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| Halls of the Mountain King - session write-ups & queries |
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| richgreen01 |
 Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 1:03 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for the suggestions - the players got further than I thought they would in last night's game so I need to come up with something for next Monday!
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 11:56 pm Post subject: |
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I've managed to buy myself some time - Monday's session will involve a divination (using my very old Ravenloft tarokka cards!) that sends the PCs off on a short side trek so it'll be the session after that they get to Zobeck.
Having reread both Tales and the Gazetteer, I'm thinking of running an encounter in Crown Square involving drunken kobolds (on All Kobold's Eve), clockwork watchmen, and having to chase someone inside or up the Great Stross Clock (perhaps based on the Tail of the Mouse King encounter). I just need to reason for the PCs to get mixed up in it all. Something gets stolen from the party or a friendly passerby?
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 10:52 am Post subject: |
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Right, all sorted!
The PCs need to recover a bag of important documents stolen by a kobold from Lord Grimaldi while the Watch are distracted by rioting, drunken kobolds in Crown Square. The thief climbs inside the Clock and the party have to go after him. Inside, they need to deal with shifting gears etc (as per Tail of the Mouse King) as well as a bunch of war-, sorry, gearforged who defend the Clock's mechanisms from intruders and saboteurs. If they don't stop the kobold thief, he legs it into the mouse kingdom warrens and the PCs will need to complete a skill challenge to corner him.
I'll post here how it all turns out!
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 12:23 pm Post subject: |
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Hi,
I finally got to run the "intro to Zobeck" encounter last night but unfortunately it didn't go as I expected. You can read the session write-up here but the main problem was that I put so much "stuff" into the encounter - four different types of gearforged, rotating gears, swinging counterweights to leap out of the way of, difficult-to-stand-on revolving cylinders etc etc - that it just got too damned complicated. I can see now why Tim & Eileen Connors put just one opponent inside the Great Stross Clock - because one opponent is enough if the PCs have got to negotiate three levels of tricky machinery! I made things worse by leaving the Acrobatics DC to remain standing on the revolving cylinder as per the PH - DC 20 was too difficult for most of the PCs and this caused player frustration as they couldn't move around and attack their enemies.
Once they got down to the bottom of the tower, they chased after the kobold, heading into the mouse warrens. This should have been a simple skill challenge but things just weren't working out and the kobold escaped! At that point, we ended the session 
We're not playing until Monday week - it's a bank holiday here next Monday - so when we resume, I'll kick off Halls of the Mountain King with the cultist attack on Rabscuttle but I'll be removing any balance checks required by the adventure just in case. I'm toying with the idea of giving the PCs another shot at the kobold thief - they might just run into him by chance in the street and get the opportunity to recover Lord Grimaldi's satchel.
Anyway, lesson learned - keep it simple(r) in future!
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 11:07 am Post subject: |
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Hi,
First session of Halls is on Monday night! I'll post the write up here afterwards.
I've been rereading the adventure carefully and making notes on things that I'm not sure about so might post a few questions in this (renamed) thread to any of the original designers who are reading.
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 2:04 pm Post subject: Session #1 Alarm in the Dead of Night |
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We played the first Halls session last night - good fun! Here's a (rather lengthy) write up:
Back in Crown Square, Lord Slygass pays the PCs 10 pp for their efforts in trying to recover his satchel (“You do look a bit worse for wear!”) and suggests they go to the Seven Bells for supper. The tavern is frequented by merchants and traders and Bolval is able to learn that a gold rush started at the Citadel after a paladin named Sir Ronceval returned to Zobeck last spring with a large gold nugget. Since then, quite a few people have struck it rich and come back to the city, but the winter was very harsh and the snow has not yet thawed enough for the passes to reopen, trapping the miners inside the mountain. One person the PCs speak to talks of cannibalism among the desperate inhabitants of the Golden Citadel. Another mentions a series of recent arguments in Zobeck between merchants and their customers over business transactions. Ella learns that the Splitrock Company, located in the Gear District, operates two airships – one, the Drake, set off for the Ironcrags a few weeks ago and has not returned. A second expedition is being mounted tomorrow.
After dinner the PCs decide to go to the Splitrock offices that evening to see if they can book passage on the airship or at least check what time it leaves. They check in at the Bull’s Horns Inn en route, leaving Wergrim behind to get the beers in at the bar. As the PCs get close to the Gear District, the kobold satchel-thief rounds a corner right in front of them, does a double take and runs off. Brave Ella gives chase followed by Sharden and Krivinn, while Saethus fey steps on to a rooftop, with Khuma and Bolval hot (or not-so-hot in Bolval’s case) on his heels.
Three Teeth the kobold runs into an alley as Ella’s arrows thud into his back but he comes back out straight away, throws the stolen satchel at Krivinn and teleports to a rooftop, then leaps down the other side and away. Saethus and the others on the roof can hear a commotion from the alley – a group of men in leering copper masks are beating the crap out of a dwarf-sized gilded construct with crowbars. Gears are flying all over the place as two spined devils look on.
Saethus throws a fireball down into the cultists as the other PCs close in to attack. Krivinn blocks the entrance to the alley and attacks the first thug as he approaches while Ella and Sharden attack from range and the others attack from the roof. The cultists throw poisoned darts at the PCs on the roof and the tiefling warlock attacks with hellfire blasts. Their leader casts command which dazes Khuma, sliding him off the roof, but the shaman is able to grab a gutter and not fall off. One of the devils falls to Ella’s arrows but the second one flies on to the roof to attack Bolval and Saethus. Krivinn is blinded by a rapier thrust to the eye and Ella is drawn towards the strongarm cultist by his beautiful shining armour and then bashed over the head - hard! To make matters worse, the leader conjures a pile of illusory treasure which mesmerises the elf ranger. Other, stronger-willed (or less materialistic PCs) aren’t fooled by the illusion.
The tide of battle is turned by Sharden’s written in fire prayer which damages most of the cultists and Saethus’ wall of fire which kills a couple more although the eladrin does catch the gearforged too (“Screw him! I’m tired of constructs anyway”). Khuma is “pacified” by the tiefling warlock and throws his implement away so he then charges with his spear and misses. The warlock falls to Sharden’s offering of justice as Bolval heals the bloodied Ella and Krivinn, and Saethus finishes off the devil with magic missile. Khuma tries another charge (unsuccessfully) with his longspear as Krivinn corners the leader. Not quite finished, the cultist gets in a savage blow on the paladin with his flail before Ella’s arrow goes straight through his head and out the other side! The last surviving thug runs for it and gets away after Sharden misses with grasping shards.
Krivinn realises his healing powers won’t help the gearforged who thanks the PCs for rescuing him but can’t remember who he is – although papers in his bag seem to indicate he works for the Splitrock Company. The PCs loot the bodies of the cultists, finding a pair of boots of equilibrium, 5 copper coins of the miser and a bag of holding containing 700 gp. Their unholy symbols depicting three coins reveal the cultists to be worshippers of Mammon, Archdevil of Greed. Khuma picks up the gearforged, Ella gathers the scattered gears and the PCs head off for Splitrock.
The battle against the cultists was a bit too long, I think, although it didn't really get "grindy". The main reason for this was the sheer number of combatants - six PCs and nine cultists. Armor of temptation, pacify the gullible and goldtempt all worked well and were interesting but I think the cultist thugs had too many powers.
I didn't like the "blinding disorientation" that occurs when the cultist shines his lantern in the PCs' eyes so I dropped it - dazing and stunning PCs too much can really annoy the players. I used some of Paizo's Gamemastery Slum tiles for the map which worked pretty well although the PCs didn't enter the difficult terrain at the end of the alley, attacking mostly from one end of the alley and the rooftops.
Next week: the airship!
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 11:52 am Post subject: Second session |
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Hi,
Another fun session on Monday - this time the PCs got on board the Manticore, fought the fledgling rocs and boarded the Drake where they were both intrigued and revolted by the carnage they found on board. Next session, I'll run the chimera encounter plus the battle on the ground beneath the airship - I've changed this from glacial drakes and rime worms to a displacer beast, a basilisk and some dryads as there is no snow yet.
7th Quintilis (contd)
The PCs take the battered gearforged to the Splintrock Company’s compound in the Gear District where an airship is being loaded by its dwarven crew. Here, they meet Captain Clovis Stonethrower and learn that the hapless construct is called Rabscuttle and he is very old. The party ask about passage to the Golden Citadel but Clovis offers them employment on the Manticore as guards instead, promising them 5% profits (about 4,000 gp). Krivinn is concerned about profiteering but the others sign up straight away, with Sharden first in the queue. Bolval shows Clovis the picture of Heinsoo and Khuma asks about a tiefling accompanied by two dwarves – both went to the Citadel on the Drake! Agreeing to return in the morning to help with the loading, the PCs go to the Bull’s Horns Inn to get a good night’s sleep.
8th Quintilis
Ella and Krivinn take the stolen satchel to Lord Slygass – the grateful merchant gives them 100 pp reward. The others shop for potions; Saethus buys the disenchant magic item ritual.
In the afternoon, the Manticore sets off for the Ironcrags; Clovis assigns the PCs to their watches and introduces them to the rest of the crew.
9th Quintilis
Rabscuttle tries to get the PCs to throw their gold overboard, ranting that the ship is too weighed down. Later, Bolval helps him clean himself up after the construct has tried to eat. When he does so, he notices the markings that cover the gearforged but is unable to figure out what they mean. Meanwhile, Saethus uses his new ritual to disenchant the copper coins of the miser found on the cultists. In the evening, the PCs meet the owner of Splitrock, Vianna Geldenhoff – Sharden gives her a wink and gets a reaction!
10th Quintilis
While Khuma and Saethus are on watch in the afternoon, the Manticore comes under attack from three fledgling rocs. The PCs gang up on one roc near the sterncastle while one attacks Boso Hammerfall (ship’s cook & evening mate) and a third attacks Khuma who is on the forecastle. The shifter is grabbed and the roc attacking him keeps ripping at his flesh, bloodying the shaman and causing him to take on a bestial longtooth countenance. Krivinn is knocked down the stairs by the first roc but then the party’s focused fire drives the bird away, and Sharden finishes off the second with ongoing damage from purging flame. The third roc grabs the unconscious Boso and flies off with him. Ella’s arrow causes the bird to drop the dwarf 50’ but Khuma is able to send a healing spirit down to the ground to save the cook’s life.
Later, the Drake is spotted. The PCs go on board along with their new best friend Boso – Bolval crawls on all fours to get across to the other airship to much hilarity from the crew. Ella and Saethus swing across on ropes; the wizard is badly affected by motion sickness as he steps on to the vessel.
The PCs explore the Drake, finding dead bodies everywhere – some have been stabbed, some have been poisoned and others were obviously suffering from a hideous disease. In the crew quarters, they find two dead dwarves who apparently died fighting each other – one has gold nuggets stuffed in his mouth. More gold ore is under the floorboards along with a +2 righteous warhammer which Bolval claims. In the steerage deck, the PCs find the headless and mutilated body of a dwarf but before they get a chance to investigate a chimera charges towards the party!
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Sat Jun 19, 2010 9:00 am Post subject: |
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Hi,
Quick question - when should the plague strike the PCs and NPCs aboard the ship? The text on p.26 implies it doesn't affect anyone until the 7th day following the explosion but maybe Vianna and one or two others should start feeling poorly on days 4-6?
Thoughts?
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 9:38 pm Post subject: |
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I'll post the write-up of last night's game in the next couple of days, but I had another question for anyone that's run the adventure: how quickly did your players suss out that the gold is cursed?
Mine have already linked the diseased bodies, Frostgrenze and the gold on board the Drake and have decided that the gold is cursed. I don't see this as a big problem but they were trying to persuade the dwarves to stay off the Drake and not to take any of the orichalcum on board. Of course, the dwarves took no notice and loaded the chest of ore onto the Manticore while the PCs were fighting the dryad and her minions on the ground beneath the ship.
I don't think I've been too obvious about things but I'm quite impressed with how they've worked out one of the main things that's going on this early.
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 11:25 am Post subject: Session #3 |
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Hi,
Here's what happened in our game on Monday night - this was a fun session. So far, everyone is really enjoying the adventure.
As I said in an earlier post, I swapped out the glacial drake and the rime worms as there is only going to be snow when the PCs get to Mount Rygar.
Frostgrenze the chimera charges the PCs, breathing fire on them all (something of a surprise), and knocking Krivinn unconscious after double attacks from his three heads. Khuma heals the paladin who stays toe to toe in melee with the beast while the other PCs get rid of the crows flying around the hold and attack the chimera from range. Not-so-brave Ella backs away, shooting Frostgrenze with magical arrows that daze – the ranger bloodies him and he breathes again, burning everyone apart from Krivinn – the dragonborn has been knocked prone so the fiery blast goes over his head! Eventually the chimera falls – Saethus delivers the killer blow with magic missile – and the monster vomits up gold coins when it dies.
The PCs search the hold, finding a chest filled with thousands of gold pieces worth of gold, but the party are worried the ore is cursed in some way after what happened on the Drake and don’t want to touch it. Boso comes down from the deck above and says the PCs have to tell Captain Stonethrower about the treasure. On deck, Ella tries to convince Clovis that there is something wrong with the gold and that the dwarves should stay on the Manticore. The captain appears to listen.
The party climb down the rope ladder hanging down from the Drake to investigate the bodies they saw from the deck, but when they get down to the ground they are attacked by a briar witch dryad and her hamadryad minions, a basilisk, and a displacer beast. The basilisk’s gaze poisons the PCs, including Ella who has drunk the “potion of poison resistance” she bought from the Kariv. The PCs attack the basilisk, killing it first and Saethus casts ice storm on the dryads, creating an icy zone. While Krivinn and Ella attack the briar witch, Saethus, Khuma and Bolval fight the hamadryads and the constantly shifting displacer beast. The briar witch traps Krivinn in its thorny cage, doing this over and over again each time the paladin escapes. Khuma goes unconscious after being flanked by the displacer beast and a hamadryad. Bolval brings the shaman round as Saethus and Ella both go to help the paladin and end up trapped in briar cages themselves. Finally, Krivinn gets up close to the dryad and kills her. With its mistress dead, the displacer beast flees into the undergrowth. Meanwhile, up above, the dwarves have boarded the Drake and brought the gold aboard the Manticore.
The two dwarf bodies on the ground are wearing leering diabolic copper masks and each wears a sash of poisoned darts and an unholy symbol of Mammon. Both have been killed by blows to the head from a blunt object. In addition, one wears a belt of vigour (12th level) and on the other, the PCs find some papers – the missing pages from the captain’s logbook including the crew manifest, and several parchment rubbings of an engraved mechanical device. Several notes, scrawled in Batiaran, read “Where is the Eye?” and “Tears wash away greed”.
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 11:41 am Post subject: Session #4 |
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Hi,
Here's what happened in Monday night's session. I thought we'd get on to the crash landing and the frost giants but the players wanted to spend quite a bit of time at the start of the session trying to figure out what was going on - fair enough really! The boiler room encounter took longer than I thought it would and annoyingly I forgot to catch the PC coming downstairs with the glyph of warding!
The paladin (and his player!) is getting quite wound up with the dwarves on the Manticore for not paying any attention to his slightly pompous instructions to get rid of the gold (see below)
10th Quintilis (contd).
The PCs finish searching the bodies of the dwarven cultists; Saethus claims the belt of vigour. Reading through the log book pages, the last entry was written four days after leaving the Golden Citadel. Ella finds three sacks of gold ore in the bushes. This isn’t just gold, this is orichalcum, the rarest and most valuable “gold of gold”. Deciding they don’t want the dwarves to find it, Krivinn starts piling the monster and dwarf bodies on top of the sacks. The dwarves on the airships above lower more bodies down from the Drake so they can be added to the pyre. Bolval says a few funeral prayers and Krivinn lights the huge pyre with his dragon breath.
The PCs check the captain’s log pages and realise there is one human passenger unaccounted for but a search of the area doesn’t reveal any tracks.
Later that evening, Krivinn hears Vianna and Clovis arguing about the gold while he’s on watch. Against Vianna’s wishes, the Manticore will continue to the Citadel.
11th Quintilis
The next day Otto, normally coarse and noisy, is feeling out of sorts - Krivinn tends to him when he’s off duty and he starts feeling better.
Ella and Khuma talk to Rabscuttle - the construct mistakes Ella for Captain Clovis and tells embarrassing stories about the dwarf’s childhood. Ella introduces Khuma to Rabscuttle as “Dave”. “Dave” asks if he can take rubbings of the swirly patterns on Rabscuttle and the gearforged agrees. The patterns turn out to be similar to the rubbings found on the dwarf cultist, but Khuma realises the cultist’s are rubbings of a relief rather than an engraving.
In the evening, the PCs realise Vianna has been taken ill – Sawbones won’t let Krivinn in to see her despite him being a paladin of Bahamut which causes considerable indignation for the proud dragonborn.
12th Quintilis
Brill Stamper (the one human in the crew) also becomes ill. Bolval tries to look after him and while he doesn’t get worse, Brill doesn’t get any better either.
13th Quintilis
Bolval helps Brill recover. After Krivinn and Bolval hassle the captain, he insists that Sawbones let Bolval help him tend to Vianna who hasn’t recovered from her illness.
14th Quintilis
Ella, Khuma and Saethus are on deck an hour before dawn with Guigo and Rabscuttle. Suddenly, the ship lurches, knocking the PCs flying. The boilers have fired!
Sharden, Bolval and Krivinn are in their cabin when the ship starts moving. Bolval has woken up feeling ill - he has caught a disease, taking 5 pts necrotic damage and losing his action point. Sharden goes to help the crew members trapped in their quarters (someone has locked them in) while the others hurry down to the engine room.
Krivinn is on the scene first, followed by Bolval, then Saethus. Inside the room, an invisible saboteur is trying to smash the machinery; this guy uses weakness of ignorance to force the PCs away from the engines and sap their strength. Krivinn goes into melee with the attacker while Saethus works to undo the sabotage by reopening pressure valves. Ella fires an arrow of revelation which turns their opponent visible: it’s Ansgar Flintknapper, one of the Manticore’s crew. Khuma’s spirit attacks the engine with a winter power - this, along with Saethus’ efforts, slow down the boiler’s impending explosion but using magical cold also unleashes a storm of rivets, blasting everyone in the room. Meanwhile Sharden is still trying to pick the arcane locks trapping the rest of the crew in their quarters without success. Eventually, the dwarves inside manage to smash their way out anyway and Sharden hurries down to the bottom deck with Zangen Billens (ship’s engineer) and Myrkin Understone (scarred and toothless crewman) in tow.
The PCs continue to battle the bloodied Ansgar who uses foil the uninitiated to knock several of the PCs prone. As Sharden arrives, the dwarf wizard is knocked out by a critical hit from Krivinn’s critical hit. Zangen hurries to fix the boiler and the crisis is averted!
After the battle, the PCs try and interrogate Ansgar but learn little from him, although it does seem as if the dwarf doesn’t want the orichalcum to reach the Citadel. A search of his footlocker reveals ceremonial garb and a book written in a cryptic code – several of these items are marked with the symbol of a flaming pillar. Ella’s questions about the two phrases they found scribbled on the note the cultists had (“Where is the Eye?“ and ”Tears wash away greed“) do get a reaction.
Following the interrogation of Ansgar, Krivinn and Sharden try to unlock the chains holding the chest of orichalcum in place. When this doesn’t work the paladin tries to get the captain to agree to throw the gold overboard but is given short shrift.
Cheers
Richard |
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| Wolfgang |
| Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 1:00 pm Post subject: |
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Terrific writeup!
I think your party is an interesting bunch, and I especially love the last line of this writeup. Paladin is really getting the into the role!
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Wolfgang Baur
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| Dan Voyce |
| Posted: Wed Jun 30, 2010 6:40 am Post subject: |
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Yeah, I'm really enjoying these. Keep 'em coming!
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Level 1 Freelancer.
Champion of the Northlands! |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Sat Jul 03, 2010 10:22 am Post subject: |
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Thanks both!
I have a question about the layout of the Citadel. Prior to Bragollach smashing the Master Clockwork Gate open (p38), how do the cultists of Mammon get down to the Hearthforges to disrupt the elementals? Presumably some of them know how to open the Master Clockwork Gate? There also appears to be a set of stairs down from the dwarven camp (area 41).
The PCs have two NPCs they are looking for in the Citadel and I'm quite keen both of these guys are deeper in the dungeon as I don't want the party to run into them in the Great Hall.
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Sat Jul 03, 2010 11:18 am Post subject: |
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Another question! Why is the Journeyman referred to only as "the Journeyman"? Does he have a name?
Cheers
Richard |
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