Posted by elmonster on Thu May 1 08:21:45 2003: IP Address: 80.145.39.43
In Reply to: Re: he, anybody there? posted by elmonster on Thu May 1 08:17:11 2003:
...though answering existing postings is possible...
heresome words about my nb- campaign. actually, a lot of words... ;)
I found that the campaign suffers great from the hurry-scurry caused by the missing jeleneth. after a few weeks exploring haranshire and maybe killing the bloodskull tribe there is almost no hope anymore to find the girl. my players put a good face on the matter but had no real hope to find her still alive; especially after meeting the svirfneblin and finding out that mindflayer are part of the mess. they continued to go deeper but not really to find the missing mage (that was rather an excuse for being under earth when above it´s the nicest summer). I solved that problem by letting them find her in the abandoned drow outpost. I do not consider the consequences of finding jelenneth much earlier to hard: though she now does not know anything about shaboath or the city of the glass pool, the pc can get these informations from other sources. And jelenneth won´t be the last kidnapped magicuser. Soon there may by thauster missing, or some of the pc´s friends or even relatives. Motivation other than saving the world (during their last visit in mistledale they learned that mages&priests all over cormyr, sembia and the coast of the sea of fallen stars begin to be missing) should be no problem for the gm.
the trolls were no problem: never underestimate the power of combinig oil with a dust devil and some fire. the were throwing molotov´s by the dozen and hacked the trolls away. after that massacre I decided to let the trog´s out; they will come in some sidetrack which a secondary party will find, being composed of maxim the werebear (fighter/ranger), the young lyntern parlfrey (fighter) and the priest Justus of tyr (a captured bloodscull orc who lost all memories of his former live (after being beaten hard on the head) and started under lafayer´s tutelage as follower of tyr). they call themselves the “mistledragons” and play the role of filling some of the “not- so pressing” (i.e. interesting) sidetracks that color the story- background of the campaign. and of course they give my party the feeling of being the real stars *g*… they are supported by orleanne (tutor of maxim) and without knowing it, inzeldrin. the dragon is one of my major (and favourite!) nsc´s. I decided him (a male in my campaign) to be not THAT hostile; 2 members of my party know her (the rest doesn´t even suspect anything), one of them, a thievish girl who´s “father” was killed in tilverton found out that inzeldrin is her REAL father…
I felt that there are no higher level nsc- mages around and used inzeldrin to patially fill the gap. the girl will evolve in the course of the campaign some dragonish traits (initially she got keen hearing, infravision, the ability to breath water once a day and can now communicate wich lizardmen), to compensate some of the drawbacks that the thieves have in the underdark (I mean no technical drawbacks, but why the hell should a thief want to go below earth- when there is easier loot in the cities where besides you have a nice bed and all?).
…but I´m drifting off course… that frequently happens to me, sorry! ;o)
after seeing how easy the trolls were, I was curious how the pc would manage the grells. they knew there would be grells down the road/tunnel (“what the hell is a GRELL?”) and spend some coin in tilverton (filani the sage is a helpful resource) to buy knowledge about them. after swallowing hard (“TEN paralysing tentacles?!?), they spend much effort and even more coins to get some countermeasure against that. I came up with some quite expensive potions (partially to eliminate some of the money). I believe without that potions they would have lost one or to partymembers. it was a nice fight, not a real challenge because they are planning every encounter VERY carefully, sometimes being overanxious, but it was nice anyway. the deepspawn was no challenge at all: they scouted cautiously ahead as usual, discovered it before it could be dangerous and bombarded it with arrows and magic. the ice- wand was particulary useful. at least the monster could use it´s special attack and “spew” it´s weapons. The damage caused by that prevented them from laughing at deepspawns and giving them the feeling having barely avoided a strong opponent.
btw: what does a grell- lair looks like?!? these creatures are more intelligent than humans! are they really supposed to dwell in a bleak cavern, having no “furnishing” or even equipment beside their lances and some treasure??? To my mind, intelligence implies culture… there is nothing helpful to be found in tsr´s publications about grells, so I let the patriarch escape via a quite impressive teleport. now my players suppose there´s some “other dimension” where they really live. That has the benefit of having a potential recurring villain (a VERY strong motivated one) that can come back in future side plots.
The deepspawn was no challenge at all: they discovered it well before it could be dangerous and covered it with arrows and magic. the ice- wand was particulary useful and some molotoves came in handy too… at least the monster could use it´s special attack and fire it´s weapons on the bold archer who flew closest. She took quite a beating but was not too injured.
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