Red Hand of Doom questions (Part 1 spoilers)

[Lewy]

My group took it out fairly easily and with limited damage. It was a fairly easy fight as they stayed at the bridge, hit it with spells and once it charged just piled in the damage.

 

[Pbartender]

You know this jarred with me the most. Here’s the PCs going down the only trade road in the vale and there’s a HYDRA parked up next to it. Sounds to me like there wouldn’t be much trade getting through past Drellin’s Ferry if you ask me.

This is something that grated on my nerves as well... My wife describes the Dawn Way as this trade route, but what's on the other end of the trade route to trade with? The barbarian hordes? Drellin's Ferry is the last outpost of civilization, so who's going to go trading any farther?

Eh, whatever.

The next fight was much harder. But the party walked through everything other than the sorc. 1 NPC dead, one PC dead, could have been a TPK but the sorc fled when things were looking dire for his side

The Keep was a cake walk for us... Skull Gorge, on the other hand caught us a little off guard. We had to go through that fight twice. Lost a PC on the first go, but did much better the second time, once we knew what we were up against and could prepare for it.

 

[Mouseferatu]

The Keep was a cake walk for us... Skull Gorge, on the other hand caught us a little off guard. We had to go through that fight twice. Lost a PC on the first go, but did much better the second time, once we knew what we were up against and could prepare for it.

Interesting how experiences differ. We had almost no problem at all with Skull Gorge, but the Keep caused us major difficulties, and we never did manage to kill the bugbear lord--forget his name--before he escaped.

 

[Vanye]

This is something that grated on my nerves as well... My wife describes the Dawn Way as this trade route, but what's on the other end of the trade route to trade with? The barbarian hordes? Drellin's Ferry is the last outpost of civilization, so who's going to go trading any farther?

As I recall, the module describes it as a former trade route, from back when the area was more civilized....

 

[brehobit]

As I recall, the module describes it as a former trade route, from back when the area was more civilized....

It's still a trade route I think.

The Hydra is there because it got pushed out of the mountains by the hobgoblins. As they got more organized "mosters" were killed or chased off. So some of them went to the woods.

I agree, it's pretty lame (I thought about not running that part) but it _sorta_ makes sense.

Mark

 

[jollyninja]

My group didn't walk over the hydra really but neirther did they have agreat deal of problems. the keep was fun, I actually forgot about the manticore until after they had killed everything else. They chose to negotiate due to one party member being down to <5 hit points. It grabbed it's stuff and left.

they completely ignored the wagon and pressed on, so they got ambushed on the bridge. one character had to flee the fight and get inland, took two hits on the way out taking him to 3 hp.

I found with this adventure, you never really knew which fights were going to be walked over and which would become near fatal. they all involve either overwhelming numbers, tactical problems or powerful foes so it seems to pretty much come down to how good the rolling is for either side.

 

[Mouseferatu]

My group didn't walk over the hydra really but neirther did they have agreat deal of problems. the keep was fun, I actually forgot about the manticore until after they had killed everything else. They chose to negotiate due to one party member being down to <5 hit points. It grabbed it's stuff and left.

Heh. That's funny. We encountered the manticore twice.

The first time, we bluffed it into thinking we were reporting to... Damn it, I still can't remember the bugbear's name, but we'd discovered it, and the manticore actually pointed us to the other tower.

The second time, we were injured, and all we wanted to do was escape the keep. We'd already been hit by several volleys for tail spikes--the manticore was perched on the tower above--and we'd taken shelter inside.

We eventually grabbed up the table that the war-map had been on and ran across the courtyard holding the table over us as a shield until we reached the woods.

 

[Mark CMG]

It's a trade route that has been there for a very long time but has recently been compromised by the hobgoblins (and their friends). As said, the hydra could be a fairly recent addition, as well. I am not sure why the hydra would have any incentive for coming out of the water beyond taking multiple shots at anyone crossing the (slimy-slick) causeway. My group got past because once the hydra had a PC and a horse to eat, and the other PCs were doing damage, I figured the hydra would just let the rest go rather than risk death. It submerged and began to feast on steed with a side of halfling. On their return, the PCs approached more cautiously, took some shots at range, readied actions as they slowly crossed (leap-frogging positions) and gave the hydra a good thrashing when it tried its old trick. It, again, figured there were easier meals and opted not to stick its neck(s) out against something that could fight back so strongly.