ksbsnowowl
2017-03-15, 09:16 PM
I've been running my party through the original 3.0 "Adventure Path" modules for the last several years (Sunless Citadel, etc), and I've been running them through Lord of the Iron Fortress for the last few months.
Speaking of which, I know several of them do lurk on the Reddit DnD sub, and for all I know they may read these forums, too. If you guys stumble upon this, I expect you to read no further... or "Frank" the Pit Fiend will eat your souls...
TL;DR at the bottom
Well, due to the PC's getting side-tracked with the adventure's red herrings, and the monsters in the adventure location using good tactics, in conjunction with a few ill-timed bad save rolls for the PC's, the BBEG has succeeded in fending the heroes off long enough to complete his goal, reforging an artifact sword, the Blade of Fiery Might.
This intelligent evil sword wants to conquer worlds, and that is the purpose to which the BBEG intends to wield it. Where we left off, the BBEG had completed the sword 27 hours prior, and the PC's know he has completed it. They were ready to take the fight to the rest of the fortress, then half the party got incapacitated with a Symbol of Insanity, so they had to retreat, and wait until the next morning to prep a couple Heals to cure their partymates.
We've basically reached the end of the published module by this point. Although the PC's failed to prevent the sword's reforging, the Conclusion portion of the adventure offers a few words for each of three possible outcomes. The one relevant to my group's situation is this:
If the PCs fail in their mission and Imperagon completes the Blade of Fiery Might, all is not lost. The DM must determine the warlord’s next steps—how close is he to forming his army, what alliances prove successful, and so forth—but the PCs should have another chance to fight (and perhaps defeat) the half-dragon conqueror. Of course, with the blade in his hand he proves even more dangerous than before, but perhaps [assistance can come from other powerful planar forces]. ... You might even allow the PCs to raise an army of their own to battle the legions assembled by Imperagon and his allies. A climactic battle between the PCs and Imperagon while his army lays siege to their home city could be a terrific finale to the heroes’ careers!
I am planning to eventually run the last module in the series, Bastion of Broken Souls, but it is pegged for an 18th level party, and due to my party's chosen plans of attack, they have failed to defeat A LOT of the foes in the module. Three of the PC's are 16th level, and due to multiple deaths, one of them is only just getting back to 15th level (the starting level for Lord of the Iron Fortress...) So, they need to gain a bunch of XP anyways. If everyone each gained 21,000 xp, I'd have two PC's at 18th level, one at 17th level (but only ~6k away from 18th), and one at the mid-point of 16th level. Of course, the lower two would end up getting a bit more XP along the way; just running the numbers, the lowest one should hit 17th the same time the top two hit 18th level.
Regardless, expanding the BBEG's remaining forces into a growing army (alliances solidifying) could bring the BBEG's goals to the forefront (his exact goals haven't been made clear to the PC's), and change the dynamic that has been giving my players such problems the last few months. I have experience playing and running war campaigns, having played Red Hand of Doom in 2006-2007, and I ran an adaptation of RHoD in a Viking-themed gestalt game, from levels 6 - 12 in the years since then. I could adapt one or two of the scenarios from RHoD (or heck, even draw a bit upon Bloodstone Pass, from 1e AD&D) to flesh out the next two levels of adventure, dealing with the aftermath of their failure.
And the aftermath is where I'm debating how to proceed, and how "mean" to be with the BBEG's tactics. See, one of the abilities of the Blade of Fiery Might is the ability to Rebuke/Command [Fire] creatures as a 20th level Cleric. The BBEG also has a means of accessing the Elemental Plane of Fire... Efreet only have 10 HD... which means he can Command them. He can command two of them (total HD limit equal to effective cleric level, 20, so two 10-HD Efreet)... which means he can (and probably will) have access to six Wishes per day.
Six wishes per day, each of which can bring 12 allies to his ranks, "regardless of local conditions" (likely how the BBEG gets control of a second Efreet, once he has the first one). Or create 25,000 gp gems to use in payment for the next Wish, duplicating a Planar Ally spell to Call some 12 HD fiends to aid their army. Creating magic items to outfit their troops; Helms of Teleportation and Cubic Gates to move them about.
With a day to kill (already happened) the BBEG has almost assuredly found an Efreet and Commanded him (in fact, I rolled for random encounters on the Elemental Plane of Fire, using the DMG table [p. 156], and he encountered some...) He'll likely have another whole day before the PC's come back to his fortress (DM estimation, based on them dealing with the Symbol of Insanity). Before the last session (when they were on their way to deal with the BBEG when the Symbol paralyzed their advance) I had planned to give them this one last day in game to deal with the remaining foes of the fortress before allied forces started showing up and amassing. So the first wave of foes will show up by the time they get back into action. But there's also the effects of the Commanded Efreeti to consider.
The BBEG isn't dumb (Int 13), and his Pit Fiend right hand ally is absolutely not dumb (as my PC's have experienced, time and time again... Intelligence 26, after all). The BBEG's goal at the fortress (where the Blade of Fiery Might was reforged) is complete, and the PC's have repeatedly invaded (four or five times) in their attempts to sabotage the reforging. Any intelligent commander would relocate, and send word to his pending allies that they had moved to a new staging area. I'm tempted to have the fortress completely empty when the PC's return... at which point the PC's will either give up and go home to the paladin's keep in Celestia, and do some character down time stuff (scribing, crafting, etc) until they hear of the army's advances and destruction, or they'll try to hunt down the BBEG's new staging point right away (but that will take a bit of time to get the right spells, and figure out exactly where they are.)
I've got a level and a half of encounters to build this into (which works out to 17 encounters of an EL equal to the two highest-level PC's).
Given the info and motivations above, what suggestions would you guys give?
TL;DR: My PC's failed the module, and the BBEG reforged an artifact evil sword, which he will use to Rebuke/Command Efreeti, forcing them to grant him and his army six Wishes per day. I have to expand the short "Conclusion" paragraph at the end of the module (quoted section, above) into a mini campaign for 16th level PC's, as the BBEG warlord builds his army in a new staging area, and begins assaulting the Material Plane.
Speaking of which, I know several of them do lurk on the Reddit DnD sub, and for all I know they may read these forums, too. If you guys stumble upon this, I expect you to read no further... or "Frank" the Pit Fiend will eat your souls...
TL;DR at the bottom
Well, due to the PC's getting side-tracked with the adventure's red herrings, and the monsters in the adventure location using good tactics, in conjunction with a few ill-timed bad save rolls for the PC's, the BBEG has succeeded in fending the heroes off long enough to complete his goal, reforging an artifact sword, the Blade of Fiery Might.
This intelligent evil sword wants to conquer worlds, and that is the purpose to which the BBEG intends to wield it. Where we left off, the BBEG had completed the sword 27 hours prior, and the PC's know he has completed it. They were ready to take the fight to the rest of the fortress, then half the party got incapacitated with a Symbol of Insanity, so they had to retreat, and wait until the next morning to prep a couple Heals to cure their partymates.
We've basically reached the end of the published module by this point. Although the PC's failed to prevent the sword's reforging, the Conclusion portion of the adventure offers a few words for each of three possible outcomes. The one relevant to my group's situation is this:
If the PCs fail in their mission and Imperagon completes the Blade of Fiery Might, all is not lost. The DM must determine the warlord’s next steps—how close is he to forming his army, what alliances prove successful, and so forth—but the PCs should have another chance to fight (and perhaps defeat) the half-dragon conqueror. Of course, with the blade in his hand he proves even more dangerous than before, but perhaps [assistance can come from other powerful planar forces]. ... You might even allow the PCs to raise an army of their own to battle the legions assembled by Imperagon and his allies. A climactic battle between the PCs and Imperagon while his army lays siege to their home city could be a terrific finale to the heroes’ careers!
I am planning to eventually run the last module in the series, Bastion of Broken Souls, but it is pegged for an 18th level party, and due to my party's chosen plans of attack, they have failed to defeat A LOT of the foes in the module. Three of the PC's are 16th level, and due to multiple deaths, one of them is only just getting back to 15th level (the starting level for Lord of the Iron Fortress...) So, they need to gain a bunch of XP anyways. If everyone each gained 21,000 xp, I'd have two PC's at 18th level, one at 17th level (but only ~6k away from 18th), and one at the mid-point of 16th level. Of course, the lower two would end up getting a bit more XP along the way; just running the numbers, the lowest one should hit 17th the same time the top two hit 18th level.
Regardless, expanding the BBEG's remaining forces into a growing army (alliances solidifying) could bring the BBEG's goals to the forefront (his exact goals haven't been made clear to the PC's), and change the dynamic that has been giving my players such problems the last few months. I have experience playing and running war campaigns, having played Red Hand of Doom in 2006-2007, and I ran an adaptation of RHoD in a Viking-themed gestalt game, from levels 6 - 12 in the years since then. I could adapt one or two of the scenarios from RHoD (or heck, even draw a bit upon Bloodstone Pass, from 1e AD&D) to flesh out the next two levels of adventure, dealing with the aftermath of their failure.
And the aftermath is where I'm debating how to proceed, and how "mean" to be with the BBEG's tactics. See, one of the abilities of the Blade of Fiery Might is the ability to Rebuke/Command [Fire] creatures as a 20th level Cleric. The BBEG also has a means of accessing the Elemental Plane of Fire... Efreet only have 10 HD... which means he can Command them. He can command two of them (total HD limit equal to effective cleric level, 20, so two 10-HD Efreet)... which means he can (and probably will) have access to six Wishes per day.
Six wishes per day, each of which can bring 12 allies to his ranks, "regardless of local conditions" (likely how the BBEG gets control of a second Efreet, once he has the first one). Or create 25,000 gp gems to use in payment for the next Wish, duplicating a Planar Ally spell to Call some 12 HD fiends to aid their army. Creating magic items to outfit their troops; Helms of Teleportation and Cubic Gates to move them about.
With a day to kill (already happened) the BBEG has almost assuredly found an Efreet and Commanded him (in fact, I rolled for random encounters on the Elemental Plane of Fire, using the DMG table [p. 156], and he encountered some...) He'll likely have another whole day before the PC's come back to his fortress (DM estimation, based on them dealing with the Symbol of Insanity). Before the last session (when they were on their way to deal with the BBEG when the Symbol paralyzed their advance) I had planned to give them this one last day in game to deal with the remaining foes of the fortress before allied forces started showing up and amassing. So the first wave of foes will show up by the time they get back into action. But there's also the effects of the Commanded Efreeti to consider.
The BBEG isn't dumb (Int 13), and his Pit Fiend right hand ally is absolutely not dumb (as my PC's have experienced, time and time again... Intelligence 26, after all). The BBEG's goal at the fortress (where the Blade of Fiery Might was reforged) is complete, and the PC's have repeatedly invaded (four or five times) in their attempts to sabotage the reforging. Any intelligent commander would relocate, and send word to his pending allies that they had moved to a new staging area. I'm tempted to have the fortress completely empty when the PC's return... at which point the PC's will either give up and go home to the paladin's keep in Celestia, and do some character down time stuff (scribing, crafting, etc) until they hear of the army's advances and destruction, or they'll try to hunt down the BBEG's new staging point right away (but that will take a bit of time to get the right spells, and figure out exactly where they are.)
I've got a level and a half of encounters to build this into (which works out to 17 encounters of an EL equal to the two highest-level PC's).
Given the info and motivations above, what suggestions would you guys give?
TL;DR: My PC's failed the module, and the BBEG reforged an artifact evil sword, which he will use to Rebuke/Command Efreeti, forcing them to grant him and his army six Wishes per day. I have to expand the short "Conclusion" paragraph at the end of the module (quoted section, above) into a mini campaign for 16th level PC's, as the BBEG warlord builds his army in a new staging area, and begins assaulting the Material Plane.