Red Hand of Doom reloaded

[questing gm]

RoHD in Silver Marches

Just organising some of my ideas here and giving a poor excuse for a bump...

The hobgoblins from Doomspire in the Nether Moutains are invading and they are lead by the Moreume (sp?) clan blue dragons. They charge down the Sundabar Vale, running through the towns of Deadwinter and Newfort all the way across the stretch to Sundabar (replacing it with the battle at Brindol).

Instead of an aspect of Tiamat, i was thinking of having the cult of the dragon involved by turning one of the Moreume brothers into a dracolich. Instead of the Witchlord, i was thinking of the PCs having to face an orc tribe that has a ghost sorcereress as their leader (which is stated in the Silver Marches book).

Everything so far so good ?

I have trouble tying Red Wizards into the module since one of my PCs is a fugitive from their slaving ring and also whether i should put this module pre-dracorage or post dracorage. Also is replacing all the dragons in RoHD to blue dragons a good idea ?

 

[DM_Jeff]

When I ran Red Hand of Doom, I too placed it in the Forgotten Realms, in the area noted below (go to the Border Kingdoms, then glance southeast across the Shaar). It worked really well, allowing me to explore a region I hadn't used before (and therefore really flesh it out) and allowed for some interesting PC types from the surrounding lands (Halruua, Dambrath, etc.)

-DM Jeff

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I'm going to be running this soon. As long as the PCs don't wipe themselves out on the sons of Grumsh.

Got to say there's loads of useful stuff in here - thanks to all who added things!

Mine will be set in the realms as well. In the nook at the western end of Impiltur, south of Damara. Not got a fancy online map to show it with.


I'm going with some similar changes to Eric Noah - psionics is going in. Ghostlord is changing.

Also intending to expand the dealings with the dwarves. Quite possibly a side quest involving Duregar - not used them before and I like them. A toe dip into the underdark could be fun.

Tempted to have Lady Vaal involved with the Zhentarim keep crowd. Involving them as arms dealers and general troublemakers. A possible seed for all sorts of mischief.

Nightfall suggesting including Orcus somewhere - his traditional stomping grounds where I've set it. Not sure what to do with that, but like the idea. Might be throwing too many things in though.

 

[EricNoah]

An update...

PCs have entered the Fane and have gotten through to the temple area. I now have to decide whether I want to stretch things out a bit and make the rest of the Fane plus the Battle of Brindol into a 2-session thing, or condense and have the next session be the last.

If I spread it out over two more sessions, I will want a fairly elaborate combat in the three-tiered cave (I'm thinking the blackspawn ninja, with his great jump skill and archery abilities, would be a good choice in this room). And will want to maybe beef up the Azaar Kul encounter a bit (my players have been wiping the floor with the opposition thus far).

Then after the Aspect has flown off toward Brindol, the PCs have to get to Brindol ahead of it, meet with the leaders of the town, show them some war plans they found in the Fane, and decide on 2 of 3-4 "missions" they could undertake when the battle starts (including the Giants at the Walls encounter and similar things like that). That would be the end of session 1.

Session 2 would be the missions and the final showdown with Kharn and the aspect of Tiamat in town. And an appropriate resolution.

An update -- "session 1" above is going to take place today! The major thing I've changed is that the Aspect of Tiamat is going to be "phasing in" in pieces during the Azaar Kul encouner. If they manage to stop the ritual very early, the Aspect may only have one head (the others will be ghostly/insubstantial -- trapped in the Hells because the ritual was incomplete). The longer it takes them to stop the ritual, the more heads will appear.

Another thing I've added is some enhanced hobgoblin wights in the cave encounter. These are hobgoblin clerics of the traditional goblinoid pantheon who refused to abandon their gods to worship Tiamat. One of the corpses is actually that of Kharn's father. There will be some clues linking them together -- if the players put the pieces together and confront Kharn with this info, some good roleplaying could change him from a canny tactician to an enraged (and careless) attacker.

 

[DM_Jeff]

An update -- "session 1" above is going to take place today!

Great! Let us all know how it goes! Good luck!

-DM Jeff

 

[Mark CMG]

Happy TPK!

 

[NiTessine]

Our group played the second part yesterday.

It got messy. They went into Rhest, engaged the ogres on the town hall boardwalk, and managed to get the alarm raised, triggering a total of nine combat encounters (all from the town hall, plus the bell tower guards who jumped into boats and rowed over, plus a random encounter with lizardfolk I'd rolled up earlier and decided to spring on them now to save time).

It was an utter massacre. The fighter/monk was bull rushed by an ogre into the lake, but he grappled and pulled the ogre in with him. Then he drowned it.

Regiarix and Saarvith came up to the roof through the hole. Regiarix had time to breathe once. Then the dwarf cleaved through the ettin, killed Saarvith with a single critical hit, and the monk grappled the dragon, allowing the dwarf to chop it into pieces. Before this, the dwarf had killed the four ogres on the roof in two rounds.

I think a total of three hobgoblin veterans were bull rushed off their boats and drowned.

Mostly, they had some amazing luck with the dice. My hit and damage rolls sucked, too. None of the party even dropped below 0. They were mostly 6th-level, with the Radiant Servant of Pelor at 7th.

Next Saturday, we shall see how they will do against the Ghostlord.

 

[Klaus]

Our group played the second part yesterday.

It got messy. They went into Rhest, engaged the ogres on the town hall boardwalk, and managed to get the alarm raised, triggering a total of nine combat encounters (all from the town hall, plus the bell tower guards who jumped into boats and rowed over, plus a random encounter with lizardfolk I'd rolled up earlier and decided to spring on them now to save time).

It was an utter massacre. The fighter/monk was bull rushed by an ogre into the lake, but he grappled and pulled the ogre in with him. Then he drowned it.

Regiarix and Saarvith came up to the roof through the hole. Regiarix had time to breathe once. Then the dwarf cleaved through the ettin, killed Saarvith with a single critical hit, and the monk grappled the dragon, allowing the dwarf to chop it into pieces. Before this, the dwarf had killed the four ogres on the roof in two rounds.

I think a total of three hobgoblin veterans were bull rushed off their boats and drowned.

Mostly, they had some amazing luck with the dice. My hit and damage rolls sucked, too. None of the party even dropped below 0. They were mostly 6th-level, with the Radiant Servant of Pelor at 7th.

Next Saturday, we shall see how they will do against the Ghostlord.

I predict the Radiant Servant of Pelor will shine!

:rimshot:

 

[EricNoah]

The session went really well. The battle in the three-tiered cave was fun (I used 8 advanced wights, an advanced blue abishai, and the blackspawn raider ninja for lots of poison arrow sneak attak fun). And overall they had no real problem with Azarr Kul in the inner fane (guarded by his erinyes). They managed to stop the ritual when the Aspect of Tiamat had only one head, and it escaped to start its journey toward Brindol. PCs found a scroll to teleport there ahead of it and have a day to rest, have the war council, and get ready for the final session!

 

[Klaus]

The session went really well. The battle in the three-tiered cave was fun (I used 8 advanced wights, an advanced blue abishai, and the blackspawn raider ninja for lots of poison arrow sneak attak fun). And overall they had no real problem with Azarr Kul in the inner fane (guarded by his erinyes). They managed to stop the ritual when the Aspect of Tiamat had only one head, and it escaped to start its journey toward Brindol. PCs found a scroll to teleport there ahead of it and have a day to rest, have the war council, and get ready for the final session!

Here's something I suggest: Every human the Red Hand kill has its life force siphoned off to the Aspect, strengthening it and giving it more heads. The image of Tiamat is far too-powerful (and rarely used in actual game) to pass up the opportunity to use it. In the end, you might have hobgoblin soldiers commiting seppuku to strengthen their Lady for a final showdown with the PCs.