People's experiences with The Sunless Citadel: How did you like it?

[Everest]

Does anyone have any funny or otherwise interesting stories to share on this one? I have a few, since I've played through the second half of the adventure once and am currently running it for a different group, but . . . well, the second set of stories is funny in the same way that a trainwreck gets attention.

Did anyone have any worries, as well, that they had to remedy while running the adventure? Because I could have prevented those unfortunate incidents from happening with the later-mentioned group were I to actually rein things in a bit, but instead I ran the adventure as I felt would make sense (especially since this group has a guy who's convinced that a good deal of niceties on my part are "copping out"), figuring that most groups who tried this adventure really enjoyed it and had no problems.

For the record, they're not even at the grove yet, and they've bypassed a good deal of rooms. Further details I will keep to myself for now.

[Coidzor]

Non-good parties just love the Nightcaller's Whistle, which could potentially be an issue in the future after they get it. Or if Necromancy is morally grey, even predominantly good parties...

Mostly it'd just allow them to have partyx2 meat walls that can spring traps for them or maybe do some lackluster archery volleys until they start meeting more interesting creatures. Or zombifying mules for 8 gp if they're out of eligible corpses. (Hmm. come to think of it, does warbeast get removed by the zombie template?) Acting as terrain/providing flanking for the party's sneak attackers/melee and being a vehicle for the Inspire Courage of a bard that is willing to pick up Requiem is probably the most potent use of them other than as labor.

Then again, from where it's located, I think you have to beat the module first to get it anyway, IIRC.

Every time I've played through, I've mostly been left baffled at & slightly bloody from the events that have gone on, though I've only done it twice, both times with new DMs, so I'm not sure how much of that is the DM and how much is the module.

[opticalshadow]

i love the sunless citdel. been though it a few times. nightcaller whiste can be hard to get past good groups (i was able to convince my one cleric to allow me to have it since i was a dwarf) you may be able to argue its use with your party.

my favorite time i went though it was with my dread necro yip-yap. he was a necropolitan kobold, whos best friend was his riding dog (whom stayed up top) and he carried around what i called his gore gore doll. which was a doll made of tiny bone and sinew of the creatures he killed, he also never actually revield his name, claiming he didnt know it. in fact he didnt even know he was undead, he just thought he was ugly, so he always wore his hood. he would claim the undead were his friends, and would playfuly say how he would love to be friends with the party forever. he was roleplayed very childish, liek a toddler, feeligs hurt easily, and essectrint.

he did not like meepo, meepo was a mean kobold, and didnt want to be friend with yip-yap. once the party discovered the whistles room yip yapo threw and absolute hissy fit over getting the whistle (which they gave me to shut me up, at this poitn i never told anyone my actual class, they knew i had spells, and i was a kobold) during one of the fights meepo dissapped (i led him away in the confusion and killed him, and drug him into the room and got back before the fight was over) we spent the next few hours looking for meepo, my plan was going great till a newcomer to the group just had to go into my room (the whistle room) and discovered meepo. ive never seen a group so nervous around a character before, ive seen rouge handed party valuables more often then the paranoia they had after that.

afterwards yip-yap started collecting undead, and would send them all back to the sunless citidel, where they would work on expanding it deeper and running operations, i always get a base for my dread necros so i can raise tons of undead, without breaking the campaign, this time i was suposed to be the bbeg (getting revenge for them going into my room all the way back then) but alas the group fell apart.




another time my fighter dwarf triggered a stone of alarm, hit it though the door with his axe then threw it ove the ledge in frustration, alerting the entire place of our arival.

[Everest]

Gah. Misparsed the text for room 37 and so forgot to put Calcryx there, where he was supposed to be.

I mean, granted, a bunch of goblins have all but one PC either tied up or, in the case of the bard, bled out, and the water mephit in an earlier room killed the cleric and samurai for breaking in and opening its keg, so it's hardly the worst thing that has happened so far, but still (yeah, the main hall for the goblinoids being next to a room that still had a bunch of bandits was disastrous. Then again, so was splitting the party, most likely. Then again, one of my players (Angeal976) was rooting for Erky to die in combat, so I don't feel that bad that his characters are tied up). Next time I'll need to figure out which room I can put him in logically.

tl;dr: For whatever reason, my party is doing horribly with this place so far.

^ I haven't seen a character run like that, but I can see why he'd leave his fellow PCs wary. :smalltongue:

^^ On that note: on second thought, I realized that the reason they probably lost the fight against Durnn was because three PCs went into the neighboring room with six goblin bandits, while the other three and Erky went to fight Durnn, so we were without half the party for a few turns, and some of them were wounded fighting elsewhere. If all seven had been there at once, without earning the ire of the bandits, the fight might have worked in our favor.

[Coidzor]

They split up as level 1 characters. That's the big thing. & it sounds like they're blundering through like bulls in a china shop rather than using their sensory skills. Or just having bad luck in what way they decide to go each time.

Don't split the party is especially true when a stiff breeze can cause a TPK.

[Everest]

They split up as level 1 characters. That's the big thing. & it sounds like they're blundering through like bulls in a china shop rather than using their sensory skills. Or just having bad luck in what way they decide to go each time.

Don't split the party is especially true when a stiff breeze can cause a TPK.

Well, I implied this back when I ran DMPCs, but now that I'm strictly the DM, I make it a point not to influence player decisions unless they're in dire straits (like, say, fighting Durnn ten to four). So I leave it on their heads if they get brutalized. And they accept that. But yeah, I think that's really the biggest thing. Although, as it is a lot of the time, it was Angeal's fault that the party had split at all (if you're reading this, don't take that too hard. :smalltongue:)

[Coidzor]

How new are they? Because we've got the lesson illustrated by legos for them. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waa2ucfgVgQ)

[Everest]

We've been playing for a little over a year, between 3.5e and 4e. But I'll be sure to send them that link at some point. XD

[Angeal976]

Well, I implied this back when I ran DMPCs, but now that I'm strictly the DM, I make it a point not to influence player decisions unless they're in dire straits (like, say, fighting Durnn ten to four). So I leave it on their heads if they get brutalized. And they accept that. But yeah, I think that's really the biggest thing. Although, as it is a lot of the time, it was Angeal's fault that the party had split at all (if you're reading this, don't take that too hard. :smalltongue:)

Well the others did agree to splitting the party, but yeah it usually is my suggestion. I don't take it too hard, but I split the party, and wasn't strong enough to handle it, so all of us being tied up is primarily my fault. So next time I will have to make up for it, and break us out, safe and sound!

[navar100]

By various circumstances I played it three times. The third time was best. We successfully "rescued the pet". Also, because we killed off all the goblins, the kobolds had free reign of the place and were very greatful. They made us honorary members of their tribe and became friendly NPCs to us for the campaign.

[Coidzor]

That reminds me. There was a thread not too long ago about the price of a white dragon wyrmling (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=210236) born from a group playing through this module...