Things I should watch out for in Trollhaunt Warrens?

[Obryn]

Hey, everyone!

My group just started with P1: Into the Trollhaunt Warrens after a little foray into Call of Cthulhu for a month. I'm happy we took the break - the role-playing at the table yesterday was better than it has been in months.

Anyway, I've already edited the module somewhat to bring out some kind of latent themes, and tie it more tightly into H1-3. Here's what I've done so far...

(1) The hook to bring the party to Moonstair was planted by Vyrellis (as in The Head Of, from H3). I added a back-story where she had been betrothed to Rualiss, before she was abducted and forced into marrying Karavakos. She asked them to bring a letter to him, explaining everything.

(2) As it stands, P1 seems to stay at a surface level where - more or less - Skalmad is just a big troll who wants to destroy Moonstair. I kind of took that as a civilization vs. savagery theme - with Moonstair being civilization, and Skalmad being savagery, of a sorts. To enhance this, I changed around Moonstair a bit.... First off, the mayor is a 20-year-retired mid-low-level Paladin of Erathis who was crippled and decided that was a sign from her goddess that she should settle down and do something productive. Second, I made it pretty clear that the town is rapidly expanding eastwards with new farmsteads. Third, I wrote out a letter from Skalmad, delivered with Etheran's head, which makes it clear that Morvoz (now called Moonstair) is their ancestral land, and that the humans are encroaching on his territory. I wanted to keep the whole monsters vs. people theme as subservient to these other themes.


Anyway, I followed some advice in the Sly Flourish blog about keeping the Oni alive. (He disguised himself as the courier, but the party's illusionist unintentionally bluffed him into fleeing while pulling a prank and pretending to be suspicious of him while waving his arms around.) But other than that, I'm looking for some specifics from groups who have run it.

What are other ways to make this module great? There's some seeds of awesomeness here, and I want to build on them.

What are some problematic encounters?

How did you handle resting in or around the Great Warren?

What sorts of stuff are in the module that make zero sense whatsoever? (Like in H3, how you would technically be trapped forever with the Gates of Agony after passing through the first one.)

Thanks!

-O

 

[Rechan]

Let's see...

Here's a thread full of tips.

Assuming you have access to Dungeon, Here's the Trollhaunt sidetrek article. The one with the trolls destroying the ship in Moonstair is awesome. Also, instead of the Eladrin city in the book, use Mithrendain; it comes with its own adventure, too, if you wanted to weave that into Trollhaunt or jump off with it.

Now, there are some places that supposedly you can foreshadow Demon Queen's Enclave, if you so choose to run that next. I'm not sure where those spots are (haven't actually sat down to read DQE), but supposedly the threads are there.

I think Skalmad's stats need to vary the three times the PCs face him. Fighting the same guy three times, with the same relative powers, is going to get Old, Fast. That's my biggest beef with the adventure. So vary him up a little bit. Also, vary up the trolls. Fighting the same warren trolls over and over is going to get DULL. Toss in some levelled up Cave Trolls, maybe sometime a Troll Witch (both of which are in the Compendium).

In the third leg of the adventure, when the PCs stumble into the Feywild, one problem I have is that they're fairly bottled up. It's practically a straight walk from the gate to the Fomorian castle, and that's it, as far as being in the Feywild. I think it should be less linear, and allow the PCs to actually move around in the Feywild itself.

Perhaps a plot within the Feywild to unseat Skalmad might make a very cool subplot. Given that Skalmad has a portal in his throne room, it'd make a great place for another type of Fey to set up shop. So, an ally willing to offer recon or other support (after negotiating), or manipulating the PCs, might offer some more spice for your game.

I honestly think the random or unrelated encounters are the best part of hte module, but that's just me.

 

[Obryn]

Oh, good call on Mithrendain!

I've already name-dropped the city, but I can make Celduilon = Mithrendain with a different name pretty easily.

Thanks for the tips on the trolls and Skalmad - I hadn't given much thought to the frequency of Warren Troll encounters. I also thought Skalmad varied more from fight to fight than he apparently does.

I did notice how constrained and, frankly, wonky the map of the Feywild was. Adding a stretch of travelling would probably be a very good idea - there's no reason not to, IMO.

Thanks for the tips! If I could, I would +rep you, but the slowness of ENWorld makes that pretty well impossible.

-O