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Rhewtani
Senior Scribe
USA
508 Posts |
 Posted - 28 Dec 2010 : 16:16:47
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So, at our early December game, we had to quit an encounter before it was completely settled. The group consists of:
Human Fighter 10
Human Ranger 10 (Archer)
Human Magus 8
Elf Ranger 10 (Archer)
Dwarf Cleric 10
Human Inquisitor 8
Human Cavalier 8
The foes included 5 drow fighter/rogue mixes, and a drow cleric all of about EL 10 each, and a marilith.
I have had considerable trouble balancing encounters for the party, as the dwarf cleric and human inquisitor are run by a particularly savvy player and the human fighter has seriously high damage output.
The drow got annhilated during the fight. However, the marilith only ever got charged by 1 person at a time, so her spinning chainsaw-esque attacks easily tore through anyone who came close.
She used up her blade barriers dividing and forestalling the party. The human archer was in the path while stunned and various PCs had to make attempts to yank him out of th path of the barriers as they came through.
At the end of the encounter, the marilith teleported away, but is easily trackable by the PCs. They don't seem to understand that they did no more than 3 points of damage to her during the entire fight.
They would have been much more evenly matched had they explored the area before tracking her down. If you haven't read about my pools of darkness campaign, here's the gist of things.
Hulburg, Melvaunt, New Verdigris, and Phlan have all been pulled into the astral sea not far from Moander's Corpse. Each city is held in there by an artifact (acting as an anchor) which is tethered through each city's magical pool of consequence (i.e. the pool of radiance in phlan, the well of knowledge in old verdigris). All the pools lead to a small extra-dimensional nexus which was supposed to collapse, but is being held open by Elminster's silver fire.
So, the PCs, all stargate-esque dive through the pools to the nexus, and from the nexus to other pools. They can use arcane sight to see the tether. Each artifact is guarded by a tanari and is typically being used by the guardian.
Hulburg was leveled by the Zhents in 1347 and as it is currently 1350, there is only a sparse population (all hulled up in the keep), a Zhent encampment led by an officer familiar and somewhat benevolent towards the PCs and some lacedon that can't find their boat.
The entire plot was mostly misdirection on the part of Fzoul/Bane to snatch something from Old Verdigris and the Zhent's are there to clean up some of the tracks. He is more than willing, though, to assist the PCs in taking out the marilith and he has an eye tyrant with him for such tasks.
The PCs snuck past the Zhents and the keep, but were spotted by the Zhents, when they had to fend of lacedon. I could have the Zhents show up as the battle is ending. I also realized that I can do a two birds with one stone move by using half of the marilith's attacks as sunders or disarms. This'll cut out a couple of the magic greatswords bouncing around.
The player of the fighter was actually so embarassed that he's been carrying 3 greatswords around that he left one with an NPC. The over abundance of magic greatswords is somewhat a result of some treasure being pre-set and a couple of greatsword wielders getting killed off.
I want this to be a learning experience, though. So I'm looking for suggestions on how to run the 2nd encounter.
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Rhewtani
Senior Scribe
USA
508 Posts |
Posted - 04 Jan 2011 : 16:33:51
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So, when I checked in with a friend he told me about Rich Baker's novel in Hulburg a bit and I now have a better understanding of how to flesh Aesperus out, a bit. As such, I now have 4 possible routes that tonight's adventure could conceivable follow.
1) Lacedons will gather around them and through them Aesperus will begin questioning them. If he determines they are from Phlan he will offer to aide them if they agree to help him recover a tome from Mantor's library. Based on my friend's description - Aesperus will keep to an agreement if made.
2) The Zhents will head towards the disturbance the group made earlier, and track them down. The Zhent Commander will then offer the assistance of himself and Orox, the beholder currently assigned to him.
3) The group heads to Hulmaster Keep and is offered the aide of the Harmach there (apparently H F14). He will do this in exchange for the vow of one of the group to marry one of his daughters and produce an heir if he is slain. He will also expect the vow of each member of the group to hold him to it, and failing in this then fulfill the vow. The Hulmaster line is apparently, very important.
4) They don't find any allies and they probably lose at least half of the group to the Marilith. |
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2nd Half of an Encounter - 1 Month Later
