get them to work with him, since he doesn't want to risk fighting them again.

I could have sworn we included a section to say what to do if they don't have the case, but I guess it was an oversight. Maybe it was inadvertently cut when I was shuffling some pieces around. But yeah, it's a good idea for him to be sent to take out Torrent or just the heroes themselves, in retaliation for the defeat of the inquisitor in the first adventure.