Mad King's Banquet 4e: To Bresk via water?

[EugeneZ]

We completed Act 1 of The Mad King's Banquet last session, and during the final "trip planning" scene one of the players expressed an interest in travelling by boat. Once he explained the route (across the bay and up the Nasham), all the other players agreed this was a good plan. Luckily, they didn't do this in Balan's presence, so I have until next session to either decide not to do it, or modify the trip up to fit.

Saying No

I don't really want to say no unless someone here can suggest a *really* compelling reason why not. The adventure suggests that the weather has become terribly cold and the river has frozen. Ignoring what I feel is a radical and sudden change in temperature, I think this is a good opportunity to spice things up. So, given no other compelling reason, I think I'll allow them to make the trip and have it be a race against time as the river freezes up.

Refitting

Vidor: The PCs will miss the meeting in Vidor to hunt for the mysterious creatures, but actually, I think that's a good thing. I have a strong suspicion the PCs would chase this thread, and I didn't really want to get sidetracked on a wild goose chase. I think this information can be delivered via rumor aboard the boat, on the trip up.

From Vidor to Bresk: They meet Aregal on the trip up. I wonder if it would work to refashion this skill challenge to hire the boat, if they decide to go by water -- I think it would work just as well. Anyone foresee any problems?

Journey: Hmm... tougher. I have to remake a whole new skill challenge, presumably for sailing a boat. On one hand, it's nice because these travel skill challenges occur quite frequently in WotBS (rightfully so, though I think some of them could use some work) and it'd be nice to throw in a water one. Any ideas? If you're thinking pirates, see Refugees:

Refugees: Well, the obvious battle on a boat is pirates. This battle carries some semi-important political information: Lord Rego is banishing refugees, and success here earns the PCs more reknown in Seaquen (do they need any?). Now, is there an easy way to work this into the pirate battle? Also, is there anything else I should add to such a battle? I'm looking at you, people-who-played-or-wrote-the-whole-campaign. The pirates are probably desperate at this point, sailing over the dangerously cold water because there are so many refugees to rob. For that matter, written down, this sounds kind of crazier: is this battle a good idea at all?

Bodies in the Water/Grim Tidings: And here's the real problem. I can't think of any satisfying way to recreate these encounters. The beginning of Bodies is simple enough: the ship runs into a small ice formation and Balan flies forward into the railing and goes unconcious. Then the PCs have to repair the damage and calm the crew, who want to turn around. But how to include the bodies and have it make sense? Furthermore, how to include the Grim Tidings encounter? I suppose the PCs could spot the soldiers that are messing around with the halfling wagon, but it seems kind of weird... they'd have to somehow stop the boat and get off quickly. I'm considering just having the ice become impossible to traverse at this point. I don't know enough about sailing to know if that would work. For example, would any captain risk their vessel by going up a river that might be frozen half way up? Do rivers even freeze half-way up? Does the boat get stuck in the ice at this point or is it possible for the crew to save it?

As I type this out, it's starting to sound like it might not be possible. Thoughts and/or help appreciated.

 

[Truename]

I'm on the ENWorld subscription plan, so I haven't seen this adventure yet, but what you're talking about seems pretty awesome. Don't give up yet. I might want to steal it.

 

[RangerWickett]

[sblock]The river is freezing because Pilus, the same mage who created the hurricane over Seaquen, and who will show up in person in adventure 5, is using powerful magic to influence the weather. He's doing this to feign support of the Ragesians ("I'll keep the Dasseni buried under snow until your armies are in position.")

Making the weather cold isn't particularly hard, though, because . . . I'm not sure I ever spelled this out in the 3.5 versions, but when the Torch of the Burning Sky was stolen and damaged, it created a rift to the elemental plane of fire in Sindaire, so heat is leaking through there instead of being spread evenly.[/sblock]

But outrunning ice is cool, so there's no reason you have to start with the place frozen.

Now I don't have the 4e version in front of me to compare notes, so I can't easily recommend how to handle some of the encounters they added in. However, I think "pirates" is the wrong term for thieves on a river. Pirate implies people who can sail out of range of pursuit, and that's just possible on a linear body of water. But you could easily have brigands who set up a long net in narrower parts of the river in order to catch barges, which they then row out to, rob, and then abscond onto land.

Alternately, the bodies and government beat-down encounters could be the result of a similar 'dragnet.' The PCs are sailing through increasingly icy water (and in this case literally '

Spoiler

a wizard did it

,' so you can get away with some suspension of disbelief; maybe even point out to the PCs that the snow is tinged with a hint of magic), when they spot a body snagged against a tree branch near the edge of the bank. It bears royal colors, and it's surrounded by ice, though not wholly frozen in yet.

Later they take a bend in the river and see a barge trying to flee downstream, which has gotten tangled in a massive sub-surface net. When they come upon the trapped barge, the Talon ride in, revealing concealed longboats that were hidden under tarps and brush. The PCs can decide whether to help, but either way they're going to have a hard time navigating further upriver due to the nets. The only passage would require cutting the nets, and that requires pissing off heavily armed men.

 

[Morrus]

I see no reason not to do that.

In my game, I decided that Vidor had no horses and that they had to get dog sleds and travel up the frozen river that way.

 

[EugeneZ]

Ran this yesterday. Thanks for the advice, Ryan, I ended up going with brigands like you said.

Spoiler

And now that I understand the reason behind the freezing river, I made sure to make the icing of the river very clear as they travelled up, so huge thanks for that.

The party ended up capturing a brigand and I just tweaked the Refugees story a little bit so that they were indeed once refugees from Ragesia/Rego but turned to brigandry after Rego kicked them out of his lands.

For anyone interested, I posted the barebones "script" of my plans, which includes the converted-for-water skill challenges and read-aloud text:

You have 'volunteered' (thanks to Katrina) to tag along with a half-elf named Balan on a diplomatic mission to Dassen. Despite any misgivings you might have that the King's court is the right place for you, a hard look in Simeon Gohanach's eyes suggests that he does not send forth his new-found heroes lightly.

The morning following the meeting in the Lyceum, you meet with Balan in the breakfast room of your inn (where you are treated to your daily free breakfast). Having discussed the possibility of water-travel the night before, you present this idea to Balan. He looks nervous, but agrees that it is likely the faster route, and the extra danger water travel poses should be no match for the five of you. He walks with you to the north docks and arranges for your travel goods to be delivered while you search for a suitable vessel.

There seems to be three river-worthy ships in the harbor: The large, fast caravels, the small, slow keelboat, and the well-balanced cogs. Finding a captain willing to take the trip north will not be easy.

Finding Transportation
Level 10 Skill Challenge (XP 500) | Complexity 1 (4,3)

• Caravel: Large, fast - 150 GP per head (900 GP)
• Cog: Medium, medium - 120 GP per head (720 GP)
• Keelboat: Small, slow - 90 GP per head (540 GP)

Victory: The heroes manage to find a boat and hire it for 400 GP if they bargained well, regardless of the ship price. If they were successful on their Nature check, they are most likely to select the Caravel due to its speed.
Failure: The heroes manage to find passage on a vessel of their choice. They must pay full price for whichever ship they selected.
Regardless of success or victory, selecting the keelboat grants them a failure in Journey, the Caravel grants a success.
Nature (DC 16): The hero is able to identify information about each of the individual ships. Grants 1 success, max 1.
Diplomacy (DC 21): The hero attempts to convince the captain to travel up the river, or to bargain on the price. First success unlocks Religion. Grants 1 success, max 2.
Religion (DC 12): The hero discusses religion with a captain. The captain will happen to be Aregal regardless of the boat the PCs choose, and he will take them due to their religious inclanations.
Insight (DC 21): The hero is able to gain some insight into the mood at the docks. The water is freezing over, so captains will be charging far more than normal. They are superstitious in nature and appealing to their religious nature may be helpful. Grants no successes, but grants a +2 bonus to the rest of the skill challenge.

If the PCs appealed to Aregal's religious nature, read the following after they've successfully hired his boat:

As his men load Balan's possessions onto the vessel, the captain looks at you like he wants to say something. After some silence, he laughs akwardly, like he just thought of something funny.

Ya know... out on the sea, a man... a man listens to his gods. Meybe it's easier to hear 'em out there, middle 'a nowhere. Anyway, I been thinkin' about these freezin' waters in March, and now the Skyburners are hirin' out my vessel. Been havin' strange dreams, so startin' to think me god, me mum's god, comin' ta collect me soul soon.

Me mum told me stories o' this great big dragin, all gold, like, what will come one day and save the world. Called her Syana... elven name, like me mum's. Anyway, in tha dreams, I see a gold dragin, like Syana, but smaller, a whelp. She's searchin', lookin' 'round fer... fer her soul. Ya. ... But she's trapped, beneath tha waves... trapped in a sea of this dream. I wanna help her, like me mum wud want me ta, but I kint do nuthin'. But it's okay, 'cause there's a dragonborn, all burning up, castin' spells and tryin' to rescue the dragin. I feel his voice, sometimes. ... I feel his voice, like he's askin' me ta save the world. I talk ta him sometimes, an' sometimes... sometimes, he answers.

The captain looks at you with hopeful eyes, clearly expecting the worst from this story.

Journey
Level 11 Skill Challenge (2000 XP) | Complexity 3 (8,3)
You set sail soon enough. All the sailors look at the water like they've never seen it in their life before. They look up to the sky occassionally, seeming to search for something, then back down at the water. The mood aboard the ship is dire, and the boat is clearly not fully crewed, some unwilling to make the trip. The speed is suffering, as a result, but you crawl across the bay never-the-less. The weather is unnaturally cold and a biting wind whips across the decks constantly.

• 1st Success: Refugees
• 4th Success: Bodies in the Water
• 6th Success: Grim Tidings

Victory: The heroes make it to Bresk just before the Talon begins to guard all the city gates. (See “Into the City”.)
Defeat: The skill challenge does not end when 3 failures are accrued (all 8 successes *must* be met). However, earning three or more failures slows them down enough to have to bypass the Talon to get into the city (see the skill challenge "Checkpoint"). For each failure, reduce the XP by 250 XP (but only if it's 3 or more failures)
Athletics (DC 16): Due to the cold weather, helping to crew the boat isn't hard, but requires a successful partnering Endurance check of DC 21 to be successful. An Endure Elements ritual negates this. If a character's background involved sailing, they recieve a +5 bonus to the atheltics check, but not the endurance. Earns one success.
Bluff (DC 12): A player wishing to entertain the crew with song or games must make a bluff check to portray a feeling of joy and fun that is hard for the sailors to believe... never-the-less, they want to, badly, making the check rather easy. This earns two successes.
Diplomacy (DC 16): A hero tries to cheer the crew through casual conversation and friendship, generally being a good passenger. Earns one success.
History (DC 21): A hero uses his knowledge of the water routes in the bay and river to assist the navigator. This is a difficult task since the player is unlikely to be superior to the on-board navigator. Earns one success. Failure, however, eliminates a previous success in addition to counting as a failure.
Insight (DC 21): A hero tries to understand the sailor's fear. They are superstitious and are depressed because the weather is unnatural, and that after an unnatural hurricane. Reveals also that the sailors could use some cheer. No successes.
Endurance (DC 21): This is the check that must be attempted to succeed at any task done abovedecks for a long period of time (Athletics to sail the ship, for example, as noted above). However, it grants no success -- on a failure, the character fails due to the extreme cold. Having the Endure Elements ritual activated automatically negates this.

Refugees
Your journey across the bay is reasonably fast and uneventful, and you quickly enter the Nasham's mouth, the crew seeming cheered by the progress so far and no major catastrophe to show for it. However, grins rapidly turn sour as only a few miles up the river, a sailor spots chunked ice floating downstream. Sure enough, the chunks begin to scrape against the hull as the hull sweeps them aside.
The captain doesn't seem to concerned, until ahead looms a large frigid wall of ice blocking the river, like a dam made by a beaver. The sails are rolled and the boat comes to a stop before the dam of ice. The men slide off the side of the ship with clubs to beat the ice into chunks. A few look at you five hopefully.
If they help, as they're starting on the dam:
Insight 21 and Nature 15: Such walls are not unheard of on icing rivers like the Nasham, but this one looks like it might have been piled together by someone...
As you start in on the wall, you hear the shuffling of snow, and from both banks leap up warmly-dressed brigands, looking mighty pleased to have netted such a valuable vessel.

... battle here...

If the brigands are questioned, the heroes learn they are Regesians running from the war in the north. Having been banished and unwelcome in Lord Rego's lands, they became a rather unsuccessful band of bandits.

Bodies in the Water
Level 10 Skill Challenge (1,000 XP) | Complexity 2 (6,3)
The sailors are nearly mutinous after the brigand encounter, and the ridiculous weather has earned them nothing but sickness, fatigue, and in one case, frostbite. The captain, however, has done his best to keep them in good spirits. All this is shattered, however, as the vessel, a good ways up the river now, suddenly emits a painful squeal as ice scratches through the hull. The crew immediately panics: many jump overboard, apparantly deciding they've had enough of this voyage and are willing to make their own luck, and the rest head belowdecks to bilge and repair. (NOTE: I had Balan be smacked on the head and go unconscious in his room. They discovered his unconcious body later when they went to search for him.)
Victory: The heroes can make the rest of the trip to Nresk via boat.
Failure: The heroes lose the boat and are forced to travel the rest of the way to Bresk by foot, losing three healing surges each.

At some point in the skill challenge, while they are bilging:

The cut is not too terrible, but as the carpenter moves in to seal the flaw, he gasps and makes a religious gesture. Looking over his shoulder, you see that a hand is stuck in the gap, a hand encased almost completey in ice.
After some shouting, pulling, squeezing, and general discomfort, three icy bodies lay in the hold. They were clearly dumped in the river recently enough to not wash the bodies out to sea, but long enough ago to have frozen in the ice at the bottom of the river. All three men have the same device on their tabards: A leopard and a serpent dancing under a sunburst. Two were killed by crossbow bolts in the back, while the third appears to have been hanged.
(DC 18 History/Diplmacy to reveal as Lady Dene's)

Note: That's all I have. These are DMs notes, so maybe I'll come back here at some point and clean them up. I don't really like the resolution of the Bodies in the Water skill challenge..., and I didn't actually include and skill check details. I just improvised the skill challenge, and since most of the PCs chose to bilge, it wasn't a big deal (Athletics). I probably could have done something more interesting considering they're bilging freezing cold water but whatever.

 

[Zinovia]

Thanks for posting your notes on the travel upriver. I think I'll use some of that, although I will probably have the river freeze, as in the module. I had them traveling downriver via keelboat in the first place (keelboats are a good choice going downstream, but not up). I did my own conversion of the first three mods because the official conversion wasn't out yet, and there was no information on how they travel hundreds of miles from the forest to the edge of the swamp. I made stuff up, and got them there.

One of the encounters I had on the river included chillborn zombies which piled out of a wrecked boat that was surrounded by ice. The entire section of the river had frozen solid, centered on this boat. As they walked across the ice, approaching the wrecked ship, undead began to emerge from the breaks in the hull, while more appeared on the decks above. Even the dogs had somehow become zombies. There was a fight of course. They found a blackened and burned holy symbol, with the gemstone cracked, on a dead cultist of Orcus when they later searched the boat. They also found a journal written by one of the sailors explaining how he was going to try and break that evil symbol he had seen on the creepy guy. Bad idea. Everyone on the ship became undead. Not all were chillborn, but there were enough of them to freeze the river around the boat.

Because more encounters were added to the official conversion, whereas I just changed over what was there in the 3E version, my group was about level 4 heading into the swamp, which is 3 levels too low to even start the 4E version of the third module. We're *still* on the third module, because I have added in a side trek to Thunderspire Labyrinth (modified) to recover an artifact that can provide some shelter for the refugees in Seaquen. The artifact was being brought there by priests of Erathis when the caravan was ambushed, and everyone taken, except for Laurabec, who was leading them. She managed to get away on her gryphon to bring word to Seaquen.

It's taking a *long* time in part because we game very seldom due to schedules, and partly because it's the slowest gaming group ever. Honestly I can't wait to get back on track. I've been having an issue with long combats taking up too much of our infrequent sessions, which I'm working on resolving.

As for the weather, I've been mentioning repeatedly that it is raining in Seaquen. It hasn't stopped raining the entire time they have been there. When they left the area to recover this artifact, they travelled through the swamp for a couple of days before encountering high winds and lashing rain. On the other side of this weather front, it was *much* colder, and not raining. During all of their journeying, I've also described storms heading southwards towards Seaquen, moving unnaturally fast. They know someone is tampering with the weather by now, but not who or why. When they break the effect of the weather magic, Seaquen will also become much colder and start to freeze. Right now the storms are keeping it warmer than the surrounding areas.

 

[EugeneZ]

Thanks for posting your notes on the travel upriver. I think I'll use some of that, although I will probably have the river freeze, as in the module. I had them traveling downriver via keelboat in the first place (keelboats are a good choice going downstream, but not up).

I probably should have mentioned above that my knowledge of ships and seafaring was in general is non-existent. I have the Stormwracked 3e book and used that to get the various speeds of boats that can traverse rivers.

I did my own conversion of the first three mods because the official conversion wasn't out yet, and there was no information on how they travel hundreds of miles from the forest to the edge of the swamp. I made stuff up, and got them there.

One of the encounters I had on the river included chillborn zombies which piled out of a wrecked boat that was surrounded by ice. The entire section of the river had frozen solid, centered on this boat. As they walked across the ice, approaching the wrecked ship, undead began to emerge from the breaks in the hull, while more appeared on the decks above. Even the dogs had somehow become zombies. There was a fight of course. They found a blackened and burned holy symbol, with the gemstone cracked, on a dead cultist of Orcus when they later searched the boat. They also found a journal written by one of the sailors explaining how he was going to try and break that evil symbol he had seen on the creepy guy. Bad idea. Everyone on the ship became undead. Not all were chillborn, but there were enough of them to freeze the river around the boat.

Interesting modification... such a huge divergence from the books.

Because more encounters were added to the official conversion, whereas I just changed over what was there in the 3E version, my group was about level 4 heading into the swamp, which is 3 levels too low to even start the 4E version of the third module.

Wow! So you gained an average of a level and a half in Scouring and Innenotdar?

We're *still* on the third module, because I have added in a side trek to Thunderspire Labyrinth (modified) to recover an artifact that can provide some shelter for the refugees in Seaquen. The artifact was being brought there by priests of Erathis when the caravan was ambushed, and everyone taken, except for Laurabec, who was leading them. She managed to get away on her gryphon to bring word to Seaquen.

It's taking a *long* time in part because we game very seldom due to schedules, and partly because it's the slowest gaming group ever. Honestly I can't wait to get back on track. I've been having an issue with long combats taking up too much of our infrequent sessions, which I'm working on resolving.

It seems like the long waits have been as much a blessing as a curse; now you're caught up to the publishing of the 4e version at least.

As for the weather, I've been mentioning repeatedly that it is raining in Seaquen. It hasn't stopped raining the entire time they have been there. When they left the area to recover this artifact, they travelled through the swamp for a couple of days before encountering high winds and lashing rain. On the other side of this weather front, it was *much* colder, and not raining. During all of their journeying, I've also described storms heading southwards towards Seaquen, moving unnaturally fast. They know someone is tampering with the weather by now, but not who or why. When they break the effect of the weather magic, Seaquen will also become much colder and start to freeze. Right now the storms are keeping it warmer than the surrounding areas.

Spoiler

So, is Pilus generating lots and lots of rain in your campaign? Doesn't seem like that would have the intended effect.

Part of the "trick" to Shelter was that the PCs were the only ones who could venture out into the storm due to them having been infused with the Tears.

 

[Zinovia]

Interesting modification... such a huge divergence from the books.

It wasn't so much a modification as made up from whole cloth. The Fire Forest module ended with them leaving the Forest, and Shelter From the Storm began with them entering Vidor at the edge of the swamp. There's a brief mention of the hundreds of miles of ground to traverse between the two, but nothing on how to get them there, or what happened along the way. I wasn't about to gloss over that much travel without detailing it, so I made up a bunch of stuff, used some from Fallcrest in the DMG, added a goblin tower they had to investigate, the zombie encounter on the river, and some bandits who were trapping ships on the river and robbing people.

Re the low level of the party coming out of Fire Forest...

Wow! So you gained an average of a level and a half in Scouring and Innenotdar?

Yes, because the 3E version had far fewer encounters in both modules. Furthermore, I was new to 4E and didn't convert them the way I would do now, over a year later. On top of that, there were a couple of fights I let them talk their way out of that I shouldn't have. My group tries to do that *all* the time, which is cool, but I was a bit too lenient in at least one case, and just ran things wrong in another. I do reward xp for them bypassing encounters that way, but it would have worked better and netted more xp had I done it differently.

When I read the 4E versions of these modules, I just kept wishing I'd had them when I ran it myself. It would have been better. It's not that I can't make stuff up, especially now that I am far more comfortable with the system, but that the pacing clues are much better. I wasn't sure how much to put in when I converted it myself. Also, the way I saw it, because no 4E version had been announced at that point, I figured I would adjust everything to match the level they happened to be at the time. It's not until I had the option of using the official conversion that the level of the PC group mattered.

It seems like the long waits have been as much a blessing as a curse; now you're caught up to the publishing of the 4e version at least.

Very true! Once it was announced that a 4E conversion was going to be published, I knew the modules would catch up with where my group was at because we game infrequently, and are slow. We socialize a lot, and take a significant dinner break during the session. This is due to several food allergies and restrictions in the group that require us to make something for dinner rather than order pizza. The plus side of that is we're probably the best-fed gaming group around.

Spoiler

So, is Pilus generating lots and lots of rain in your campaign? Doesn't seem like that would have the intended effect.

Part of the "trick" to Shelter was that the PCs were the only ones who could venture out into the storm due to them having been infused with the Tears.

The storm is building up, and taking awhile to do so. Once there's enough energy in the system, it will turn into the full hurricane. That will happen when it is dramatically appropriate.
As for the immunity, it came about differently in the 3E version. They gained a boon from the Trillith in the forest (who I called Tenacity, rather than the tongue-twisting Indomitability). I did not use the insanely overpowered one from the 3E version, but essentially gave them resist elements type abilities. They were never infused with Tidereaver's Tears, and while they did find those potions, they wouldn't want to use them. It was pretty clear (in my game at least) that the hags were making them out of people. I'm not sure what to do with the new character who joined the group. Maybe the more she associates with the party, the more the boon will "rub off" on her, since she's part of the group now, and it was given to all of them. It will fade at the end of the 3rd mod.

 

[EugeneZ]

As for the immunity, it came about differently in the 3E version. They gained a boon from the Trillith in the forest (who I called Tenacity, rather than the tongue-twisting Indomitability).

That's awesome. I prefer that, actually.

I did not use the insanely overpowered one from the 3E version, but essentially gave them resist elements type abilities. They were never infused with Tidereaver's Tears, and while they did find those potions, they wouldn't want to use them. It was pretty clear (in my game at least) that the hags were making them out of people.

I... did not catch on to that. I just figured, hags, abductions, makes sense. But, yeah, seems sort of obvious now that you point it out. Clever... I wonder why Indomitability doesn't grant them the immunity in the 4e verison? Seems like a pretty cool tie-in to the main story, why cut it?

I'm not sure what to do with the new character who joined the group. Maybe the more she associates with the party, the more the boon will "rub off" on her, since she's part of the group now, and it was given to all of them. It will fade at the end of the 3rd mod.

I had the same problem with my group. I just said she wasn't affected by the storm, and when the PCs reminded me she wasn't there for the Tidereaver's Tears infusion... we just decided it'd be one of those mysteries. Maybe it "caught" via the air or something.