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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Khur" data-source="post: 2043536" data-attributes="member: 5583">I said you could make WotVB into something decent. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> But the problems with your scheme are:[Spoiler]After Garrow rams Cloud's Destiny, it's unlikely he survives the crash of both ships (average fall damage 42, Garrow's hp 32)--at least as he's written in the adventure. The flimsy advice on page 22 (Garrow always has an escape plan) is simply sad—a DM needs to know how he escapes. The solution is as simple as giving him and his key personnel feather tokens or other fix (ala Cloud's Destiny's).Your scheme also fails to explain how Scimitar knows the PCs' location when they take the lightning rail. If it's divination magic, it's powerful stuff, having anticipated the loss of the airship and the PCs' trajectory after the crash. So, Scimitar's appearance on the rail still makes no sense at all from the presented storyline’s standpoint.As an aside, why would BoV rely on such a flimsy and expensive scheme to kill the heroes? Much simpler clean-up scenarios exist that needn't leave the area of Sharn. Further, if the Emerald Claw are using this as a plot against the heroes, what happens when the PCs jump aboard Jade’s Fury after missing Cloud’s Destiny? I’ll tell you what happens: adventure over as the Emerald Claw kills the PCs aboard Jade's Fury. Your point about Garrow's jealousy may be able to explain this away, though.This “interlude” can actually be an initial exchange between the servants of the Lord of Blades and the Emerald Claw. They’re helping the Emerald Claw capture the blade and Lucan to show they’re worthy of other alliances.As such, you'd be better off saying that Scimitar and Garrow are already allied, and Scimitar is aboard Jade's Fury. Maybe Scimitar’s warforged were part of the “ramming” in an attempt to double-cross Garrow. This never occurs to Garrow after the fact—maybe the weather is bad when the crash occurs*. While Garrow and his operatives hunt for Lucan and the heroes in the wreckage--Cloud's Destiny and Jade's Fury crash about a mile or two apart, allowing the PCs to escape before Garrow's people arrive--Scimitar tracks the survivors (the PCs) to Sterngate (add a ranger to Scimitar's group). Of course, this assumes the heroes even get this far and don't escape the crash on a skiff. (Even if they do, Scimitar can assume they've gone to Sterngate and just turn out to be right.) It also doesn't work out silly things, such as the dominated guards at every turn or the presence of the halflings aiding Scimitar.Ultimately, you’re actually altogether better off leaving Garrow out of this adventure. He’s a cardboard insert in it, anyhow. If you use the Emerald Claw at all, make it a secondary team assigned to the task of recovering the blade and Lucan. This secondary association can still be the key to tying Garrow and Scimitar together in the final adventure, assuming Scimitar survives. Of course, the Lord of Blades seems to have a large number of operatives dedicated to the schemas, so yet another one can show up in Grasp of the Emerald Claw.None of this considers the value of playing up the role of Aundair’s Royal Eyes in the adventure. I’d also recommend working with the role of Calderus and her relationship to the Blood of Vol.(*That Garrow would actually crash the airship is absurd. He’s smart [the crash is a good way to lose Lucan] and the airship is expensive [organizations always care about that]. But it is exciting. I wouldn’t nix it, just make it make more sense than Garrow madly destroying both ships.)[/spoiler]All of these things can be worked out, but that's my whole point in saying this adventure doesn't hold up as written. Do we expect a new DM to come up with these solutions to the holes this adventure presents?</blockquote>

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