Nebulous
Legend
Session #72 - Escape From the Fane of the Eye!
https://app.box.com/s/qirpkzalhqrdsgjnvkvhen3x19whp1gk
https://app.box.com/s/qirpkzalhqrdsgjnvkvhen3x19whp1gk
Session #72 - Escape From the Fane of the Eye!
https://app.box.com/s/qirpkzalhqrdsgjnvkvhen3x19whp1gk
Yikes! This is turning into one long scrap - and not looking good for the heroes! Looking forward to the next episode.
The suspense is killing me.
Hey Everyone!
I'm DMing PotA - we started from 1st level. The PCs are now up to 3rd and are exploring the Sumber Hills. They've investigated the Shallow Graves and now want to head to Womford. We finished our session last night with them spending the night in the Bargewright Inn.
I've read the first ten or so pages in this thread to get some ideas for starting the campaign. Changes I made were:
Making Larrakh of the Air Cult to try to funnel the players in that direction
Moving the Shallow Graves and the Sacred Stone Monastery to make more sense of the battle between Earth and Air.
Added an idea (not come to pass yet) that there are gates that protect the temples. The heads of the Haunted Keeps only have a quarter of the key - so the PCs need to clear all the Keeps before heading down into the temples.
I'll also add a lot of background notes on the prophets as part of the possessions in the Keeps.
A couple of questions-
Is there a bridge at Womford? Or a ferry? It's not at all clear in the book.
For the player hooks, how much does the player really know? e.g. for the hook around infiltrating the river pirates. Would the PC know that the pirates are based at a place called Rivergard Keep? And that the chief pirate is called Shoalar Quanderil?? I'm not sure how much info to give away....
Thanks for reading!
Nailen
I'm at a similar stage of PotA to you. My PCs are at 3rd level (not far off 4th), have just defeated the knights at Feathergale Spire and are off to Rivergard Keep next. I've been fairly liberal with pretty blatant clues, so they have a fair idea now that there are four elemental cults - they know the earth cult is based at Sacred Stone Monastery because they went there and got their arses kicked, and they have correctly guessed that Rivergard Keep is home to the water cult, but as yet have no idea about the fire cult (they're just guessing that there must be one).
As to your questions, my take on the "undercover" hook is that it's intended that the PC has been told at least about one or other of the keep or Quanderil, and quite probably both. If they're off to Womford, I'd be tempted to just give then Quanderil's name and let them trace him back to the keep, but as I say I think it might be intended that the hook lets the PC in on both parts.
As to what's at Womford - as you say, it isn't at all clear. The name obviously implies a ford, but it would also seem that the Dessarin river is fully navigable. Maybe there's a seasonal ford - only there when the river is running low? Or maybe the river is navigable above and below the ford, but not at Womford itself, so cargoes have to be switched between boats? Maybe there was originally a ford, but the river was made fully navigable by magic or dwarven engineering, so now there's a bridge or a ferry. I'm also unclear as to Womford's relationship with Ironford which is marked on the map and mentioned on page 29, but seems otherwise to be ignored. Like quite a lot of the book there is plenty of room for DM elaboration.