P1 King of the Trollhaunt Warrens - Fantastic!

[Vyvyan Basterd]

[sblock] If the group does not Fire or acid powers they will have a hard time... if they have nothing... I might say they wont be able to kill them without some DM intervention or fudging... because of the Troll Healing. If they have fire and acid at wills... the trolls will go down easy.

My group retrained but were bummed cause there isnt very many trolls near the end of the adventure and they felt like they retrained for nothing.
[/sblock]

I encourage my group to use their skills to determine what their characters know about specific creatures. As soon as they heard the word Troll in the lead-in they asked what their characters knew and were thus prepared to deal with them.

[sblock]In regards to having fire and acid powers, I don't think these are specifically necessary. Acid is harder to come by, but fire is readily available. Using the guidelines for non-standard actions a group should still be able to take out a downed troll with a torch. An attack with a torch can even stop them from regenerating for a round. This is why I encourage my players to think about what they are trying to accomplish first and then think if they have a power that fits. If not, it's time to improvise.[/sblock]

 

[Cadfan]

Spoiler heavy details about an NPC that's added a bit to my game. My own players SHOULD NOT READ. That means you!

[SBLOCK]I'm having particularly good luck with the oni mage. If you think about it, he's basically unkillable for a regular party of PCs. He can fly, he can turn invisible at will, and he can transform himself into any humanoid as a disguise. And he's got over 150 hit points, so as long as he's smart enough to escape as soon as he's bloodied, he's home free.

And he's already recurring, depending on how the first fight goes. So its easy enough to have him recur again. I'm going to have him show up in town, disguised as other NPCs, and fomenting trouble. Hopefully I'll get my players really paranoid.[/SBLOCK]

 

[C_M2008]

So played another session. Much improved but that had little to do with the actual adventure I think and more with the DM.

We finished freeing a ghost who had been bound by skullmad and he led us along a river and up a waterfall to the throne room. Using the warlock as an emissary (while I got into position) My fighter challenged skullmad to single combat for leadership of the Trolls. He accepted and we dueled, my flaming sword ensuring he could not heal his grevious wounds. He pummelled me pretty savagely and if I wasn't MC warlord I probably would have lost (I spent 6 surges plus had the level 2 regen utility going most of the fight). In the end he opened a portal and turned to flee after knocking me prone. Somehow from my back I was able to strike him (thanks wisdom bonus/combat superiority) and cut him down as he turned to flee in cowardice. The Jewel in his eye flared, his body crumbled to ash (the jewel folding in on itself) and he screamed something along the lines of "Fools what have you done, the old king will........"


So as new king I dusted myself off and issued an order to have the assault on Moonstair recinded and the warlock and some trolls went off to make it so, along with some orders from an "officer". The drow in the throne room explained someof what was going on and how there are forces being marshalled on the otherside of the portal (presumably by this old king was how I infered it) which is still open. I asked the drow to establish a supply line and to bring it supplies to the trollhaunt; we plan to make it an actually community, and try and integrate the trolls into the surroundings.

Meanwhile the warlock met a worg commander who wasn't interested in what he had to say, but was able to take him and his puppies down with the help of the troll flunkies.

We all agreed it was the best session of the adventure by far. Although we've clearly taken it way off the train tracks. But at least we're all excited to play it again now.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Spoiler heavy details about an NPC that's added a bit to my game. My own players SHOULD NOT READ. That means you!

[SBLOCK]I'm having particularly good luck with the oni mage. If you think about it, he's basically unkillable for a regular party of PCs. He can fly, he can turn invisible at will, and he can transform himself into any humanoid as a disguise. And he's got over 150 hit points, so as long as he's smart enough to escape as soon as he's bloodied, he's home free.

And he's already recurring, depending on how the first fight goes. So its easy enough to have him recur again. I'm going to have him show up in town, disguised as other NPCs, and fomenting trouble. Hopefully I'll get my players really paranoid.[/SBLOCK]

LOL!

[SBLOCK]My group thinks that the Troll King is the Oni Mage. And one PC in particular has been making the NPCs in Moonstair uncomfortable by scrutinizing them trying to determine if they are an oni in disguise.[/SBLOCK]

 

[Derulbaskul]

(snip) We all agreed it was the best session of the adventure by far. Although we've clearly taken it way off the train tracks. But at least we're all excited to play it again now.

Excellent. That sounds like a great session and a lot of fun.

 

[Sanzuo]

We're playing through this adventure right now. Although I'm having fun, it doesn't seem particularly memorable. This adventure seems to be a straightforward series of combat encounters and it might just be our DM but there doesn't seem to be much of a hook other than "there's trolls, go kill them."

 

[OchreJelly]

I'm about to run this adventure, but I may need some help with something. I'm going to allow the group to travel there via linked portal ritual (I'm adding one to Moonstair). This presents some interesting problems from an adventure / story standpoint.
- they would bypass the "travel to" introductory encounter. Any thoughts on how to rewrite this?
- in all likeliness the PCs would use this as a method of fast-travel back, rather than trudge through the swamp. This could lead to them using it for the raid encounter, which may mess up the order of events.
- from a story perspective, how would I explain why the baron of the neighboring kingdom wouldn't send soldiers to help defend the town via a linked portal?

 

[Plane Sailing]

I'm about to run this adventure, but I may need some help with something. I'm going to allow the group to travel there via linked portal ritual (I'm adding one to Moonstair). This presents some interesting problems from an adventure / story standpoint.
- they would bypass the "travel to" introductory encounter. Any thoughts on how to rewrite this?
- in all likeliness the PCs would use this as a method of fast-travel back, rather than trudge through the swamp. This could lead to them using it for the raid encounter, which may mess up the order of events.
- from a story perspective, how would I explain why the baron of the neighboring kingdom wouldn't send soldiers to help defend the town via a linked portal?

Quick answer to #2 and #3 is to say the portal is only active on a full moon (basically once a month).

The 'introductory encounter' could then be an encounter with a bloke in a inn who narrowly escaped the trolls on the road - or, more interestingly, the oni mage polymorphed into the form of the slain messenger, who arrives with the message to spy out the strength of potential opposition in the town in the light of an impending invasion

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

Spoiler heavy details about an NPC that's added a bit to my game. My own players SHOULD NOT READ. That means you!

[SBLOCK]I'm having particularly good luck with the oni mage. If you think about it, he's basically unkillable for a regular party of PCs. He can fly, he can turn invisible at will, and he can transform himself into any humanoid as a disguise. And he's got over 150 hit points, so as long as he's smart enough to escape as soon as he's bloodied, he's home free.

And he's already recurring, depending on how the first fight goes. So its easy enough to have him recur again. I'm going to have him show up in town, disguised as other NPCs, and fomenting trouble. Hopefully I'll get my players really paranoid.[/SBLOCK]

[SBLOCK]The players in my group managed to hit the oni with an immobilize effect which he couldn't for the life of him manage to save against. I managed to hold them off for a few rounds through invisibility and total defense, but they still ended up killing him [/sblock]

 

[SlyFlourish]

*spoilers ahead*

I'm going to assume anyone reading this far expects spoilers so I'm not going to hide it.

I used the Oni Mage as the main annoyance for the party. I named him Kimsul and gave him a background where he hated Eladrin for wiping out his people hundreds of years ago. I converted him to higher level Oni a few times including a 14th Oni Spiritmaster in the second to final battle.

I had six players so I added him to the Fomorean battle near the end. They enjoyed killing him.

I see there's an Oni in Demon Queen's Enclave - I might make it him again. I love reoccurring NPCs.

Overall my group enjoyed the module. Their favorite part was the defense of Moonstair.

I just asked my wife which of the four she's like the best and worst. She put Trollhaunt at the bottom. Still, we enjoyed all of them.