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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rugult" data-source="post: 3683211" data-attributes="member: 53273">Fire Forest Finished!The Indomitable Fire Forest of Innenotdar (Part 2)- Ok, so we finished the Fire Forest three sessions ago and I have been rather lazy in updating this.  However my group has made me continue this post in hopes other DM's find some use or insight.  So here goes...As a  recap last we left off the party had killed Haddin in an attempt to 'do the right thing'.  While certainly not the best way to go about things the only solution I had as a DM was to impose the -4 version of the Bestow Curse spell on all of them minus Torrent and the Wizard Rowan (who had stayed out of the entire affair).  With an insufficient level cleric to remove this, the party would be in for a hard time.Act Two: Rivers Flow to the Deep(Part II)- The party decided it best at this point to head out towards the Mouth of the river as had been noted in the previous journal.  This led them to the Unicorn Nelle who gave them slightly more information on the status of the Fire Forest and the people placed in her keeping.  Some discussion led the party to head south to see if they could find more about the Seela fey.During their trek south, the Bearded Devil came to treat with the party giving an offer to them to get out of the forest.  The party was weary and took the offer 'under advisement' before sending the devil off on his way.  Tensions were running very high at this point as everyone in the party had different ideas on how to handle things (not a bad thing given the stress this adventure should put the party under!).Next up came the encounter with Tiljann.  Saving the Seela Fey from attack by other Seela, the party met a new ally and learned about the Fey and their song.  The information seemed to be coming together for them and they decided after incapacitating the attacking Fey it might be best to go to the village to meet with them.So off they went...Act Three: Rout of the Fire- The Seela village gave a relatively cold shoulder to the party with only the briefest of explinations on their history and the song of forms.  Only Tiljann really gave the party any particular information, as well as the Seela Vuhl who let the party know his plans to kill the dryad Timbre.  This plan didn't sit well with the party who instead opted for a different method...Heading out to visit Gwenvere's pool the party found no trace of the Nymph, thought 'Lucky Pete' got pulled underwater and interrogated by her while the rest of the party looked around.  Pete was able to successfully bargain for Anyariel's hair and came out solemnly looking to get it from the cave.  By this point the barbarian had already suffered the traps effect and had his charisma lowered even more (what does a barbarian need Charisma for anyways?).Seeing Pete emerge and speaking of his discussions with the Nymph the automatic party assumption was that he 'put on the charms'.  Pete of course did not speak of the now hideous nature of Gwenvere and tried to boast at how good a charmer he was...Heading now to the Dryad Timbre, the party initiated a parlay with her using the hair as a bargaining tool.  They learned from the Dryad the tale of the Living Blade and how Anyariel had captured Indomitability at the bottom of the lake with it.  So in a rash decision the party headed to the lake with the intention of pulling the sword and slaying the beast while the song continued...The final encounter with Indomitability was one of the most fun battles in the course of the campaign.  It started with the barbarian suceeding only enough to pull the sword out of the ground and not out of the stag.  With some well cast magic and strategic positioning, 'Lucky Pete' and Rowan were able to catch up to the stag as it ran towards the village.Pete jumped on the impaled sword holding onto it as the stag ran.  Rowan also hoped on the creatures back and began pulling.  With two party members on it the stag slowed just in front of the Seela village to allow for one final fight.  It took three party members and a strategic grease spell to pry the sword from the stag (don't forget they were cursed still from killing Haddin).  And of all people...  the rogue 'Lucky Pete' drew the blade!Cursing himself for drawing the sword and letting it attach to him, Pete tried in vain to use the greatsword against the stag.  The fight was brutal and many party members were severely wounded but eventually Indomitability was defeated.  With that the party stood in the now smoldering forest as the fires died and some traces of life returned.The session ended with the Seela fey approaching them singing the song one last time and proclaiming Pete their saviour.  I was also nice and removed all curses affecting party members at this time.  Fighting a Trillith with that handicap was enough to earn them that!(End Session #5)Thoughts-The main problem early on with this adventure was the railroading.  While my players understood it was slightly necessary given the situation, the formula of “walking down the road and getting attacked” dragged on.  If I were to re-run this adventure I think I would space some of those encounters out into later acts to give for some 'light' encounter between the heavy background stuff.Act Two was quite entertaining.  The Dream Elemental was a very nice fight for the party to go through, and I think will give them some hints as to other things to come in future adventures.  The Ghaele's task of guarding the bodies was an interesting touch that leaves a nice plot hook for later in the campaign and something for them to come back to.  All in all a very nice solid act of looking around finding stuff.Act Three had a lot of things to digest and allowing it to split into two different paths seemed strange but since both were similar it wasn't unmanageable.  Some part of me would have preferred the party fight Tragedy as I think it would have made an interesting fight as well.  However the flaming stag boss was quite the epic battle and my party had tons of fun with it!The major concern I had upon reading this adventure and am still leery on is the boon.  Indomitability's boon is quite large and has a lot of different aspects.  My players were struggling to write it all down as I explained it to them.  I'm really not sure if this will be too much of an impact later on in the campaign at higher levels as the abilities are quite powerful, but time will tell.  My assumption is that the boon was meant to offset the relatively low amount of treasure that come in this adventure.As far as the Living Blade, I'll be keeping an eye on it as well.  Right now it is in the hands of our rogue who has just taken a level of fighter.  The weapon is not overly powerful now, but soon enough it should be sufficiently powerful in the hands of a rogue/fighter.More to come in my next post as I discuss adventure #3 which we are already well into!</blockquote>

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