gnfnrf said:
1.) How do the various sections of the adventure connect to each other?
Moathouse -> Cult in Homlett: The one journal gives this connection, but I fear that if the PCs withdraw early because Utreshemon hurts them too much to clear the rest of the dungeon, they'll miss this entirely.
Note that the miller has been murdered. IMC, his wife is a homebody and he makes trips to Verbobonc on a regular basis, so his disappearance will not be noted for some time. However, his employees (Themock and Nyghen) will probably start to become suspicious after a week or two; they may talk to friends in town, and the word may get around to Elmo, who investigates. Note that the cult has Vacra (as Sart) to try to deflect this attention, but it can't work forever.
Cult -> Rastor: Again, a single letter is the only connection I see.
Yes, but if your party misses the cult, there still is the fact that the cart is moving slowly. Perhaps Elmo or the old man in the wilderness noticed the cart move through town. Surely the sudden disappearance of Sart/Vacra, Maridosen, and the others will cause some discussion in town -- the PCs may pick up the trail of the cart if you leave some clues, and they will easily catch up to it if they get on the right road. Carts move quite slowly.
Also, if they do not get Dunrat, but head to Nulb and the Old Temple to investigate, try the following: Perhaps Dunrat has been asked to undertake a second mission in the area. You could have him be under orders to, after the excavation, head to Nulb to interview Lareth (after all, the cult IS looking for the Champion), or head to the Old Temple to scout it out. The PCs may bump into him and Grune, and others as you wish, here; then the PCs could interrogate him, or find the letter on his person. I played Dunrat as a bit trigger-happy and unstable, so it was easy for my party to provoke him to violence.
If your PCs get completely lost, perhaps Canoness Y'Dey tells them to seek aid and guidance from her elders and sages she knows in Verbobonc. There's got to be a library there somewhere that could help. Or the Canoness herself could cast some useful divinations.
Rastor -> Temple: Tymerian knows, as do many other people in town, but are they likely to talk about it?
This is up to you. Tal will certainly not talk about it, and will actively attempt to dissuade the party from going to the temple. However, once the PCs get to Rastor, chances are that they will know of the existence of the Temple of All-Consumption. Once they start asking questions, I assume that they will get some info. The dwarves in town may also have some interest in adventurers clearing out the mines, as there IS an old Temple to Moradin up there. Thus, the mayor may actually ASK the PCs to investigate.
Temple -> Recovered Temple: I haven't read the end of the adventure as thoroughly (I will before I get there) but the only c
connection I see here is if Varachan helps the PCs.
IIRC, there are books and letters and such in the Fanes which detail what the Cult is up to, and how they plan to accomplish it. If the PCs actually capture some cultists in the Fanes (like Hedrack, or the Triad), they can interrogate them. Plus, there's always
speak with dead.
I also think that at this point, the party should have access to some pretty useful divination magic (
commune for example)
The question is, are there other connecting clues and threads that I am missing? Good backup plans if some of these are skipped? How, overall, do the transitions flow in actual gameplay?
My party has only just defeated the cult in Hommlet, so I can only say so much from experience. Getting to the moathouse was easy for them, and their adventures there lead pretty nicely to uncovering the cult in town (though I actually had the cult contact THEM; long story, I'll give more details if you're interested). As it stands, it looks about fifty/fifty that they'll skip Nulb and the Old Temple entirely, but I'm okay with that. AFAIC, it's up to them where they want to go from here.
2.) What surrounds the Crater Ridge Mines? How do PCs wind up using the 'correct' (main) entrance instead of the South Entrance (which would cause them way too much trouble at their level)? How often do they see activity if they are scouting?
Wilderness surrounds the CRM, and there's that orc tribe out there somewhere. There's a random encounter table in the module for you to use for ideas as to what is out there and how often the PCs find it. I assume that cultists come down to Rastor for supplies about once a month, but they have patrols and raiding parties (out looking for sacrifices) on a more frequent basis.
This is a good place to use the spider-eater bandits if you'd like. Maybe they take their mounts out for patrols/exercise every once in awhile.
Also, Vranthis needs to eat, so he's probably out hunting on occasion.
As to getting to the correct entrance: Perhaps the road to the western entrance is the old main road to the dwarven mines, and theres only a small track going to the south entrance. Thus, if the PCs aren't specifically looking for the turnoff, they'll miss the exit to the southern road.
If your PCs are thoroughly scouting the area, this probably won't work. In this case, you could try beefing up the security level at the southern entrance (as detailed in the module; see the notes for security levels A,B,C) so that the PCs meet considerable resistance at that point. This may encourage them to withdraw and seek other ways to get in, at which point they luckily discover another entrance which has more lax security. Perhaps Tymerian or the dwarves in Rastor could give them some useful intelligence, too.
3.) What should I know and be prepared for that Monte didn't think of, but your group did? Are there any big surprises? Encounters that I have to change because they are too hard? Too easy?
Well, consensus on Monte's boards is that the module itself is a little deadly. I haven't had this problem, since my party is of quite a bit higher level than the suggested start (they started the module at average of level 7) and I'm too lazy to modify it too much (which was a bit of a mistake, but that's another story).
I hear Utreshimon is deadly, but I replaced him with a lernaen hydra. The dire ape in the Old Temple is also a killer, as I hear. Chatrilon, being an assassin, can also likely kill someone, if you let him pull out the stops (Chatrilon got one of my PCs, the only death to the module so far).
You should definitely be prepared for the consequences of certain evil artifacts your PCs can interact with. For example, each and every member of my party ate of the black fruit. This is definitely an evil act. They're all various shades of neutral in alignment, so it didn't set up any major alignment violations, but there should be repercussions. Will they have lingering evil auras? If so, for how long? Do they start having nightmares? Visions? Will Y'Dey refuse to help them now?
Also, what if one of your party members thinks tanbrosh is a good idea? How many doses before you're well and truly addicted? Such an addiction can be pretty crippling to the PC, but you have to be ready for someone to try it.
Well, I hope that's more of what you wanted. I'll still put a plug in for Monte's boards. You may not know them, but there's a lot of great people over there with fabulous ideas. You could also check out the Yahoo RttToEE group. There's some wonderful files there.
--Andy
Only two of my five PC's ate the fruit (the two who actually went through the gem), and since I am not normally a "giving DM", got their stat increase and now wonder when they are going to have to pay the piper....
