The Standing Stone: experiences?

[LordMelquiades]

Last night was session one for my party of The Standing Stone, the 3.0 WotC adventure for a 7th level party. I am hoping that anyone on these boards who has run this adventure will share their experiences: what went well, what went poorly, what could be better, what is insanely difficult for the PCs etc.

I have a five character party (four 5th level PCs and a 4th level NPC): two fighters, a druid, a wizard and a rogue. There's no cleric or paladin, so their healing comes mainly through items (plus a house rule that accelerates natural healing rates), and there's no-one who can turn undead. Both the druid and the wizard are played by experienced, clever players. The druid is specialising on summoning critters to help in fights.

The reason for the party to travel to Ossington is unrelated to the actual adventure: there is a small complex built off from the well in the centre of Ossington. In this complex is a sword the party have been charged to retrieve and return to a bunch of dwarves to whom they owe a favour.

The setting is Eberron. the only change I know I'm going to make to accommodate that is changing the wood elves into shifters.

Thanks!

 

[Shadowdancer]

We played this adventure a while back, and from what I remember parts of it were frustrating because some of the encounters were set in stone and couldn't be changed. Such as, there was no way the PCs could convince the wood elves to help them or change their attitudes.

Also, if your PCs go into the barrow, pay close attention to the map. It might not be showing you what you think it is showing you. What you may think are the interior walls on the map are actually the (narrow) halls inside the barrow; what you may think are interior chambers are actually areas of dirt and stone.

 

[LordMelquiades]

Thanks--I had noticed that map thing. WotC weirdos....

Interesting about the NPC attitudes. There is one PC in the party with a few ranks in Diplomacy, so this might be an issue.

 

[Crothian]

It was a fine module. Lucky, our DM wasn't listening to the module with the certain encounters being set in stone. It's our game and we never let the modules handcuff us like that. The players enjoyed the twist in this and had fun with it.

 

[LordMelquiades]

Crothian--did you suspect? Or was it one of those "something dodgy is happening and I don't know what it is!" things?

 

[Crothian]

It was obvious from the set up of the town something was up and our characters were more in line of thinking with the wood elves then the villagters anyway. Plus with a paladin that can detect evil, many adventures get interesting fast. I was a ranger who always was bugging the Paladin: "Hey, is he evil? I bet 5 gold he's evil!!"

 

[LordMelquiades]

Fortunately (for the adventure, I guess) my party have neither a paladin nor a cleric, so detect evil is thin on the ground...

 

[Garboshnik]

I ran it a long time ago but I remember a few things:

- The dungeon (barrow?) had an oddly designed maze that was tricky to play through

- If the PC's don't investigate the houses and don't find certain random encounters it can be pretty hard to pick up on the twist

- My PC's tried to do everything on the first day, and then got stuck by missing out on some night-only encounters (I may be forgetting something her though...)

- Its a pretty cool twist, so I think that the adventure hassles are worth it.

 

[Gilladian]

I remember the final encounter (with the monster that starts with a V) being insanely tough and nearly precipitating a TPK). I think I ended up having it flee because it's plans were obviously shot full of holes.

I didn't like the inflexible attitude of the wood elves, and considered seriously changing it, but for some reason I no longer remember, it wasn't necessary.

The barrow/maze made my PCs very frustrated; we ended up fast-forwarding through most of it.

Overall, while it read like a really neat adventure, in play it was only so-so.

 

[LordMelquiades]

I think I ended up having it flee because it's plans were obviously shot full of holes.

Yeah, I was thinking that this is critical. It has a bit of fun for a round or two, then cuts its losses, beating it outta there (ensuring it mocks and berates the PCs first of course).

Thanks