Need advice, Red Hand of Doom

[Lord Zardoz]

Warning: This post will contain some details about the Red Hand of Doom adventure, which I am currently running.


Ok, we ended our game this evening on an interesting note. The players got into Vraath keep, and with some creative bull-shi**ing, managed to just walk right into the Barracks, ask for Koth, then started a fight while one of the Veterans was fetching the boss. I had also decided because of their bluffing, they managed to kill one of the veterans before he got up and became a factor.

The fight went in the players favor, and they managed to put the Minotaur out of commission as well as another veteran before Koth came down to see the 'guests / messengers'. Koth made some critical saves, avoiding a pair of Hold Persons and a Hideous Laughter spell, and got out of that room.

The session ended with Koth getting out of the line of sight, using his Fly potion and 1 Lightning Bolt Spell. One of the Veterans also survived the fight, closing and locking a door (while another veteran cursed him as he was killed).

Now that your up to speed, what is Koths next play? The Manticore is still a potential factor, and the Wolf Riders have not been encountered yet either. I am assuming Koth goes into his quarters from a Window while the surviving veteran runs up there as well. Koth will have a few rounds to act. The players are in the Barracks in varying degrees of Hurt, but in pretty good shape over all, but running low on spells.

1) Koth has not used any of his spells aside from 1 Lightning bolt, and the Fly potion. He could try to finish the players himself with the help of the Manticore and the Raiders. Doing so will put him at great personal risk, however.

2) Koth could simply bail. He can gather his notes, and bugger off with the Raiders and the Manticore, and try to return later with some more of his forces. The problem here is that Koth probably does not want the players warning Drellin's Ferry.

3) Koth could go for help by himself and get the Manticore and the Raiders to try to keep the players occupied. This has a good chance at working if the raiders use the mounted archery and keep their distance, trying to pincushion anyone leaving the keep. The problem here is that the 2 raiders are hardly going to keep the players + the Ranger npc occupied effectively, even with the Manticore's help.

The other factor to consider is specific to my campaign. When the players were telling their lies to the Veterans, they dropped a few names. The Veteran is probably going to be able to warn Koth that the players have intercepted their messengers, and know of a 3rd parties involvement. Even without the invasion plans, the information can still be damaging to their efforts. It is important for Koth that the players not be permitted to escape.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Monkey Boy]

Koth grabs the notes first. Then warns the warg riders and the manticore. They prepare an ambush. Koth is invisible and waits for an opportunity to blast group with spells from a safe position. As soon as the tide looks like turning or he is threatened have him flee.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Should work, with the possible exception that Koth does not have Invisibility as a spell he can cast.


Combat Gear: Wand of Acid Arrow (3rd, 15 charges), Potion of Fly, 2 Potions of Cure Moderate Wounds, Scroll of Mount;
Spells Per Day: (6/7/6/3) Known (7/4/2/1);
0 (DC 12): Acid Splash, Flare, Ghost sound, Mage Hand, Message, Open / Close, Read Magic
1st (DC 13): Charm Person, Mage Armour, Ray of Enfeeblement, Shield;
2nd (DC 14): Blindness / Deafness, Scorching Ray;
3rd (DC 15): Lightning Bolt;

No Invis spell, and No Invis potion.

If he sticks around, his options are fairly straight forward. Spend 2 rounds buffing with Mage Armour and Shield, then blast away with his spells. Nail the casters wtih Blindness, and hit the fighter with Charm Person, and then just co-ordinate the battle with Message. Use the ass end of the Fly spell to bug out if things go poorly.

The real question is whether or not sticking around at all is a tactically sound idea.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Shadowdancer]

I think it depends on what plans you have for running the adventure, and how you think the party will handle the adventure.

As I see it, the encounter at Vraath Keep is the main hook for getting the characters involved in the rest of the adventure. They are supposed to find the map detailing the invading army's plans. They then have some options for slowing down the army and warning the residents of the valley.

If Koth escapes with his notes, the PCs don't get hooked into the rest of the adventure, unless you already have another method for them to discover enough of the info so they can react accordingly.

There is rational for Koth staying and fighting. He's been given a pretty important mission. If he runs back to the army after getting his forces wiped out and his butt kicked by a small group of people, it will make him look weak and incompetant.

I say let Koth stay and fight it out, trying to coordinate some sort of ambush or counterattack against the PCs. To me, that makes more sense than having run away at the first sign of trouble, especially since he still has some pretty powerful forces left.

 

[Peni Griffin]

Let's see if I have the geography right. The PCs are in the barracks and Koth is in the tower?

First, Koth puts the most important papers into his pocket while loudly giving instructions to nonexistent allies which will encourage the PCs to barricade themselves in the barracks instead of pursuing him or exploring further.

Second, as the Veteran creates noises that support the bogus orders, Koth flies out to get the manticore and the worg riders. The worg riders cover the exits, the manticore returns to the tower with Koth.

Third, the manticore tears off the roof. Seriously, the keep is falling down, Koth has done only minimal repairs, and manticores are wicked strong and heavy. He doesn't have to take out the beams - in fact he probably wants those to stand on - just tear off enough shingles to make enough room for him to throw spikes and Koth to throw spells. With exits covered and surprise death from above, Koth has a real shot at a TPK, which is what he wants, though it probably isn't what you want; and he can be confident enough about it that running away doesn't occur to him until it's Too Late.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Smash in the Roof? I like it

I really like the tactical possibilities in having the Barracks roof collapsed on top of the players.
I do not think I really need to worry much about how to create the sound of nearby allies that do not exist. Ghost sound is the obvious choice for that.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[theemrys]

Of course, Koth could flee, and his papers could be in the planning room off the barracks where he can't get back to them... As he leaves, he orders the remaining troops to "finish" the party, but that map gets left behind.

When I ran it, the wolf riders came barreling into the barracks and had a hayday with the PCs... worgs are med so easy for them to get in... and since there is a hold in the wall, they can't be completely stopped.

 

[Peni Griffin]

Glad to be of service. Ghost Sound would indeed be sufficient for sounds of tramping feet, etc.; however, I was thinking of the distracting possibilities of Koth saying something like: "Sgt., activate Defense Plan Delta while I prepare that spell," followed by ghost sounds overlaid with the hobgoblin shouting orders like: "Move it, maggots! If they find and activate the Seige Barricade in there, we're in a world of hurt! Everybody got their ghost gear in place? Bring him down!" And so on. Cleverly improvised orders can lead to the PCs wasting precious rounds searching for the imaginary Seige Barricade to activate it, making irrelevant buffs vs. magic and negative energy, etc.

Just last night, a mindbender created an illusion of a Too Mucking Big red dragon, which covered his escape with the four goblin survivors on a wyvern. Not only did the party ignore their erstwhile foes in a frenzy to acquire cover and buff vs. fire, they sent away their vulnerable pegasi, specifically telling them to scatter. After they realized they'd been fooled, they still had to wait for the pegasi to start returning, which - since they'd scattered - they did not do as a unit or all at once. In the end only three people were able to pursue the wyvern, which meant that the escapees actually had a chance. Had the goblins managed to shoot down a pegasus, the pegasi had failed their saves vs. the fear wand, the cleric failed his save vs. the wyvern's sting, or the dominated paladin not misjudged the movements of the person he was instructed to attack (that was cool - they couldn't communicate in the air, and Sir Tib's player missed Morlin's player saying that he had instructed his pegasus to maintain a distance of 120' instead of catching up, so Sir Tib made a good-faith attempt to attack where the player expected Morlin to be, and it was an honest surprise when the attack didn't come off), the battle might not have been a bad-guy TPK. In the event, it was, but thanks to the effects of the imaginary dragon, it wasn't the normal sure thing.

Anyway, there's thematic resonance to the party acting on misinformation, since the point of the Vraath Keep episode is to acquire accurate intelligence about what is going on.

 

[Mark CMG]

When my PCs fought in the barracks, they rolled and made a Listen check to notice someone struggling into the map room through the crumbling hole in the ceiling. I also rolled and had the ancient table break under the weight of the bugbear dropping in to recover the map, which he quickly secured. The PCs then opened the door from the barracks to the map room, creating a fight on two fronts, and despite the bugbear wishing to extricate himself, he could not do so completely at the expense of leaving himself open to easy attacks. He eventually got away, and with the map, but it didn't make much difference because the PCs had already interrogated a captured hobgoblin before coming to Vrath Keep and had an idea what was coming. When they didn't find anything that could be called an army near Vrath Keep, they investigated further up the road, near the bridge, and their jaws dropped. They then rushed back to get Drellin's Ferry evacuated as quickly as possible.

 

[Nebulous]

For those of you that have run RHOD beginning to end, about how many sessions did it take to complete? Let's assume four hour sessions, that's a pretty good average.