Game night is coming up this friday and I am preparing to run the first part of Module 12. Thought I would drop in to bump this thread and give y'all the intro I sent to my group
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The consensus {assuming silence is consent} is to follow Devon's lead and charge into the very heart of Ragesia.. to the center of military power, and attempt to infiltrate the palace of the most feared and hated personage {who is doubtless a bit paranoid like water is a bit wet}.
Your goal is to invade a powerful ritual being performed by a number of high level spell-casters and, if the rumors be true, an Arch-Fiend from the very pits of hell itself.
Oh yea.. and survive long enough to get back out!
The leaders of the resistance have complete faith in your ability to accomplish this nigh-impossible task, and are betting the lives of many a fearful warrior. The fate of the nations rest upon your shoulders, and your departure from the city is heralded as if you have already returned victorious....
Um, about that. The Gates Pass folk are really good at keeping secrets, and even the Ragesian troops left in the area kept their peace. The Shahalestians, on the other hand, felt it apropos to organize the gala affair. There is a pretty solid bet that someone knows you are coming. But the advantage is still on your side as they do not know that you can use to
Torch to be there in the blink of an eye.
Well, at least be at the capitol city in the blink of an eye. Anti-scrying spells make it impossible to get any closer.
Once at the city edges you can either find your way through the city streets {either high, low, or in between}, find a prominent point from which to teleport closer {risking anti-teleportation measures}.
Then a choice of how to approach the island that the castle is located on; whether traipsing down the guarded {and warded} skyway, swimming or boating, or some other method of your devising.
Thence into the Palace proper, past any guards to the Ritual Chamber {yes, we have a map for you} and you can do your deed.
Scrying has identified that the lake that surrounds the lake has seen increased naval presence, with a number of warships patrolling the waters.
They might even have a couple of Merrow {aquatic Ogres} patrolling under the grey-green surface. So once you stop the ritual {and ensure they won't be able to start it back up right away}, we highly recommend you teleport back to safety. To that end, they provide a one-use crystal ball that will let you scry on the plains just north of Gates Pass, and thereby teleport to safety.
:evil DM grin:
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My goal is to shape the three major encounters in different ways. I have taken ideas from Upper Krust's Epic material as well as his dissertation on Dante's hell, turning Roav into something rather nasty.
With my group it is pretty normal for Devon {Fighter} to pin the fight into place and soak tons of damage from the brutes while the strikers and leader/controllers kite about taking care of business. While entertaining {Devon took over 1,000 points of damage last battle}, I don't want the last battles to have that 'next fight, same as last' feel to it.
For Roav, my plan is to remove the Brutes and spread out the damage dealers. This will put the kiting strikers at more risk but increase the effectiveness of controllers. Of course, this means Roav is a controller.
My last bit of prep this week is designing the battle-field, with the ritual key-stones, traps, choke-points, etc.. Should be fun!
/EDIT/ Regretfully life got in the way and we had to cancel the session.
On the good side, got to watch '7 Psychopaths'.. a highly entertaining flick
