Well I played through the adventure. I was bored on a quiet and rainy Saturday morning. I ended up building a second PC to 'save' the first PC and goblin henchman who disappeared into the crevasse.
I had the monsters re-generate, so that the second PC basically had the exact same experience as the first, minus the goblin henchmen.
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Spoilers:
- "Random" -- The 1st PC -- a Changeling Rogue (1st) built as an Artful Dodger with the Reckless Scramble feat (shift +Cha mod. when a power grants 1 shift). Short Sword, leather armor, 7 shuriken, and 2 healing potions. Blinding Barrage was his daily, and having an area effect was absolutely critical for this character.
- "Splurg" -- a level 1 Goblin Striker; had a leader-type power that let the 1st PC attack with an at-will power on its turn. Creative power -- called 'cringe' or 'cower,' or some such. Leather armor, long sword, and 1 healing potion.
I played it as if the two characters were in a campaign that would DM. As in, actions have consequences and I didn't pull my punches.
Anyway, the fact that I had two strikers made for fun flanking and maneuvering. The monsters in the first three encounters were all controller-ish and would either grab and then drag or would have immediate slide effects for successful hits.
All but one of the monsters were minions.
This plus the interesting and numerous terrain hazards made playing the two strikers challenging.
After encounter 2 the two characters got separate for a few rounds due to the changeling rogue getting carried away by a strong current in a stream.
The changeling rogue landed in the area for encounter 3 and then tried to look around quickly but stealthfully. Unfortunately all attempts at Stealth were pretty much negated by the fact that most of the monsters in the first three encounters had BLINDSIGhT!!
By the time the changeling and goblin were reunited I had some of the undefeated monsters from Encounter Area 2 follow the goblin into Area 3 and the monsters ganged up on the pair and eventually took both down.
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2nd Attempt:
I generated a dwarven cleric of the Traveler (which I see as being very similar to Loki, Norse God of Mischief). The loose story in my head for this association was that the changeling rogue, the goblin, and the dwarven cleric were all Unaligned co-religionists on some quest. The cleric had left camp for awhile, only to discover that a fissure had opened up near his camp and that he percepted that his friends went down to explore.
Anyway, the dwarven cleric was dubbed "Alberich" (another reference to Norse myth/operas) -- a STR. cleric with the 'battle healer' feat (adds. STR bonus to healing word, grant him a Surge + 1d6 + 6 (from combined Wis and Str). The cleric also had healing strike and beacon of hope. As instructed by the adventure, he got weapons (a warhammer), armor (chain), and 2 healing potions. Alberich was formidable and durable.
The dwarf re-fought the same encounters as the changeling rogue and the goblin. he only missed the first encounter which wasn't too hard and I thought was balanced by the fact that he didn't have a goblin supporting him.
Alberich took a lot of damage and managed to overcome and defeat the monsters that had bested the rogue and henchman. In the process of going through the first three dungeon encounters, he was down to only two surges and had used his daily power. he had also used one of his healing potions.
The dwarf also recovered his companions bodies and what little equipment he could (I rolled saving throws for each piece of equipment). All the dwarf got was a long sword, a sunrod, and a pot.
The dwarf then carried his two dead companions back to the surface and buried them. Flavor test for EXTENDED REST.
The cleric returned the next day and luckily didn't face regenerated encounters.
he proceeded further into the dungeon and faced a clawed zombie that was using a magic circle to bolster its attacks as well as two more minions.
The dwarf got through that with minimal trouble. While searching for treasure he found a Gravespawn Potion (grants Resist 5 Necrotic).
The dwarf rested for a while and then proceeded to explore a secret tunnel he discovered. At the end of the tunnel he came across a secret door; he was on the un-disguised side. After checking for traps and listening at the door, he STEALThfully (rolled 16 on a 12 DC) entered into a large well-lit mage's library/workshop.
he was down to 4 surges at this point. As the dwarf looked around, he saw an wight mage (a lvl 3 standard controller) and two wispy minions. Only the mage was undead.
As the adventure indicated, the dwarf managed to surprise the wight. So I granted the dwarf a surprise action -- which was to quaffe the Gravespawn Potion, but alerted the monsters to his presence. I rolled initiative and
the monsters all beat the dwarf out.
The wight had a nasty encounter power that was a close burst and did cold and necrotic damage, as well as stealing a healing surge, and summoning yet two more wispy minions.
The dwarf (wielding the warhammer two handed as always) did a second wind and managed a successful healing strike and then cast Turn Undead (using an action point). he managed to push and then immobolize the single undead, but the monster could still attack with its ray attacks so it was small consolation.
After a two rounds of whiffs on both sides. The dwarf cast beacon of hope and was down to only one surge left. The surge was quickly stolen again by the wight, and the dwarf (unable to channel divinity for healing word, due to Turn Undead), was out of surges. As a minor action, I had the dwarf quaffe the last potion (to get a single hp back since he was surge-less) and then just kept attacking with at-wills.
The monsters rolled average, the dwarf rolled poorly and on round 4 or 5 he was dropped to negatives.
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Assessment:
Overall I liked the adventure and think it could work as a solo (+ goblin henchmen) so long as the character doesn't play a controller class (without a lot of hit points + Toughness) or a leader type class that relies on having a lot of allies to bolster. My cleric was geared towards being a solo warrior. After playtesting the solo venture -- I think a well-built defender or the cleric makes the best chance for success (and the goblin henchman constantly flanks with them).
Also, I disliked the fact that there was no mention of action points and some of the min-skill challenges were not given information to flesh them out. For the action point problem, I just granted the changeling and dwarf an action point at the beginning of their respective dungeon jaunt, but don't think it was explicitly mentioned anywhere in the adventure.
Overall a B+ and a GREAT first attempt. I whole-heartedly endorse the method and format of WotC's solo attempt. It was a great way to pass an idle weekend morning and it gave me a good gaming fix since my group isn't meeting until sometime in January.
C.I.D.
(Ok in the second fight it really doesn´t matter... so it is well designed)
