| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Dargoth |
Posted - 09 Sep 2005 : 01:31:36
Anyone managed to get their hands on it yet? |
| 30 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Eli the Tanner |
Posted - 06 Apr 2012 : 17:22:27
I have a few lore questions for the scribes here about this module.
Firstly I can't seem to find any reference to what year the adventure is set in. I'm assuming this was done to make it a 'pick-up and play' and avoid clashes with other canon. Have any of you learned folk managed to place it chronologically though...given the events and political setting?
We went with 1372 when we ran it and given the weather (when cross-referenced with Mysteries of Moonsea) I'd place it in the later half of the year...autumnish.
Considering some of the political differences between the Mysteries of the Moonsea and Sons of Gruumsh, this probably could occur anytime during 1360+
Secondly I'm curious about stuff like the council of iron and other unexpanded nuggests like that...do these still exist in 1373 or has some reforming gone on?
Disentangling knowledge
-Eli |
| Ayrik |
Posted - 04 Apr 2012 : 06:12:09
The dice are wonderful at times, even when they roll apparently awful, incomprehensible, or meaningless things. I'm a firm enforcer of open dice rolling (dice clattering actually, upon The Cookie Sheet Of Doom) by all participants, including the DM (me), and stubborn believer in applying the rolled results without any fudging. This sometimes requires some head scratching or causes climactic events of tremendous import to happen "differently" than desired. In fairness though, I'll allow sometimes extraordinary modifiers to apply, and the players sometimes have no idea why they're rolling dice.
My logic is that if, being being honest with yourself, you really favour or expect certain results or rule out others ... well, that's hardly random at all. Either determine results beforehand or fully accept whatever you randomly roll - no such thing as a bad roll breaking the game. Every utterly random, merciless, and somewhat boggling random encounter adds to the adventure, as does every spell failure, every missed strike, every failed skill check. |
| Diffan |
Posted - 04 Apr 2012 : 05:32:49
Well last night they did something that I should have assumed from the start, they went after the BBEG with 1/2 their spells gone and at least with 3/4 their hit points. But they stuck true to their characters and did what they felt their characters would do. I did not pull any punches and freely rolled out in the open, letting the dice speak for themselves. And they won.
Suffice to say, Entangle and Hold Person are some wicked spells to have ready. The scout of the group was the only one who started near max Hit Point (2 below full) and after the suprise round and 1st round, had a whopping 5 HP left. When the other PCs join the fray, things got better as the Cleric held Thrull (the main BBEG) for 4 rounds with Hold Person and the Spirit Shaman uses Entangle to keep most of the bad-guys from trying any flanking shenanigans. And I also rolled terribly with my attacks against the PCs, pretty sad indeed.
Suffice to say, the encounter ended with One PC dead (not coming back at -16 HP), 1 PC that carried 5 HP throughout the whole battle, and 2 fairly un-injured PCs. Needless to say, the dice favored them considerably. |
| Diffan |
Posted - 29 Mar 2012 : 06:28:10
quote:
Originally posted by Icelander
When the players planned the infiltration, what were their goals, how did they plan to accomplish them and what was their planned exfiltration point?
If the answer boils down to 'what do you mean, planned?', then let them die, by all means.
Sounds to me like they've wandered in with little idea what they hope to accomplish there and how they are going to go about it.
Well, yea that's pretty much what happened. They went on a quest to infiltrate the Orc temple yet had no idea there were sub-levels. They did a decent job of getting in unobserved and an even more impressive job mopping up stragglers that might sound the alarm. The orcs haven't been posing big problems, but they have been hammering away at their resources, which is what the crux of the problem is. They're on the 'final' level of the dungeon and possibly facing the main enemy of the adventure. I'd like this part to be difficult, but not so much that chances of success are near impossible.
Now, the orcs who've sounded the alarm and rushed into the dungeons have been held...well....for a long while due to the Shaman's multiple castings of Stone Shape. This is something I was particularly proud of because they came up with a nice solution for something I personally added. See, the adventure says nothing of the orcs above assaulting the lower dungeons because it assumes the PCs either kill them or do a good enough job hiding the bodies that the main part of the dungeon adventure is over before the alarm is sounded.
So I can leave them to their fate, having the main BBEG attack the PCs with his spellcasting buddy and demolish the PCs in one battle OR I can give them another out, possibly holding up in the Underdark and resting until the final ritual starts. This would prolong the adventure by giving them an opportuinity to defeat the main foe. The catch, however, is that they're most likely going to have to face more monsters (ie. lots of Orcs) to get to the bad guy, but at least they're starting fresh. |
| Icelander |
Posted - 28 Mar 2012 : 04:09:02
When the players planned the infiltration, what were their goals, how did they plan to accomplish them and what was their planned exfiltration point?
If the answer boils down to 'what do you mean, planned?', then let them die, by all means.
Sounds to me like they've wandered in with little idea what they hope to accomplish there and how they are going to go about it.
If they did plan, then they must have anticipated that at some point, the alarm would be called. After all, they did kill guards and leave their bodies, which even the least competent enemies tend to notice.
Assuming that they didn't plan on fighting an unknown number of enemies on unfamiliar ground for no clear reason, they surely had some method of exfiltration while under attack, right? They'll try that and either it will work or it won't.
Sounds like they could have used some reconnaissance, in any case. Discover the strength of the enemy inside Xúl-Jarak and from that, either come up with a plan to defeat them all by themselves* or estimate what would be needed to fight them and go and arrange for a force of that size. They work for the Zhentarim and the Zhentarim have an organised military, with magical support. If I was a Zhentarim officer, I'd rather have paid agents who brought me useful information than ones who snuck into forts for fun, especially if they then didn't know how to get out.
If the PCs were looking for the noble kid, did they have any reason to know where in the fort they could find him, how he was guarded, etc.? If not, sneaking into the fort and starting to kill guards would seem like a good way to get him and themselves killed. Even if they did, killing guards is unlikely to succeed without rousing an alarm. People don't die silently all that often, unless you're extremely lucky. And if they live long enough to wound you, well, you've probably made a hellish racket.
*Unlikely, given that they had trouble with a small part of them. |
| Diffan |
Posted - 28 Mar 2012 : 03:47:40
*Casts Reanimate Scroll*
Well I'm DM'ing through this adventure with my group and I'm currently at an impasse. I have two PCs and two DMPCs in the adventure. The first PC is a Chondathan human Scout 4/ Ranger 1 (from the Dalelands) who's secretly working for the Zhentarim, though he's Chaotic Neutral and happily plays both sides. The Zhents just pay more. He's here because he's rooting out followers of Cyric that are still within the Zhentarim. He also knows that to get higher prestige within the organization, he'll need to prove himself with grand tales and adventures (and sport a few magical items) to be taken seriously. And he hates Orcs so going into their stronghold and killing them all is a grand good time.
The second PC is my wife's half-wild elf Spirit Shaman 5 of Rillifane Rallathil who's main goal is keeping the balance of peace in the Moonsea. She's also looking for her half-brother and a whole backstory about their father's legacy (possibly bringing in Legacy Items from v3.5).
The two DMPCs are a LE covert-Zhentish Fighter 5 (named Grakul) and a LN Aasimar Cleric of Kossuth. The Fighter was a PC but the player left for a time so nothing backstory is really going on with him and the cleric was investigating a plague that broke out in Glister (how he met the other PCs) and he's pretty much just stuck with them for now.
So the situation: First they snuck into the fortress through a crack into the Kitchen wall. They were aided by the Shaman's Obscuring Mist spell and the Scout's impressive Hide checks. They kill the orcs there, hide the bodies (rather poorly), and barricade the kitchens. After that they slew 3 guards on the roof and made sure their bodies fell outward, into the bog. Then they proceeded into the Dungeon-level areas and thus completely by-passing all the action on the main level.
In the dungeons, they slew everyone up to the 3rd sub-level. At this point in the adventure the Orcs above have found the dead bodies in the Kitchen and have sounded the alarm. With some fast thinking and the Shaman newly gaining the ability to Stone Shape, the quickly cut off any pursuit of the orcs above. They ventured further into the 4th sub-level and slew the Tanarukk guards (4 of them) and 8 other Orc soldiers. But they're nearly depleated of spells and healing and need to rest. If they go further into where they're headed, they'll face the BBEG and his minions which most likley will kill all the PCs. If they go the other way, they're sure to run into the lesser drakes (I believe) and might die there. I'd rather have them NOT die under these circumstances but I'm left with litte choices.
So I'd like some ideas or advice. I could move the Drakes to another section of the dungeon and show them the passage to the Underdark (which isn't mapped, just shortly explained where it goes) and hope they travel down there for about 1/2 hour and rest for 8 hours. I could have the BBEG underpowered to meet their lower equipped selves, but that seems like it defeats the purpose of it being challenging. I could have them hold up in a section of the dungeon but with Orcs on both sides, I highly doubt they'll rest undesturbed for 6-8 hours and probably die being penned in, plus it seems to me that Orcs wouldn't stay stationary for that long a period. Or I could leave it completely up to them and see if they get themselves killed.
Other ideas or suggestions?? |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 07 Mar 2007 : 00:16:23
I figured out how to do it by quoting other people, and seeing what they did... But it's easier to use info that someone else nicely explained. The Forum FAQ gives examples on the forum code used herein. 
|
| WalkerNinja |
Posted - 06 Mar 2007 : 21:41:47
Just here
Mod edit: Tweaked the URL coding.
Poster edit:Thanks Wooly. Alaundo taught me how to do that once, but I have forgotten... |
| MerrikCale |
Posted - 01 Mar 2007 : 02:01:27
quote:
Originally posted by WalkerNinja
Angorn the Black: Barb1/Fighter2/Ranger1 Dwarf male
Elsanoth New Moon: Rogue2/Fighter2 Moon Elf Male
Davram Dvorak: Fighter2/Cleric of Shaundakul1/Ranger1
Bartolous Dvorak: Wizard 4 (divination)
Elsvelle Dvorak: Bard 4
Danirri Lathen: Wizard2/Cleric of Mystra1
I like that group. anything written on them somewhere here? |
| WalkerNinja |
Posted - 26 Feb 2007 : 15:40:11
First Contact at Xul Jarak has been made.
The party flouted convention by sending Elsanoth and Davram up the walls to swiftly and silently dispatch the guards up top. Both were reasonably invested in Hide/Move Silently, and Davram wields a Greatsword with Favored Enemy (Orc) from his level of Ranger. Additionally, Davram stripped his armor and most of his equipment to avoid penalties.
Rooms 18, 19, 21, 22, 23A-B, and 24 of the top floors were cleared with little disturbance. They also managed 3A-B, 5, and 7 quite neatly. 7 (the tavern) gave a bit of trouble, but a sleep spell by a party wizard cut down a lot of combat, in addition to a good use of a surprise round. I will note that 7 was taken on after the upper levels was the second to last area cleared. 24 was the last, and their presence was made known to the inhabitants of area 14 at that time. The session ended before the repurcussions of that revelation were realized.
What was your party's experience up to this point? |
| WalkerNinja |
Posted - 23 Feb 2007 : 19:08:48
For what its worth, I am now running this adventure. I will be posting its progress here: http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8540 in the Adventuring section of this forum. Alternately, it appears in the Campaign Journals section, but the scribe overseeing that appears to have gotten back-logged.
Characters are currently:
Angorn the Black: Barb1/Fighter2/Ranger1 Dwarf male
Elsanoth New Moon: Rogue2/Fighter2 Moon Elf Male
Davram Dvorak: Fighter2/Cleric of Shaundakul1/Ranger1
Bartolous Dvorak: Wizard 4 (divination)
Elsvelle Dvorak: Bard 4
Danirri Lathen: Wizard2/Cleric of Mystra1 |
| Brenigin |
Posted - 05 Dec 2006 : 20:19:38
I don't believe there is an official date. There's no direct ties to other Realms events, and the info on the ruling families of Melvaunt is a little out of kilter with Mysteries of the Moonsea and the 2E Moonsea sourcebook. |
| webmanus |
Posted - 05 Dec 2006 : 19:38:25
Which is the official DR date of this adventure? |
| Ahwe Yahzhe |
Posted - 15 Jul 2006 : 04:41:04
My party of "Rescuers":
Barbarian 1/Hexblade 4
Sorceror 5
Druid 5
Sorceror 3/Monk 2
Druid 5
When this party snuck into Xul-Jarak, this is what happened:
(spoilers?)
After sneaking past the wyvern, they stumbled into the main chamber of Vhazror. After getting cornered in a big nasty fight, they ran away- down into the dungeon.
So, being chased from above by nearly the entire citadel guard, they made a commando-style raid of every level of the dungeon, straight down to the main baddie himself. By the time they defeated him and rescued the scions, they were beaten to within an inch of their lives and fresh out of cure spells and wands.
Of course, there was still an entire citadel full of orcs descending to find the party, so like the earlier poster, I had to add a geographically convenient cave-in to the bottom level so they hide out and heal for a couple days. Even then, getting out was "tricky"...
|
| KnightErrantJR |
Posted - 14 Jul 2006 : 18:22:14
quote:
Originally posted by Mr. Wilson
OTOH, he also destroyed about 4000 gp in magic items.
And they Players weren't happy that the bad guys kept drinking their treasure. I though it was funny though (as an aside, the rules for drinking potions IMC are different. If you have a masterwork potion belt as presented in FRCS, then it's only an immediate action to take a potion).
That line just reminded me of the Zogonia comic strip in this month's Dragon. |
| Mr. Wilson |
Posted - 14 Jul 2006 : 11:47:24
Well, we just finished up the big fight (yeah a month and a half later, but we missed multiple sessions due to out of game reasons), and I have to say, they choose the worst avenue possible. I had to let them rest two nights, otherwise they wouldn't have survived.
It wasn't bad tactics, otherwise I would have punished them, they choose chose the wrong room to enter first on the top level having snuck by everyone with a silence spell. They entered the big boss' room, and had to fight all top level orcs at once. To make matters worse, two of the characters ran away (both LN characters, though the cleric stayed until out of spells and down to 3 hitpoints, the wizard as soon as cover was blown).
Of course, the last battle was tough, but sound burst managed to really hammer the extra orcs. The BBEG went down thanks to a bestow curse from the Cleric and a crit from the dwarf fighter. OTOH, he also destroyed about 4000 gp in magic items.
And they Players weren't happy that the bad guys kept drinking their treasure. I though it was funny though (as an aside, the rules for drinking potions IMC are different. If you have a masterwork potion belt as presented in FRCS, then it's only an immediate action to take a potion).
Overall, it was a tough fight, made tougher by chance. No PC deaths, but I did bring each player in the negatives at least twice.
Each are now also either 6th characters. |
| Chyron |
Posted - 28 May 2006 : 11:09:37
Just curious if this would be possible,
How would the sages here change the setting so that this module fits in loosley within the events (and region) of The Hunter's Blades trilogy? |
| Mr. Wilson |
Posted - 28 May 2006 : 10:50:18
Well, I'm running this now, and the PC's will be hitting the Orc camp first thing when we start. I'm now extremly worried about survival.
The party is 5 PC's, but I may have rushed them slightly into this. I may have extra encounters to beef them up.
Right now the Knights of the Silver Dawn include (after the orc encounter, they'll level to 4):
1 CG Male Human Bard 4
1 CG Male Human Ranger of Mielikki 4
1 LN Male Ftr 1/ Wizard 2 Duergar
1 LN Female Aasimar Cleric of Kelemvor 3
1 NG Male Shield Drawf/Dragon Descendant of a copper Dragon (template from Races of the Dragon) Ftr 3
Yeah, I'm real worried this could end in slaughter. Best have Haravack really impress upon them that a frontal assault is a BAD idea. On the other hand, the Bard manages to give everyone a +3 bonus to hit and damage with Harmonize, so that helps. |
| Kajehase |
Posted - 18 Apr 2006 : 22:44:06
A web enhancement to scale this adventure for higher-level PCs is now available at Wizard of the Coast's website. |
| The Blue Sorceress |
Posted - 02 Jan 2006 : 15:59:57
I started DM'ing this module on New Year's Eve, currently my players have just fought off the owlbear at the ambush site and found the tracks that will take them to the next encounter.
The party consists of:
NG female elven bard 5
?? female human rogue 5
LN male human cleric of Helm 5
LN male human fighter 5
and an NPC:
LG male human evoker 5
They've done fairly well with the easier challenges (the owlbear, the bravos in Melvaunt) but surprisingly a pair of dire wolves almost wasted them as part of a random encounter in the Thar. One of them tripped the fighter (who had some wretched hp rolls) and the other tripped the evoker, (who I rolled well for hp-wise, but he is a wizard after all...) A little well-timed assistance from the other party members was a real help, and in the end the dire wolves, both well below half hp, were chased off.
The owlbear fight was a little wierd because we had another player arrive late, and since we didn't want to wait for him to roll up a character, I handed the NPC over to him to play until next session. The guy really didn't have a good grasp of the rules for grappling, however, and tried to cast scorching ray on the owlbear while he was grappling with the fighter. The bard and the rogue weren't much better, because they were shooting arrows too, but since they weren't forewarned about the consequences and the new player was I let they choose different actions when they realized what would happen. The scorching ray hit the fighter (and the new player was rolling high for damage) nearly doing him in after the damage he'd taken from the owlbear, and also doing so pretty nasty damage to the cleric, who'd used shield other on the fighter at the beginning of the battle.
Hopefully things will go a little better next time. I'm going to make some of the challenges a little harder, because we're probably going to add another new player, popping the total number of people in the party up to seven (what happened to having three players if I was lucky, huh?)
-Blue |
| Purple Dragon Knight |
Posted - 01 Jan 2006 : 23:24:37
They have a cleric with the silence spell memorized, which they plan to use for the approach. Remember that the orc guards are already at -4 to spot and listen due to the fog and rain, so a silence spell here will result in the party making it all the way to the entrance undetected (as the adventure mentions that orcs cannot make spot check until the PCs emerge out of the fog, 30 feet away from the entrance).
If they are smart, they'll send the scout ahead to find the breach and enter that way. The wyvern is sleeping, so this could be the best way in IMO. |
| Firhyanda |
Posted - 01 Jan 2006 : 19:17:16
Spoilers...
Tactics: My two cents worth for what it’s worth the party must attack the citadel at night or they may be noticed by the troops in the valley below without the cover of darkness be sure to point this out to the party as you don’t want your orks having the disadvantage of daylight in the initial encounter.
The Gray citadel is a meat grinder a couple of fire balls will make vary little difference for the party there are only three ways into the module.
1. Front Door murder holes and boiling led good luck with that...
2. The crack in the wall the party will most likely have to burn there fireballs on the weaveryn. The screams of the dieing wyvern will most likely wake the ground level orks up in a hurry.
3. Over the wall to the upper level a 20 foot fall to the rocks hurts unless you have an entire party of rouges. The party will have to eliminate 12 guards silently a real chance for the party rouge to shin but one slip and yuck.
The Ork guards on the upper level of the citadel should not run down stairs there are 12 of them and they have bows have them weight until the troops on the Ground level have engaged the party and concentrate there fire. Groups of three orks firing from above on the party each group fires three times at a single party member. Rember to have the orcs on the lower level lead party members into the cort yard on the ground level.
Use the low level orks on the ground level as swarm fighters they only attack one target at a time in mass like a pack of wolves the quarters are tight here and once the battle rages fire balls will be ill advised. Hold you barbarians in reserve they do not come out to play until the party is weak.
One ork on every level including the upper level will try and run down to the next lowest level to warn the others. If the orks have been warned make sure they take all there potions and you have a write up for them with there buffs.
If the party survives this and moves on to the dungeon levels the central shaft on the dungeon levels one two and three is your friend have some of the orks try and bull rush party members over the edge if the fall does not kill them being alone on the bottom level will.
If the party does not do rooms to room to clear the level behind them ambush them from behind? Do a head count of the orks that survived the first assault on the ground level and use them for the ambush. |
| Purple Dragon Knight |
Posted - 01 Jan 2006 : 02:36:57
I'm currently DMing this module, and the PCs are arriving at the orc fortress the next time we play (i.e. in two days). We're all having a blast, and I find this module very refreshing/fun/well-written.
I'm substituting the lone half-orc ranger encounter for a new PC that's joining the party permanently (perfect place for our new player to jump in). He'll be playing a Ghostwise Halfling Wizard 5... with fireballs... now I'm really scared that this adventure will be a cakewalk for the party... (so far I was worried, because two mountain orcs barbarian 1 with greataxes almost killed a player twice; in the first encounter, one orc scored a x3 critical, which is deadly with d12 greataxes and a +7 dmg bonus... the other time, two orc brutes ganged up on a rogue and almost clubbed him to death...)
That's what I really like about 3E, and this adventure most importantly: orcs are NOT fodder anymore. They can be a threat on their own... after all, 7-foot tall monkeys with axes SHOULD be feared... |
| KnightErrantJR |
Posted - 01 Jan 2006 : 02:26:40
I don't know. I think this adventure was a trial balloon to see how adventures sold, and I think if it did well, then they will be doing more. That having been said, I haven't seen any sales figures, or even a comment about it doing well or not, so I couldn't say if the trial was successful. |
| Firhyanda |
Posted - 31 Dec 2005 : 18:16:02
Greetings all.
Perhaps this has been asked before but does King Kursk One Tusk exist in realms lore outside of sons of gruumsh?And are the planes by wizards to do a sequel to this adventure? |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 29 Dec 2005 : 23:50:57
We seem to be straying from the original topic... |
| Dargoth |
Posted - 29 Dec 2005 : 23:22:34
For group Im DMing for its the Rogue class no one wants to play so theyve been triggering just about every trap theyve encountered since we started the campaign |
| Crennen FaerieBane |
Posted - 29 Dec 2005 : 14:57:14
I will never understand why everyone has a hard time playing a cleric. They are pretty good at melee and they have spells to boot. I think it's because they are just a split world character and need a little bit more roleplay involved.
C-Fb |
| Bocklin |
Posted - 29 Dec 2005 : 09:11:39
quote:
Originally posted by warlockco
Know what you mean by well-rounded parties.
I am pretty much the only one in my group that will play a Cleric.
That makes it two of us then...
I am always the only Cleric and when I DM I know that I will have my players half-dead all the time and with no proper way to heal. I have to pepper the hoards and treasures of their ennemies with wands of "Cure xxx wounds" (there is some guy who will always play the Ranger) or I know that the adventure will be very short.
(Un)fortunately that does not help for ability damages or sickness. When I feel mean I drop some Dire Rats or Ghoul and I enjoy seeing them slowly die away in the days after the fight. Somehow they still did not get it and everyone shuns the Cleric class.
Even though they're all well above 25, I know that they would never survive "Sons of Gruumsh". They always develop the worst plans and end up doing it "full-assault commando" to make up for their failed attempt. That would be their death in SoG.
Bocklin |
| warlockco |
Posted - 29 Dec 2005 : 02:11:11
Know what you mean by well-rounded parties.
I am pretty much the only one in my group that will play a Cleric.
One player is almost always a Rogue. Another a Ranger. Another bounces between Fighter or Wizard. Another thinks he should be Gandalf/Elminster/Belgarion/etc. |
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