ToEE - Finessed an intro...need further advice...

[ragboy]

Due in no small part to my purchase of and subsequent time-sink to ToEE the video game, I grabbed the T1-4 conversion and am going to run my kids' group through it. Currently, they are on the other side of Oerth, so I'm using the following stack-of-skateboards to get them to the Hommlet-Nulb-Temple area:

- Valley of Mushrooms (or something like that... Dungeon mag adventure)
During the course of the adventure, they save and temporarily cure a mushroom-poison afflicted ranger. Encounter a troop of bugbears tied to a campaign BBG. Couple of hints about a gathering of tribes to trek west (toward the Temple). They're sent to a nearby town to retrieve a permanent cure for the ranger.

- Treasure Chest (old 2nd edition product)
The adventure with the jackalweres running the inn. I put an ally of Canonness Y'dey posing as a herbalist/wisewomon here and had her kidnapped before the party arrives. Seems the jackalweres running the inn were attempting to ally with forces currently gathering across the Flaness for a resurrection of the Temple. Before the party arrived, the jackalweres and Temple folks clashed and the Temple group snatched Y'dey's ally (in the region seeking aid to the Temple's growing threat). Various documents and clues after the jackalwere's defeat and the woman's recovery point to Hommlet. The adventure in Treasure Chest is basically a plot-skeleton of a mystery adventure and adapts well to almost any campaign situation, or as a 'random adventure.' Probably seems old hat to experienced players, but my kids were totally jazzed about tracking down the unraveling mystery (which is weird for them). They've just uncovered the fact that the inn is run by a jackalwere and her brood and had their first encounter with them. Should wrap that up tonight.

The problem I have is that they are now 4th level and on the cusp of 5th. I know I can just add more threats to the beginning stages of ToEE, but has anyone run a higher level group through the ToEE conversion? Any problems I should look out for? Any experiences I can draw on (read: steal). I have the RtToEE mega-adventure, but haven't considered using it. I really like the original and the video game really fleshes out the towns and inhabitants. Less work = more fun for me.

 

[trollwad]

dont forget your own version of emridy meadows as a prequel. use skeletons and/or a wight skeleton of an evil priest plus some goodies left on the field.

personal opinion is that 4th level is more than sufficient to start at the moathouse. in fact, the moathouse is probably too easy at that level (but then again, the party can die if they are really bullheaded). You could also make the moathouse a little harder by having turuko, zert and the bakluni tail the PCs to the moathouse even if they arent invited and wait for an opening before they attacked, and/or make the frog encounter a little harder (8 frogs attacking simultaneously from surprise behind the tall grass)

If you want to test the party a little either before or after the moathouse, have the bandits of the ruined tower 'hit' nira melubb's place at night and rob it clean. The PCs and some NPCS (of course burne and rufus will be out of town!) will need to form a posse and go after them. Of course, you can have a chase sort of scene and a random encounter in the woods culminating in incautious PCs being likely to get ambushed at the Ruined Tower -- of course, the bandits should go downstairs and notify their leaders to come up and drive the PCs off (thus possibly revealing the presence of the secret door). If the PCs retreat, have the Half-Orc commander from the third level come after them and try to pursue them by stealth and assasinate one of them (before retreating invisibly) before the PCs make it back to Hommlet. Or the half-orc can use his female elf routine to draw them in unprepared in an ambush on the posse trek to the ruined tower. A third option is to have Nira Melubb kidnapped by the brigands and held for ransom and the PCs are asked to meet with the brigands in the Gnarley and first negotiate the price and then later deliver the ransom, guard against treachery and take Nira back home.

Id liven up the whole thing with some of the flavor of the CPRG. I like the Hommlet quests and the various lesser temple machinations. Needless to say, like the CPRG, you need to have pompous Lareth 'surrender' to the PCs and offer to guide them to the TOEE -- where of course, he will betray them at the right time. IMHO, the players simply have to meet Kelno since he is such a funny evil character (as portrayed by the TOEE) so I'd make sure to have them recruited to join him once they hit Nulb.

In terms of using pieces of RTOEE, I thought Monte did a pretty good job with the moathouse (better than the rest of his adventure). So you could always have the moathouse 'restock' with Monte's version once the PCs have cleared out the original TOEE moathouse and moved on to Nulb for six months or so. Then the PCs would find the dragon and darker machinations in the secret part of RTOEE that they never discovered. There are also pieces of the Monte Crater Ridge Mines that I liked and Id steal a room or two from there for your temple. Monte also has a few decent NPCs in Hommlet that Id steal and have arrive in hommlet over time.

Finally, as you know, I dont really like the 4th level except for the CPRG's grand melee with Hedrack, so Id probably just delete a lot of the hill giants, ettins, trolls, except for those with Hedrack.

 

[DarrenGMiller]

Due in no small part to my purchase of and subsequent time-sink to ToEE the video game, I grabbed the T1-4 conversion and am going to run my kids' group through it. Currently, they are on the other side of Oerth, so I'm using the following stack-of-skateboards to get them to the Hommlet-Nulb-Temple area:

- Valley of Mushrooms (or something like that... Dungeon mag adventure)
During the course of the adventure, they save and temporarily cure a mushroom-poison afflicted ranger. Encounter a troop of bugbears tied to a campaign BBG. Couple of hints about a gathering of tribes to trek west (toward the Temple). They're sent to a nearby town to retrieve a permanent cure for the ranger.

I have run that one. It is called "Valley of the Snails."

- Treasure Chest (old 2nd edition product)
The adventure with the jackalweres running the inn. I put an ally of Canonness Y'dey posing as a herbalist/wisewomon here and had her kidnapped before the party arrives. Seems the jackalweres running the inn were attempting to ally with forces currently gathering across the Flaness for a resurrection of the Temple. Before the party arrived, the jackalweres and Temple folks clashed and the Temple group snatched Y'dey's ally (in the region seeking aid to the Temple's growing threat). Various documents and clues after the jackalwere's defeat and the woman's recovery point to Hommlet. The adventure in Treasure Chest is basically a plot-skeleton of a mystery adventure and adapts well to almost any campaign situation, or as a 'random adventure.' Probably seems old hat to experienced players, but my kids were totally jazzed about tracking down the unraveling mystery (which is weird for them). They've just uncovered the fact that the inn is run by a jackalwere and her brood and had their first encounter with them. Should wrap that up tonight.

I used Necromancer Games' "Crucible of Freya" ruined keep encounter area as a prequel to the moathouse. Interestingly enough, the moathouse was all I wanted to use of the ToEE. I had them go into CoF and defeat but not kill Tavik, the priest of Orcus, who was in league with the ToEE as it represents a coalition of demon lords and evil minor deities in my game. They did the moathouse at level 2. More on that in a moment.

The problem I have is that they are now 4th level and on the cusp of 5th. I know I can just add more threats to the beginning stages of ToEE, but has anyone run a higher level group through the ToEE conversion? Any problems I should look out for? Any experiences I can draw on (read: steal). I have the RtToEE mega-adventure, but haven't considered using it. I really like the original and the video game really fleshes out the towns and inhabitants. Less work = more fun for me.

Well, since you ask... you are probably going to have to beef the moathouse a bit. I would raise the class levels of Lareth and his guards and give the ogre, gnolls and bugbears some class levels. Leave the undead as they are. Also, give the bandits in the moathouse some tactics and increase their levels.

As far as the temple proper, I would not worry about raising the challenge level overall, as there are plenty of baddies in there whose power level in 3.5 is higher than their 1E counterparts. I WOULD worry about the party having to slog through mountains of creatures with horribly low CR's, like goblins and orcs as they go up in level. Some areas just contain juge numbers of low powered creatures. I would decrease their numbers and give them levels, or replace them with more powerful, less numerous beasties. The super high CR's of some of the central enemies made me decide not to take my group all the way through. Again, more on that later.

In terms of using pieces of RTOEE, I thought Monte did a pretty good job with the moathouse (better than the rest of his adventure). So you could always have the moathouse 'restock' with Monte's version once the PCs have cleared out the original TOEE moathouse and moved on to Nulb for six months or so. Then the PCs would find the dragon and darker machinations in the secret part of RTOEE that they never discovered. There are also pieces of the Monte Crater Ridge Mines that I liked and Id steal a room or two from there for your temple. Monte also has a few decent NPCs in Hommlet that Id steal and have arrive in hommlet over time.

After leaving the moathouse, the party went back to Hommlet to restock. They also chose to use the keep from CoF as their base of operations, so they got supplies for that as well. There, they met Elmo and told him of everything they knew about the alliance of evil arising in the area. Elmo gathered his compatriots, including his "brudder" Otis and they went in and cleaned out the temple behind the scenes while the party went on to investigate the "mountain temple." I used Necromancer Games' excellent "Tomb of Abysthor" for this and had the temples of Orcus and Tsathogga as distrustful and backstabbing members of this alliance, which brings in (so far) Lolth (with Lareth as priest), Orcus, Tsathogga, Iuz, Zuggtmoy and Tharizdun. Of course, their alliance will never hold once they begin to make progress, but still thousands will die as they begin to wreak havoc in the area.

So, with the Hommlet NPC's taking on the ToEE and the PC's going to the Lortmils to take on the mountain temple, they are dealing the evil alliance a serious blow. However, when they return to Hommlet, which I have guaranteed by using the keep from CoF as their base of operations (which has now, thanks to a former PC now NPC, become a small halfling settlement), they will find the moathouse restocked when they re-enter looking for a further clue to halting the forces of evil. Of course, they will be about 8th level, so I am buffing the NPC's and monsters from Monte's RttToEE and using that for the re-cleaning out of the moathouse.

Well, those are pretty much the details of my campaign that are relevant to this thread. I hope I helped some and if you need anything, I will help if I can.

DM

 

[ragboy]

Well, those are pretty much the details of my campaign that are relevant to this thread. I hope I helped some and if you need anything, I will help if I can.

DM

Excellent advice... both of you.

Thanks!