E6: RHOD quandry <Spoilers>

[Deadtissue]

Hello again Playground,

I am looking for some ideas on how certain NPCs would react to a situation the players in my E6 RHOD campaign are in. I am going to hide the details to prevent those who should not be reading it or those who choose not to spoil their own game need not read the details:

The group is headed into Rhrest looking for what Saarvith was. They have Koth's map and headed north to take out the road blocks and luckily decided to find out what that little tower drawn in the swamp is as there are not alot of hooks to get them there and I was prepared to just let them skip it.
They have met the Kiri Tor and used thier boats to approach the lake from the east. The saw the Bell tower and Town Hall and decided the Bell tower was where they would begin the investigation/assault. The used a water walking scroll on the group and all ran at top speed across the lake straight for the Bell Tower. As they passed the Town hall I informed them the heard a familiar reptilian roar (they fought the greenspawn earlier as the crossed the swamp and had a hard time with it). Though this worried them they carried on and attacked and took the tower. They now have control of the tower and the town all is on high alert as the hobgoblins sounded the alarm though the Bladebearer did not make it out to warn the townhall troops. Lizardmen are on their way as well.

So my question is what is Saarvith going to do about it?

The PC group has good ranged capability and are in a very defensible position so if he mounts Reggie and flies around yelling threats he may well get himself and his mount killed. I have some ideas but am hoping one of you has some ideas to inspire a fun response from the forces in and around the town hall even though none can swim and the Bell tower is out of range of the ranged capability they have at their disposal.

[Trasilor]

Hello again Playground,

I am looking for some ideas on how certain NPCs would react to a situation the players in my E6 RHOD campaign are in. I am going to hide the details to prevent those who should not be reading it or those who choose not to spoil their own game need not read the details:

The group is headed into Rhrest looking for what Saarvith was. They have Koth's map and headed north to take out the road blocks and luckily decided to find out what that little tower drawn in the swamp is as there are not alot of hooks to get them there and I was prepared to just let them skip it.
They have met the Kiri Tor and used thier boats to approach the lake from the east. The saw the Bell tower and Town Hall and decided the Bell tower was where they would begin the investigation/assault. The used a water walking scroll on the group and all ran at top speed across the lake straight for the Bell Tower. As they passed the Town hall I informed them the heard a familiar reptilian roar (they fought the greenspawn earlier as the crossed the swamp and had a hard time with it). Though this worried them they carried on and attacked and took the tower. They now have control of the tower and the town all is on high alert as the hobgoblins sounded the alarm though the Bladebearer did not make it out to warn the townhall troops. Lizardmen are on their way as well.

So my question is what is Saarvith going to do about it?

The PC group has good ranged capability and are in a very defensible position so if he mounts Reggie and flies around yelling threats he may well get himself and his mount killed. I have some ideas but am hoping one of you has some ideas to inspire a fun response from the forces in and around the town hall even though none can swim and the Bell tower is out of range of the ranged capability they have at their disposal.


Not sure how well this works with an E6 campaign...

When I ran them I changed Wyrmlord Saarvith into a swift hunter (scout/ranger). Gave him feats like: shot on the run, Improved Skirmish, Rapid Shot, Swift Hunter. I also gave him Martial Study: Child of Shadows to give him the 20% miss chance. So, the idea was that when this guy moved he became deadly. Also allowed 2 flaws (named NPC and all)

Equipped him with Human and Elf bane arrows (also favored enemies) as well as other special situation arrows (an archers specialty).

For Regiarix, I made him large (young adult) and beefed up his spell casting/breath weapon. I gave him meta-breath feats so his breath was either a line or a cone. Other feats of note were awakened spell resistance and multi-attack. Combined with the spell Blood Wind - he became a ranged attacker with his natural attacks.

I had more PCs and at higher level than the module indicated, so I made my NPC villians a bit tougher.

[Deadtissue]

Not sure how well this works with an E6 campaign...

When I ran them I changed Wyrmlord Saarvith into a swift hunter (scout/ranger). Gave him feats like: shot on the run, Improved Skirmish, Rapid Shot, Swift Hunter. I also gave him Martial Study: Child of Shadows to give him the 20% miss chance. So, the idea was that when this guy moved he became deadly. Also allowed 2 flaws (named NPC and all)

Equipped him with Human and Elf bane arrows (also favored enemies) as well as other special situation arrows (an archers specialty).

For Regiarix, I made him large (young adult) and beefed up his spell casting/breath weapon. I gave him meta-breath feats so his breath was either a line or a cone. Other feats of note were awakened spell resistance and multi-attack. Combined with the spell Blood Wind - he became a ranged attacker with his natural attacks.

I had more PCs and at higher level than the module indicated, so I made my NPC villians a bit tougher.

I have already tweaked Saarvith a bit but he only has 6 levels to play with so I kept him as a ranger for the HP and Reg I left mdm as I think pushing him up an age category might make him a bit much. I also changed the mindbender to a warlock build the rest is as published.

I am looking for tactics Saav can employ to get them out of the swamp or at least retake his Bell tower with. I am drawing a blank so best I can figure he would hunker down and wait till they come at him, maybe use the lizardmen to try and push them out.

[Fooliscious]

I ran into the belltower problem. My pcs hunkered down in there with the ranger taking pot shots. So I had Regi dive underwater and melt the base of the tower out from under them and let it fall over. 4 wet pcs with 2 struggling to swim vs a completely at home underwater black dragon. Tee hee.

I gave them an out, since it says somewhere in there Regi is a little paranoid about adventurers. He told them to leave, they did, and came back better prepared.

Saarvith hated getting wet and would shout obscenities whenever he could breath.

[Deadtissue]

I ran into the belltower problem. My pcs hunkered down in there with the ranger taking pot shots. So I had Regi dive underwater and melt the base of the tower out from under them and let it fall over. 4 wet pcs with 2 struggling to swim vs a completely at home underwater black dragon. Tee hee.

I gave them an out, since it says somewhere in there Regi is a little paranoid about adventurers. He told them to leave, they did, and came back better prepared.

Saarvith hated getting wet and would shout obscenities whenever he could breath.

Now that is the kind of advice I was hoping for. Its interesting you ran into the same problem.

I had toyed with the idea of releasing the Greenspawn to do just that but figured it was just as likely to swim away and I am not sure that the acid breath of it or Reg would affect the stone underwater.

Anyone know the rules about acid working underwater and its affect on stone, typically acid does not work well on stone and depending on the water might even be neutralized by it, no?

Would either of the two creatures be able to just do enough physical damage to have it topple?

Its probably the best strategy to use if I can figure out a way to make it work, my players and I are sticklers for as much realism as we can muster within the rules so if I can find either a rule or real life precedent of acid being able to dissolve stone underwater this will be an awesome solution.

[Fooliscious]

Acid breath works fine underwater.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/dragonTrue.htm#blackDragon Specifically this part:

Water Breathing (Ex)
A black dragon can breathe underwater indefinitely and can freely use its breath weapon, spells, and other abilities while submerged.

Acid also does normal damage to inanimate objects, after hardness.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/exploration.htm#energyAttacks
Energy Attacks
Acid and sonic attacks deal damage to most objects just as they do to creatures; roll damage and apply it normally after a successful hit.

It definitely can melt stone, that's how gold was mined for a good while, dissolved the ore in certain acids, leaving only the gold. I'd imagine acid that can cover a human and melt them to a puddle of goo in under 6 seconds will work under water.

As for the walls. http://www.d20srd.org/srd/dungeons.htm#walls

I went with plain old masonry walls. That paired with the fact they have been underwater some 500 years made them pretty corroded(can't remember if I went half hp or no hardness) and well within the capability of being melted quickly. The two razorfiends are probably too dumb and don't have the oomph to pull it off fast enough before the pcs can respond. Regi on the other hand wouldn't have any problem knocking it over quickly.

[Deadtissue]

Fooliscious, that is awesome, thanks so much for this post, I hope they hold out long enough for this to take place. Its going to be fun for all!

How much of the adventure did your group finish I may PM you and pick your brain for more fun ideas.

Cheers!

[Fooliscious]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?313963-My-Red-Hand-of-Doom-journal!

Here's is the first part, between downtime between sessions and me being lazy it kinda trailed off. We made it all the way to the end of the battle of Brindol. Gonna finish the last wing when some people get done with school. Go nuts if you want to pm, my memory isn't all that great though.

On another note, pc's in the water vs a dragon with a 60 swim speed will not end well for the PC's. Even if they are walking on water, they can't see under it being a swamp and all. Regi can and should just hit and run them.

[Deadtissue]

My players have been with me for 30 years and know I do not pull punches. They hate, fear, loathe, and detest water. I throw a small pool in a room in a dungeon and they will go around it or away from it if they can. They almost fear the environments I put them in more than the monsters. That said they have become very resourceful and continually surprise me.

I have read the RHOD handbook and all the recommendations to increase the age cat on Reg but the end of the day I can do alot of damage with a mdm black dragon in a swamp. The Greenspawn alone had them fearing death about half way through the fight. They will be very leary about entering water with a black dragon down there. Knowing them they will create a distraction or cover and run like hell for the nearest dry land or building they can find and spend as little time as possible in or near the water.

I started a AoW journal as well and the post kind of faded out but we finished it and started this E6 campaign.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?213787-Age-of-Worms-Campaign-Journal-*SPOILERS*

Thanks again for all your help