sircaren said:
A question to those of you who have run RttToEE. We all know that players need an abundance of clues (always more than you'd think they would need heh). Did it seem to you that there was a severe lack of clues for the PCs to find? How did they find out how to move from one area to the next? My group has just about finished up with the Moathouse, and are not going to find the journal entry. They just leveled and decided to head back to town for a week before going into the lower levels, meaning all the clerics are going to pack up and leave. Short of having the cleric forget his journal, they are going to miss out on some major clues. Is this just me, or did you find yourselves manufacturing clues to get your PCs on the right track?
First of all, avail yourself of Monte's boards (
http://www.montecook.com), there's a whole forum dedicated to running RttToEE, complete with FAQ, errata, 3.5 conversion, tactics, etc.
When I first read the module, I felt as you do, that there's not many clues. Once we got to playing it, I found there were many, many sets of clues, and my players had little difficulty discovering things. They are a thorough bunch though, and that obviously makes a difference.
Your specific problem is not uncommon. The link from Moathouse -> Rastor and the Temple of All Consumption is predicated on finding the journal, or capturing one of the principals, keeping them alive (they tend to suicide) and squeezing information out of them. All is not lost however!
If your group is too slow at the moathouse, this may be just the kick in the pants that they need. Have the clerics finish their work and leave with the wagon as indicated. Once the PCs get back to the Moathouse, they'll see that someone was here recently, find the wagon tracks, and (even if you have to nudge them) go after the wagon.
They might need a tracker if they don't already have one, but they'll realize this. I'd rule that anyone could see the wagon tracks. Heck, have it rain before the wagon shows to ensure a good record of the bad guys, just for your players' benefit.
This could lead to quite the climactic battle in the wilderness, especially if Chat is with the group!
One final question. Why are they going to Hommlet for a whole week? Is that some sort of training-time thing? If so, I'd recommend you drop that idea as fast as possible. This module is built around a fairly tight time frame, and if you make them spend a week or more to train at each level, you'll either have to redo all the timing (dilutes the sense of urgency IMHO) or the group won't have much of a chance at ultimate success.
