D&D 5E (2024) Thoughts on Infinite Staircase?

[plecostomus]

A couple more questions:

Module 1 / The Lost City
My Lv3 party is approaching the "boss" of the 4th floor, a banshee.

The party's current HPs and CON saves:

• 19 HP +1 CON
• 23 HP +1 CON
• 27 HP +2 CON
• 21 HP +3 CON (the sidekick)

The 2024 version of Deathly Wail:

• Deathly Wail (1/Day). The banshee releases a mournful wail if it isn’t in sunlight. Constitution Saving Throw: DC 13, each creature within 30 feet that can hear the wail and isn’t a Construct or an Undead. Failure: If the target has 25 Hit Points or fewer, it drops to 0 Hit Points. Otherwise, the target takes 10 (3d6) Psychic damage.

There's more to the fight than Deathly Wail, but I think it makes sense to lead with it in case some PCs drop immediately and the others want to run away. The party has a ton of NPC allies upstairs they could regroup with or even recruit to help, if they think of it.

The players currently know the king's crypt is haunted, but are unaware that the haunting is a banshee. I described the banshee's old room as being filled with icy mist, and when they examined her old coffin they heard distant crying. This is more than the module's room description gives players, but it still didn't prompt them to ask what kind of monster causes these effects.

The party also rolled the random encounter for 2 guards (CR 1/8) to help them just beforehand, but I didn't introduce the guards before session end. My players are also very familiar with "environmental storytelling mosaics" and various other lore dumps in this dungeon. I have options to give them further warnings, even though they are in the hallway to the banshee's room.

I could introduce the guards (or maybe a more fun stat block) if only some PCs survive, and let the players whose PCs went down play the guards till they get new characters or the situation resolves in some other way. This avoids the players getting dropped at the start of the session and then not having anything to do.

I'm also considering my options in the event of a TPK.

So general question: Do you (in this module or otherwise) usually try to warn players about banshees, or does death by banshee work better as a surprise?

Module 2 / When A Star Falls
The garrison in the Tower of the Heavens is stocked entirely by gnomes who use the Guard statblock. Did anyone add Gnomish Cunning to the Guard statblock when they ran this module? Two of the other dungeons (the Forge and Derro Lair) in this module are also populated by creatures with advantage on Saves frequently used for spells, so it might be better to let the casters relax here. I am just fond of gnomes as funny little magical guys.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

So general question: Do you (in this module or otherwise) usually try to warn players about banshees, or does death by banshee work better as a surprise?

It depends somewhat on the situation, but in the particular circumstances you describe I would allow the players to make a Religion skill check (DC 15) to identify the creature ahead as a banshee and know that "it's deathly wail instantly kills anyone who hears it" (no need for the players to know it's nerfed unless it actually comes up in combat). Then the players may think of taking the precaution of blocking their ears. Winning sharpish because a PC was knowledgeable makes for a better narrative than a scrappy fight involving NPCs (frankly, I would have them run away in panic rather than help anyway). Of course if the PCs block their ears the players will need to communicate with each other non-verbally.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Did anyone add Gnomish Cunning to the Guard statblock when they ran this module?

I haven't run the adventure, but I do tend to customise stat blocks so I probably would if I thought it was likely to crop up in a fight. I would look at their gear to make sure it was suitably gnomish as well.

I don't know if you have the free DDB supplement "Dragonlance Creatures" but I would be inclined to replace some of the generic NPC statblocks with Nevermind Gnome stat blocks. They are more fun and fit the tone of the adventure.

 

[plecostomus]

I haven't run the adventure, but I do tend to customise stat blocks so I probably would if I thought it was likely to crop up in a fight. I would look at their gear to make sure it was suitably gnomish as well.

I don't know if you have the free DDB supplement "Dragonlance Creatures" but I would be inclined to replace some of the generic NPC statblocks with Nevermind Gnome stat blocks. They are more fun and fit the tone of the adventure.

I've seen pieces of that supplement when I was looking up info on irda. It's not available anymore, but I'll check if anyone in my groups has it, because that would be great. Your post also inspired me to check my 3P Dragonlance Companion. That doesn't have any gnomes, but it does have some blocks for kender, minotaurs, and Solamnic knights that I might use later.

 

[plecostomus]

My group is coming up on the end of The Lost City. I am very curious as to how they will feel about this module's non-ending. Today one of my players provided me with some lovely art of how she thinks it's going to end:

A prophetic work really, since escaping Zargon involves flattering him and giving him gifts.

One of my other players thinks the party will find some McGuffin that lets them defeat Zargon. Alas, no such thing in this module...

I'm not completely convinced the party won't just leave when they finally open the doors on Level 5. But they have been extremely torn up about actually trying to do that. They got all the way up to the turnstiles and grabbed on, then talked themselves out of it. Their main fear seems to be that if they just open the exit, Zargon will come to punish them (like a videogame final boss interruption), or Zargon will escape into the wider world.

I did have a NPC posted outside the secret level who let them know she is going to sneak down to investigate Zargon. But they've wasted quite a bit of her time at this point, so I think she's going to depart on her mission. That torturous choice to either escape the ziggurat or peek at Zargon will be theirs without further dialogue from me.

For anyone unfamiliar with The Lost City, the dungeon is ruled by Zargon the Returner, a CR 17 elder evil. The player characters are Level 4 when they meet him. They can do absolutely nothing to stop his reign of terror.

There are 2 ways to encounter Zargon on the secret level. One is as a sacrifice scenario that the party has to escape, and the second is a social encounter where they find his lair and he toys with them a bit and takes some of their treasure before letting them go. When I say the module has a non-ending, that's what I mean. The only answer to the ziggurat is to escape the ziggurat.

I think after their work with the 3 factions and many of the NPCs living here, my players have set themselves up for long-term success. They can return to the ziggurat later and will probably have some help to take Zargon down.

But there's no short-term victory where Zargon is concerned. And there is nothing resembling a "boss fight" at the end of this dungeon. We'll see what they say about that.

 

[plecostomus]

Another quick 2024 monster report too:

2024 gargoyles have the Flyby trait which allows them to avoid opportunity attacks while flying, and the party was at low resources when they encountered Lost City's room with 2 gargoyles. Said gargoyles downed 2 out of 3 players.

While the remaining player was waiting for the others to get up, the rust monster random encounter got rolled, and the rust monster began eating AC off the new armor the party just found.

The players now get extremely nervous any time I mention gargoyles. There are a couple more in When A Star Falls, so let's hope they find those and enact some catharsis.

 

[Zardnaar]

Another quick 2024 monster report too:

2024 gargoyles have the Flyby trait which allows them to avoid opportunity attacks while flying, and the party was at low resources when they encountered Lost City's room with 2 gargoyles. Said gargoyles downed 2 out of 3 players.

While the remaining player was waiting for the others to get up, the rust monster random encounter got rolled, and the rust monster began eating AC off the new armor the party just found.

The players now get extremely nervous any time I mention gargoyles. There are a couple more in When A Star Falls, so let's hope they find those and enact some catharsis.

Nice.

My low new CR highlight. Goblin Hexer. CR3 two attacks are 2d10+3 psychic damage.

Woghts can tank damage at CR3 81 hp cs 45 5.0.

Gargoyles noted. They look nasty lvl 3 and 4.

Compared them to an ogre. Its lol by comparison.

 

[Scott Christian]

So last session a player lent e tge alt art copy of Tales From Infinite Staircase.

WotC usually has excellent production values and this was impressive.

Read some of the adventures I'm familiar with 4 of them and have played 3 iirc. Overall happy with them.

Anyway the loan turned into a gift as the player found another copy for $20 and it was a thank you for permanent DMimg. He may have ulterior motives as there may be a gap between my campaign end and the new FR and Eberron books coming out. A gap a shorter adventure can fill.

So generally the WotC hardcover are lol meh with the exceptions of the anthology books. I like most of the ones I own (Yawning Portal, Candlekeep, Saltmarsh, Golden Vault).

Radiant Citadels the weakest, concept is kinda interesting though.

We finished a year-long campaign using Infinite Staircase about four months ago. The entire table, all seven players, and the DM found it fun.

That said, our DM did do a lot of work. He altered the "homebase" and gave it a lot of interesting NPCs that interacted with our backstories/interests. That went a long way in giving us something to care about other than "a wish." He tailored a "main bad guy" based off of one our earliest adventures. He also has a way of tailoring encounters to better suit our plethora of abilities. And lastly, he wrote a finale that wasn't in the adventure.

But the majority of the time, we played the adventures in the book. Each one was fun, and the setting difference between each is unique. That adds a lot to the adventure series, as opposed to say, Saltmarsh, which holds in a lot of the same setting. Lastly, as an older player, I purposefully went out of my way to know nothing about the adventure path, but I did know it housed a bunch of old adventures. Which ones, I was unsure. So it was a really nice surprise to suddenly be in Expedition to the Barrier Peaks or Lost Cavern. (And it had been so long since I played or read those, that it was nostalgic, yet I still never knew what was coming up. A perfect case scenario for me.)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

That adds a lot to the adventure series, as opposed to say, Saltmarsh

Saltmarsh lost a lot of its atmosphere by being over-adapted by people unfamiliar with the original literary sources (Moonfleet, Jamaica Inn). Infinite Staircase has been much more sensitively updated. For example, it’s clear that the writers went from Red Nails to 1950s Sci Fi B movies doing their research.

 

[Scott Christian]

Saltmarsh lost a lot of its atmosphere by being over-adapted by people unfamiliar with the original literary sources (Moonfleet, Jamaica Inn). Infinite Staircase has been much more sensitively updated. For example, it’s clear that the writers went from Red Nails to 1950s Sci Fi B movies doing their research.

I 100% agree.