KotS Spoiler: Is this lame?

[Rechan]

So, I'm running folks through Keep on teh Shadowfell, and they're a few encounters from the climactic end.

I don't like that the Thing in the Portal looks like a tentacled black blob. I like tentacled blobs, but it doesn't feel "Shadowfell-y" to me. I was going to use skeletal arms reaching from the portal, but then I had a thought.

What if it was Orcus's own arm thrusting from the portal?

But then I thought that might be really, really lame. Especially with the limited damage they're doing.

What do you guys think?

 

[Cadfan]

Why not make it impossible to know exactly what the thing is, but give it a description that will be recognizable later when they actually encounter whatever it is.

 

[fanboy2000]

Not lame. I ran that encounter with the black tentical, but I hadn't thought about an alternitive. I like the idea that it's actualy Orcus' arm.

 

[Jack99]

If you make it Orcus' arm, you can also rationalize that putting it through the portal weakens him or something, and justify the damage that way.

 

[MarkB]

Rather than physical tentacles, describe it as drifting tendrils of shadowy fog, that seem to writhe and curl in a breeze that isn't there.

When they attack a player, the fog billows towards them and envelops them, its tendrils drawing around them and sliding across their skin like wisps of ice-cold cobweb. For a moment it feels like the whole world tilts, the portal appearing to be below them rather than beside them, and they find themselves falling inexorably towards it.

 

[Grydan]

Rather than physical tentacles, describe it as drifting tendrils of shadowy fog, that seem to writhe and curl in a breeze that isn't there.

When they attack a player, the fog billows towards them and envelops them, its tendrils drawing around them and sliding across their skin like wisps of ice-cold cobweb. For a moment it feels like the whole world tilts, the portal appearing to be below them rather than beside them, and they find themselves falling inexorably towards it.

That's... awesome. I didn't even have a problem with the thing as described, but that's just very cool. Might have to use it.

 

[Plane Sailing]

It seems strange to me that KotS portrays the shadowfell as something completely inimical to life, while Shadowfell was originally concieved as a 'high heroic/lower paragon' playground - an easier and more hospitable plane than the astral sea and the chaos stuff.

If that was the case I'd like to see two portals - one into the Shadowfell and one from the Chaos Abyss. The ritual is to connect the two to allow Orcus to get into the shadowfell. Orcus' arm is coming out of the Abyss portal. Going into the abyss portal is instant death, going into the shadowfell portal is mighty strange, but you can walk back out again (perhaps at the cost of a healing surge)

 

[Bold or Stupid]

It seems strange to me that KotS portrays the shadowfell as something completely inimical to life, while Shadowfell was originally concieved as a 'high heroic/lower paragon' playground - an easier and more hospitable plane than the astral sea and the chaos stuff.

If that was the case I'd like to see two portals - one into the Shadowfell and one from the Chaos Abyss. The ritual is to connect the two to allow Orcus to get into the shadowfell. Orcus' arm is coming out of the Abyss portal. Going into the abyss portal is instant death, going into the shadowfell portal is mighty strange, but you can walk back out again (perhaps at the cost of a healing surge)

I felt that it wasn't the Shadowfell that was the problem, but whatever those tendrils of shadow were attached to...

 

[doctorhook]

I felt that it wasn't the Shadowfell that was the problem, but whatever those tendrils of shadow were attached to...

Agreed. The "Shadowfell" in Keep on the Shadowfell is just a portal, which leads to a particular place in the Shadowfell that happens to be even more death-touched than the rest of the plane. Thus, my impression was that Kalarel wasn't simply opening a portal to the Shadowfell, but a portal to a Shadowfell bastion of Orcus and his powers of undeath.

As for the hand in the portal, I imagined that it was Orcus's hand, but rather than reaching through the portal, it was straining against the portal membrane, but unable to actually penatrate it.

 

[Daern]

The updated PDF that just released has changed the final encounter quite a bit. The "Thing" has become a hazard and uses "whispering shadows" to draw people closer. Seems to be an improvement which I'll use whenever I finally get to that final encounter...

oh, and i think the Orcus' arm thing is rad