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Jastermereel
2010-10-03, 02:59 PM
Red Hand of Doom Chapter 1 Spoilers likely to be mentioned below. It's in the title, it's in the first line of the post, and I'm not going to kick the thread off with a spoiler tag (it'll just make quotes that much uglier) so if you don't want to know RHoD stuff, and you've read this far anyway, stop?

My players just ran through the Vraath Keep encounter in Red Hand of Doom (soon to be posted to the campaign journal (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=168749)). They took on the whole mess almost simultaneously and somehow managed to avoid getting any of the party killed in the process.

However, the party rogue has been blinded and I'm not quite sure how to resolve the matter. The session ended right as Koth surrendered (all other foes are dead/unconscious/etc.) so I have until next session to come up with a reasonable solution. I've had three ideas so far, but none really seem great, so I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions or advice.

1. Koth still lives (he surrendered when the party cornered him with 3 hp in the map room) so he could, if so inclined, dismiss it, but I can't see that being too likely given that he's one of the Wyrmlords and has a personal connection with the rogue that's none too friendly (thanks to the my having woven her back-story to the campaign).

2. The party could venture back to town and ask Brother Derny (Cleric of Pelor 5) to cure it. However, if the party has the map of the Red Hand's plans, and goes back to town for this cure, and shows what they learned to Norro, he'll be inclined to evacuate and then there's a risk (a big risk) that they'll not even think about looking into Skull Gorge Bridge or anything else in the forest.

3. I could restructure some of the Keep's loot to include a potion of Remove Blindness/Deafness, but doing so feels like a cop-out. She took a risk, bought the party time to catch Koth, but got blinded...and the cure is available right at the end of the battle? Really? I'm going to re-spec some of the loot anyway (some of the default treasure is powerful but generic and would be treated as vendor trash rather than milestone loot), but it seems far far far too convenient for the right potion to be there.

I'd rather her blindness be a moderate speed-bump for the campaign rather than a major detour/roadblock or an utterly minor blip on their radar, but I'm having trouble finding a nice happy medium solution. I'm leaning toward using Brother Derny, but don't know how to ensure (short of railroading) that they get to the other big fight of the chapter. Sure it's "optional" but it'd be a fairly anti-climactic start to this stage of the campaign.

Playgrounders, I call to you for aid!

PId6
2010-10-03, 03:16 PM
Just because they go back to town and show Norro the plans, doesn't mean he'll be immediately inclined to evacuate the whole town. People tend to have a resistance to leaving behind their livelihood and home (just look at what happens when natural disasters hit), so he'll likely want to either wait for further evidence of an invasion or talk to the town council and reach a collaborative solution, both of which will take time.

While that develops, you can have Captain Soranna see the invasion plans and mention to the PCs that Skull Gorge Bridge looks to be a good bottleneck for any armies that want to march on Drellin's Ferry. This would also make for a good excuse to send them to Cinder Hill to get some more info on the opposing army and to provide solid evidence for the town council to decide on fully evacuating.

ShriekingDrake
2010-10-03, 06:38 PM
Just because they go back to town and show Norro the plans, doesn't mean he'll be immediately inclined to evacuate the whole town. People tend to have a resistance to leaving behind their livelihood and home (just look at what happens when natural disasters hit), so he'll likely want to either wait for further evidence of an invasion or talk to the town council and reach a collaborative solution, both of which will take time.

While that develops, you can have Captain Soranna see the invasion plans and mention to the PCs that Skull Gorge Bridge looks to be a good bottleneck for any armies that want to march on Drellin's Ferry. This would also make for a good excuse to send them to Cinder Hill to get some more info on the opposing army and to provide solid evidence for the town council to decide on fully evacuating.

I agree with this. But I'd also say that any of the three would be OK. Let the party decide what to do about this situation. They could try to use intimidate or diplomacy on Koth, or go back to town in search of a solution, or they could drag the rogue along as a liability for a while. Let them figure out how important it is to resolve the problem and to choose the path. You know that you want it to only be a moderate speed bump. Fix it based on what they do. Or if they don't take it seriously, you can try to see how the role-playing works around it.

Best of luck.

AslanCross
2010-10-03, 07:48 PM
Agreed on the above posts. In my campaign, Norro was hesitant at first, and it took a while for the other town council members to agree. In fact, I had them say that they couldn't leave until the other guy (the mean guy, can't remember his name) arrived from a business trip in another three days.

Norro then told them to see if the bridge was defensible, because the PCs already knew that wrecking the bridge would slow down the army. (Koth didn't reveal much from his interrogation) Norro, however, was highly resistant to the idea, because livelihood came through the Dawn Way.

The PCs wanted to verify the threat of the army as well, so they did go north.

Norro and the rest are not even likely to actually want to leave until the Goblin Raid encounter (in my case it drove home the point since it got a PC killed), so you can let them go back and get the Blindness fixed.

In the end, it's their call: if they run away and don't destroy the bridge, they lose precious victory points and they'll have one more dragon to fight later. The adventure takes this into consideration. Don't try to railroad them into fighting Ozzy.

CockroachTeaParty
2010-10-03, 08:42 PM
Did they get the Staff of Life? A Heal spell would cure the Blindness.

Jastermereel
2010-10-04, 09:46 AM
Excellent suggestions all! Thank you!

I'd meant to post a reply last night but my net glitched-out on me just as I was clicking send.

They don't have the staff yet, but likely will. We ended the session at the end of combat as it was getting late so Koth surrendering was the last that happened. Thanks CockroachTeaParty! I'd forgotten it wasn't simply a one-use "Get out of Dead Free" card.

I agree that Norro won't really want to evacuate, but the way it's worked out in my game he's already aware there's a threat but doesn't have any idea of the real scope; he thinks there's a sizable band in the forest that a few borrowed troops from Brindol could flush out. He's disappointed that he got the PCs instead, but figures they should be able to finish the threat off anyway. The map with various troop movements might push him over a bit though.

The Soranna suggestions might just do the trick to coax them into looking further. While it is all optional and I will not railroad them, they've been hearing about this threat for a while now (long before the RHoD section began) and actually seeing it (or at a dragon) could help push them forward for the next few levels. If they see Ozzy and run away, that's fine by me (cowards! :smallyuk:) but they could probably use more than second-hand hearsay and rumors as their driving force.

It'll be three weeks before it gets resolved anyway (scheduling conflicts and whatnot), but I'll throw the update in the campaign journal (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9375273) after they've got it worked out.

Saintheart
2010-10-05, 07:40 AM
Way I handled it with my RHOD campaign was to make Iormel -- the surly-looking property owner in Drellin's Ferry, the mean guy AslanCross was talking about -- a lot more brash, cynical, and disbelieving in the Town Council. At the very least if the characters are forced back to town and before a town meeting you could have Iormel intimidate all the other councilmen into doing nothing until there's more proof. Then you've got a hook for someone who does suspect a threat, like Soranna or even Delora Zann (the retired adventurer who runs a stable), to beg the party to go back out and take another look around.

Ruinix
2010-10-05, 08:32 AM
put a pot of "scent" for X minutes insted a cure blidness. is at least a bone :p without the easy going.

beside, for the skull gorge bridge isn't really usefull a rogue, my party (im playing RHOD, we r next to the assault on brindol) don't have a rogue and the all part of skull gorge we just rush the bridge with some giant chiftain turned friend by the diplomancer of the group and demolish donw, while us the party deal with the green dragon.

i mean, there is not much room for subterfuge and/or sneaky play in there, is an open field with heavy guard and no where to hide.

almost forgot :smallbiggrin: our party bring the green dragon head to the ferry counsil to solve the discusion XDDD it was 1 of the party dwarfs who put the dragon's head over the table XDD with his natural ""smooth"" talk. epic moment XDDD

Saintheart
2010-10-05, 09:36 AM
Actually, as long as I've hopefully got the attention of RHOD fans, and shamelessly hijacking the thread:

I've sometimes wondered whether someone (me, probably, depending on my RL commitments) should actually try and do some kind of one-thread RHOD FAQ -- a compilation of strategies or hints and tips on running the campaign? Everything from fluff to better upgrading the enemy and so on?

I suggest it mainly because it seems every few weeks or so the board gets questions about RHOD, campaign journals on it, or the odd question or suggestion. People could contribute, of course, with their own thoughts on better fitting it into the various ubersettings like Eberron or FR. I'd contemplate direct links to all the more "respectable" campaign journals which ran it, of course.

What do folks think? Worth me spending the time on it? :smallsmile::smalleek:

Ruinix
2010-10-05, 09:42 AM
Actually, as long as I've hopefully got the attention of RHOD fans, and shamelessly hijacking the thread:

I've sometimes wondered whether someone (me, probably, depending on my RL commitments) should actually try and do some kind of one-thread RHOD FAQ -- a compilation of strategies or hints and tips on running the campaign? Everything from fluff to better upgrading the enemy and so on?

I suggest it mainly because it seems every few weeks or so the board gets questions about RHOD, campaign journals on it, or the odd question or suggestion. People could contribute, of course, with their own thoughts on better fitting it into the various ubersettings like Eberron or FR. I'd contemplate direct links to all the more "respectable" campaign journals which ran it, of course.

What do folks think? Worth me spending the time on it? :smallsmile::smalleek:

it worth? yes

but just for DMs, cause for a player it's better don't spoil the anything of this campaing

Saintheart
2010-10-05, 09:50 AM
it worth? yes

but just for DMs, cause for a player it's better don't spoil the anything of this campaing

Oh, of course it'd have Ye Olde This Threadde Ys Fore DM Eyes Only Warning on it. :smallsmile:

Jastermereel
2010-10-05, 10:10 AM
I'll have to see how some of the battle's fallout plays out before making more concrete plans. I'm inclined, as many have argued, to make the the rest of the town more reluctant to leave; Norro himself isn't eager to evacuate but won't dig his heels in if shown that the situation is worse than he had feared. I guess the book explains the other's perspectives fairly well...huh...time to re-read again.


I've sometimes wondered whether someone (me, probably, depending on my RL commitments) should actually try and do some kind of one-thread RHOD FAQ -- a compilation of strategies or hints and tips on running the campaign? Everything from fluff to better upgrading the enemy and so on?

I've seen at least one such thread (possibly on the old wotc boards) but most of the links were broken and even a dread necromancer couldn't have brought the thread back. It did, however, have a nice set of images to work from (not just the original official ones) which edited out secret portions of maps so they were "player friendly".

Saintheart
2010-10-06, 07:43 AM
I've seen at least one such thread (possibly on the old wotc boards) but most of the links were broken and even a dread necromancer couldn't have brought the thread back. It did, however, have a nice set of images to work from (not just the original official ones) which edited out secret portions of maps so they were "player friendly".

Yeah, I looked into that, too, but aside from being difficult to get to it struck me as somewhat inaccessible -- it's more of a RHOD blog than a RHOD Handbook as such, which is what I'm going to (I've decided) do.

Useful map images would definitely be a plus. I had in mind the following very basic breakup of the Handbook:

Overview of the campaign, who to run it for, and common considerations
Fixing some fluff: suggesting more consistent history, and adaptations for different milieu.
Part One: Drellin’s Ferry through to Skull Gorge Bridge
Part Two: The Blackfens and Rhestilor
Part Three: The Ghostlord’s Lair
Part Four: The Battle of Brindol
Part Five: The Fane of Tiamat
Other Resources and Campaign Journals

And if I'm editing as the thread proceeds, the resources that come in can be organised or added in.

AslanCross
2010-10-06, 07:51 AM
Saintheart, check the RHOD campaign journal in my sig. You can also check out Saph and kjones's journals. I don't have links on me right now, though. Google should show you the way.

Saintheart
2010-10-06, 07:55 AM
Indeed I've had many an interesting and enjoyable session reading your journal, Az. :smallwink: Thanks for the linkage! May I at least link and outright thieve thoughts or ideas from that thread for compilation into this Handbook, with suitable crediting? :smallcool:

AslanCross
2010-10-06, 08:17 AM
By all means. :D That's why I posted it.

Darkfire
2010-10-06, 09:48 AM
Indeed I've had many an interesting and enjoyable session reading your journal, Az. :smallwink: Thanks for the linkage! May I at least link and outright thieve thoughts or ideas from that thread for compilation into this Handbook, with suitable crediting? :smallcool:

Here're a few links you might want to include:
Campaign journal & custom maps (http://www.enworld.org/forum/story-hour/162236-red-hand-doom.html) (as in larger and edited for use with/by the players)
Index of RHoD threads and resource links (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19558702/Index_of_RHoD_Threads_and_Resource_Links) (Disclaimer: predates the Wizards forum upgrade so the links may be broken but Google may throw up some results if you search for the specific titles)
Saph's campaign journal (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94243)
kjones' campaign journal (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=100257)