Shelter from the Storm: Damius and teleportation

[OnlineDM]

My group is nearing the end of Shelter from the Storm, and I came across two issues in the plot that I don't really understand. First, how does Inquisitor Damius's teleport amulet work? It's listed in his inventory, and the party's first encounter with him ends with him teleporting away and ending up in the Fire Tomb due to the teleport beacon... but what power does it give the bearer? If the party takes it from his body as loot (which you know they will), what are the properties of the amulet? Does it have a daily one-mile teleport power? That seems really strong, but maybe the Burning Sky effect keeps it in check (sure, you can teleport a mile... and take over 1,000 damage!).

Which brings me to my second question: How did Damius avoid getting obliterated by the Burning Sky when he teleported away from the first encounter with the party and into the tomb? For that matter, what about the Shahalesti spy who teleported into the tomb - what was she thinking, given that she must have known about the Burning Sky, and how did SHE not get obliterated?

I'm sure there must be something I'm missing, something that protects Damius and the eladrin spy from getting burned when they teleport long distance (the magic of the tomb? the beacon?) but I'm not sure what it is.

 

[RangerWickett]

Sorry I can't help; in the 3e version Damius only showed up at the end. Where do the PCs meet him in the 4e version?

And in the 3e version, the fire damage was high, but not quite the same. Something like 1d6 per 100 ft., to a maximum of 40d6. So it was definitely possible to teleport if you really piled on the protective magic. It just made it dangerous to teleport until you worked out how to do it. And it made teleportation circles pretty much useless for sending more than a couple people at once.

 

[Eccles]

Suggestion, therefore - make the amulet a daily 'take no damage from burning sky effect', or 'resist fire 50 1/day' or something? Kills two birds with one stone.

 

[OnlineDM]

[MENTION=63]RangerWickett[/MENTION]: In the 4e version, the party meets Damius in an encounter that can be run either just outside of Seaquen on the way there, or during the week or two that the party is exploring the city and having adventures. There's an encounter called Ragesian Ambush that has Damium supervising some White Wyrm supply deliveries, and he has his men set up an ambush for the party.

The tactics specify that Damius teleports out if he drops to 30hp or below or if he's down to two goons. He has a power listed called "Greater Teleport" that specifies that he can teleport out of an encounter to a distance of one mile. I assume that comes from his teleport amulet (listed in his equipment), but that's not spelled out.

I'm guessing then that the teleport beacon in the Fire Tomb was new to 4e as well?

[MENTION=5675]Eccles[/MENTION]: Your suggestions make sense, but then I'm left trying to explain how Damius was able to teleport. And I'm still left trying to figure out why the eladrin spy was comfortable teleporting over half a mile (the distance required to end up at the beacon), unless I start handing out "Burning Sky Immunity Amulets" like candy.

Sigh. I think in the end the folks who adapted this adventure to 4e just didn't think this part through. Oh well; I'll get creative!

 

[Morrus]

That does look like an error. My suggestions (pick one):

1) Change the name to make him a different Inquisitor and allow the heroes to kill him.

2) Make the amulet a one-use experimental device that the Ragesians came up with for emergency Inquisitor escape. It provides fire resistance for one teleport, but is then used up. Unfortunately, there is a critical flaw in the design, so they didn't mass produce them; or alternatively it only works for Inquisitors.

 

[RangerWickett]

In the 3.5 version, the Ragesians snuck in a teleportation beacon because it was possible to teleport safely, if you had powerful enough magic. So they brought in the beacon and put it inside a trapped cell so they could kill any wizards who tried to head for Seaquen.

It was sort of a meta explanation for why Seaquen doesn't have any high-level mages showing up trying to do the party's job. And it established the existence of these beacons, which get used in later adventures.

 

[OnlineDM]

Thanks for your help! Unfortunately, I didn't think this through until the party came into the tomb, killed Damius and took his amulet. Now I just need to think about what power I'd like it to have. I kind of like Morrus's suggestion of making it a one-shot magic item whose power is used up now, though I'll probably still give it a minor power just to make the players feel good about having found it (maybe a +2 amulet with a daily "teleport 5 squares without burning" power).

I am intrigued by the notion of "it only works for Inquisitors" because there's a gnome in the party who might be tempted to see what it would take to become an Inquisitor if the reward were great enough... but I really don't want to encourage any more intra-party conflict! Some mild insult-hurling among the characters is fine, but a true turn to the dark side isn't what I'm looking for.

Thanks again!

 

[marciob2]

Well, I came out with something like this: Damius drank one of the Tideriver's potion while done to himself some fire damage just before teleport. In a similar way of the lighting damage, he became part of the fire element and could resist the fire damage for a while.

 

[Fox Lee]

Additional Late-Breaking Speculation

Please forgive my thread necromancy... *waggles hands* Woogy woogy woogy!

I've started on "localising" Shelter this week, and now I'm curious about this too. They way it read to me, I thought that the beacon was what made teleportation safe for the Aurites Ragesians. I know it also attracts teleports that aren't aimed at it, but I'm not sure how else the Ragesians are teleporting safely.

Is the official answer to this just "whoops"? Not saying that's some outrageous offence. I wouldn't be half as organised as the WotBS authors with an Adventure Path this size.

(Uhoh, this became a ramble really quick! >3>; )

I had some trouble establishing the "teleportation will kill you so please leave the city the hard way" thing in my version, since the party didn't have Torrent with them to explain how it was going wrong ^^; Instead, they asked Sanura (the Gabal of my world). She let the monk participate in an experiment, using a specially-prepared potion to cause a "time slow" during the teleport. The monk saw what was basically a tsunami of fire bearing down on her, catching up with her just as she re-entered the material plane. This seemed to get the point across, though I have stopped short of making she and the eladrin take fire damage when they bamf.

How I'm going to keep them off the airships that are a core theme of my world, now, that I don't know XD Perhaps I should let Pilus' airship activate earlier than the adventure path indicates, and have him roam the skies like a rather nasty orbital cannon? That might cause some plot disasters I can't anticipate without having read the later adventures, though. And it would ruin the surprise that comes from the Inquisitors suddenly having competition.

Mulling over it right now, I'm having a few thoughts that shake out like this:

• What if the Burning Sky effect is entirely under the control of the Church/Inquisition? They caused it, and they can ignore when they want. Maybe they have a remnant of the Flamebringer Dragon, just as they do the Stormchaser Eagle? I enjoyed those legends, and they fit very nicely into the pre-human culture in my world, so I'd like to use all of them if I can (hmmm... Tidereaver Kraken remnant as the heart of Pilus' airship?).

• In this scenario, Ragesia never had the Torch, so they can't teleport something as big as an army - therefore, Gate Pass still fills the same "roadblock" position it does in the original. However, everybody else is still screwed when teleporting any significant distance. It also means that the Ragesians essentially have domain over the skies, since they can drop a commando squad on any airship they don't like. Thus, the travel restrictions are still able to shape the party's journey.

• The Torch is therefore entirely Shaladel's doing. My version skipped the Fire Forest, but I still liked Anyariel and the stag - plus my paladin wants to multiclass Warden for his Paragon Path and grow awesome stag antlers, and paladin + warden + stag imagery really makes me think of Anyariel XD So I was already planning my favoruite parts of that story back into the Trial of Echoed Souls. I might even add the stag as a fifth creature in the "set", since a couple of my players are big MtG fans and will totally click with a "cycle of legendaries" ;p

• So basically, Shaladel succeeded in creating a Torch through the actions discovered in Trial of Echoed Souls, and in this version it's the only one. The eladrin/elven kingdom never allied with the "Ragesians" of my version - they were established long before any humans reached the land - so the backstory between Coaltongue and Shaladel is already void.

• The Torch still has the same powers, so it keeps its position as a game-winning macguffin for the heroes to quest after. However, since its existence is now a secret, somebody will need to tip off Ialea Lyceum to its existence. Fortunately I have lots of options for this - Shalosha might slip them the info, Xavious Foebane (who has been replaced by an eladrin) could know of it, Shealis will be around, and there's also a version-unique character in contact with the Academy Headmaster who has reason to know of it.

Now, writers - I figure watching somebody adapt your adventure path must be rather like watching somebody make your cow into a pie, so I won't ask if you like this version. But, can you see it working out? Are there any plot complications further down the road that I haven't noticed?

Thanks if you bothered to read all that XD

Bonus unrelated question which isn't important because I changed the names, but now it's nagging me: How do you pronounce "Ragesia", anyway?

 

[RangerWickett]

Rug + Polynesia = Ra ge sia

Also, still not the most dramatic change to the campaign I've seen. That was an anime-inspired version with all the PCs being Crystal Maidens or something.