Forgotten Forge and Others [Archive] - Wizards Community

Forgotten Forge and Others [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Lux72
01-06-06, 11:22 AM I'm going to be starting my very first Eberron game and I plan on running the Forgotten Forge in the ECS as well as the adventures that follow it.

For those of you who have already run it: what sort of issues/concerns should I keep an eye out for? Is there some problem you ran into or something your characters did unexpectedly that derailed the game. I'm a pretty experienced DM so I don't anticipate problems but since I'm sure others have run these modules before, I figure I can learn from your experience with it.

Thanks in advance for any advice!
MarkB
01-06-06, 12:37 PM SPOILERS for Forgotten Forge follow!

General comment: Unless at least one player is a warforged, it's worth introducing at least one sympathetic, or at least clearly lawful, warforged character early in the game. Otherwise, your players may fall into going on first impressions and start looking at all warforged as probably being dangerous terrorists who hate all 'fleshies'. Making one of Sgt. Dolom's two Watch colleagues a warforged might be a good idea.

Taking the encounters in order:

The first encounter at the bridge is relatively simple, but be careful how you adjudicate the warforged's emergence from under the bridge - I had a couple of complaints that Cutter shouldn't have been able to swing up onto the walkway in one surprise round, especially as one of the first things my group did upon finding the body was for one of them to peer over the edge of the bridge.

Be careful of what the party do with the journal - with any luck, if they kept it after the encounter they will bring it along to the meeting, but these are impoverished first-level characters and the thing's mithral-bound - it's not impossible that, after finding it blank, they'll just pawn it.

Sharn Sewer encounter: Keith Baker has confirmed that the starting position given for the warforged on the accompanying map is incorrect, and if you use it, expect to see all the tactical possibilities of the flushing valves go to waste. I had greatest success with this encounter by having the warforged disguise himself as a rag-clothed corpse amidst the detritus in the filthy water of the main channel, between valves 7 and 9. The party failed their Spot checks as they moved up, and when the first had passed the warforged he rose up and attacked.

Beetle Swarm and Horrid Rats: About 80% of the people who've posted about problems with this adventure mention one or both of these encounters. A swarm can be deadly to an unprepared party, especially at first level, so make sure you give them fair warning - even if they don't ask the appropriate questions of Lady Elaydren, it's best to have her provide the warning about bringing fire voluntarily, and maybe remind them of that warning if they don't figure it out for themselves once they encounter the swarm. As for the rats, they are very nasty to a melee-oriented party - combine AC 20 with a 2d6 attack and they can be very tricky to take down before they kill somebody (unless your party's wizard casts sleep and finishes the encounter in half a round :rant: ). If the party fare badly against the swarm, either reduce the rat encounter or move it further up the cavern so that they have the opportunity to rest at the temple first.

The Forge: One big thing to watch for here is the dollar signs that will light up in your players' eyes when you present them with a set of massive adamantine doors. There are numerous stories of the lengths parties have gone to in order to bring those doors back to the surface and sell them. I recommend either making them adamantine-bound steel doors, or using a suggested ruling from Keith Baker on adamantine: That it is a once-forged material, which cannot be re-used once it is set into a particular form. So unless the party can find a buyer who'se looking for a particular size of adamantine door, they'll be out of luck selling them.

Iron Defenders: Unless the party bash their way in through the doors or wall, or they are foolishly unobservant going in through the roof, this can turn into a turkey-shoot. Basically, the party can just sit back and throw arrows, alchemist's fire and rubble at the dogs until they fall over.

Saber: Be very careful when you get to this encounter. If the party decided to forego rest, or if they fell particularly foul of the iron defenders and the shocking grasp trap, they may be in poor shape now, might even have one or two downed party members. In such a case, you might put Saber in a less-than-totally-healthy state too - maybe he's had to fight off a horrid rat or two himself - and make him utterly committed to reclaiming the schema. If he clearly has the uper hand, he'll bargain with the remaining party members for it, and retreat as soon as he has it, rather than risking standing and fighting even against badly wounded foes.
Armorlord
01-07-06, 12:03 PM Once we finish them all I'm going to have to start a thread on pre-written adventure breaking. For now I'll share a few experiences with Forgotten Forge.

We went in with a two man 1st level party, an unnamed at the time Cyran Warforged cleric of Onatar (with Adamantine Body and Improved Damage Reduction with a Flaw of Unreactive) and a Talenta Halfling Ranger without his mount. With the starting money not spent on armor the warforged loaded up a heavy pack and some bags with tools and random useful things and some odd ball stuff.

The Bridge: After running into reach other (literally) the two exchanged words, the 'forged confused as to why the halfling didn't love all the contruction marvels. Enter the beginning of the adventure. They also looked over the side, only to have the opposing warforged swing up the opposite side while they were looking the other way. A rough fight to be sure, the cleric dropping a couple rounds before the halfling managed to land a blow to drop Cutter. Fortunately the halfling had a charisma bonus enough to keep from being attacked by the guards with his bad rolls. By some fortune someone had a repair spell prepared among them and belived the halfling enough to 'help that one, he must know what was going on'. So the Cleric with no cha bonus rolls well enough to agree to be held while his story is checks out- having a church to confrim who you are can be very useful sometimes.

The Sewer: MarkB's post explains why those valves only ended up hurting the one that tried to run away. The halfling was off moving ahead of the slow-arse 'forged, even though he resented being called 'scout'. Missed one hiding in the stairwell and got to the ones at the water, meanwhile the cleric ends up attacked from behind. All in all it went decently, and the halfling chased and shot at the final messanger for as long as he could. DM nearly turned purple when the cleric started trying to saw his way through the grate at the opposite end from where the Door turned out to be, before the halfling got bored and wandered the other direction and found it. They climb down (who is crazy for buying 200ft of rope now?)..

Beetle Swarm: Cake walk. The cleric stocked up on more alchemist's fire, he already had a one and some lamp oil, the halfling bought high-proof subtances to double as 'supplies'. The cleric lowered the halfling down from the opening, and when the noises started right away he just pulled him back up again. Handing fires to the halfling they started flame right in front of the hole, the cleric smashed oil on the side of the wall next to the opening (lighting when it dripped down to the fire below, and by that point the halfling threw fire behind the swarm to cut it off, topped them off with high-proof then drank some as they waited for everything to burn out.

Horrid Rats: Ow. See also: OW. The halfling was taking it bad from the start on this one, got to the point fast where a cure minor wouldn't help him survive another round, so then the Warforged unfastens his pack with a crash and scoops the halfling onto his shoulders. From there is was still a long, if comical fight. The Warforged didn't move from that spot and just swung at the rats while the halfling fired down at them. With the shield and armor the forged was just as hard to hit, but couldn't hit them to save his life, while the halfling was doing considerably better. Managing to limp away intact, the party was fortunate to investigate the temple first. Which the cleric found do be something of a holy revelation to find a sanctuary of his chosen deity at this time and place. Fortunately, since we hadn't established what time it was, the DM allowed the cleric to pray for his spells while they rested.

The Forge and the Defenders: After looking around it for a bit, then sending the halfling up top to look around, they find hole in the roof. A dozen failed climb checks later and trying to rope up there to give him a bonus, the Warforged makes it to the roof as well. A couple simple tests later- lower halfling in: Grrr "Pull me BACK UP!", halfling in view from hole: Grrr, Warforged holding the book, a shield with the crests of Cannith and Cyre, and wearing a holy symbol: No Grrr. So, with the halfling staying out of view, the Cleric goes down alone. Searches the room, searches some more, takes a twenty, tried making a key for the forge-holes *bzap* a few times, gets hinted at about the pile of rubble, tries to move the large piece, fails, gets out his crowbar and pries it off. Aaaww, poor iron defender. Finds one of the 'keys'. He declares that he would not harm these ancient noble defenders, considering them works of Cannith under the grace of Onatar. So he lays down his weapons gets out the same tools he'd use on himself and declares that he is going to service the Iron Defenders, reasoning that they been down here a while and that they could use some oiling, cleaning, polishing. Keeping the journal and such well displayed, he makes his craft checks and the Dm allows him to make search checks in the process to locate a release for the keys. Succeeding at this (no you aren't able to repair the smashed one), he gets the stuff out of the hidden room, and everything he can't carry out he seals in it. Goes back out the roof leaving the doors closed.

Saber: Another painful one, the fight ended up being next to the forge building since the party took cover once fired at. Eventually the halfling climbs the rope back to the roof and starts trying to aid another by distracting Saber. At one point the cleric considered trying to get back in an release the Defenders, but decided against it after failing his climb and getting AoO'ed.
But eventually they manged to fight him until he tried to flee, but the halfling finally got to make some decent ranged attacks and dropped him. The halfling is still walking around with Saber's head in his pack. The Cleric fully intends on returning there one day and restoring the temple and the forge, thus birthing his name of Restorer.
Much high fiving between the two players for surviving the 4 person adventure. :dancin::w00t:
scarhead
01-07-06, 12:47 PM I ran this last night with five players; warforged fighter, elven cleric, elven rogue, shifter ranger, and changeling wizard.

Bridge: The party took out the warforged in two rounds, without taking any damage. Three of them had high diplomacy rolls and were able to be paid by SGT Dolom for preserving the peace.

Sewer: The shifters took down the rogue while the warforged blocked the passegeway so the rest of the group could not assist. Soon after the warforged was killed and the cleric was able to save the rogue before he bled out and the shifters were easily dispatched.

Swarm: The wizard had a scroll of burning hands which reacted quite nicely with the two flasks of oil that the warforged had thrown on the swarm. Instant bar-b-q.

Horrid Rats: Toughest encounter for the party by far. Early in the fight the warforged missed his attack by one and since action points are new and he forgot about them and didn't realize how tough the rats were to hit, he didn't use an action point. That proved to be a fateful decision, for no one would touch the rats again for at least five rounds. Before the fight was over at least every character except the warforged had been reduced to 0 or fewer hit points. Luckily for the party they had purchased healing potions with their up-front money from Elaydren. That is the only thing that allowed them to survive this battle as they all rolled poorly and didn't hit the rats for a long time, and the rats do lots of damage. Having low hit points for your only weakness doesn't matter too much when no one can hit you.

Forge: This was comical as the party only had one rope and it was still hanging in the entrance tunnel so they could get out. They were all able to climb the walls fine, but the warforged without thinking it through just decided to jump into the room. 10 points of damage (8 after DR) and a few Iron Defender attacks later warforged is at -5 on the floor and no one else wants to jump in because the fall damage would probably knock them unconcious. I allow them missile fire at the dogs as they are around the warforged body and they manage to finish off the one the warforged wounded before he went down. The other dog is uninjured however, and begins to gnaw on the warforged. The have one scroll of feather fall (because they were afraid about falling off the towers) and cast it on the cleric who enters the fray. He casts a healing on the warforged to take him to one point, they gets mauled by the dog and taken to 0 hp. Warforged attacks from the prone until the cleric backs up fighting defensively. Warforged gets up and finished the dog. Pretty tight, since they didn't have a rope. They all get into the room but can't get out throught the doors due to Arcane Lock. With no other way to get out I allow them to move the forge and pile other rubble and debris until they can climb out.

Saber: The first out the rogue who takes a flaming crossbow bolt in the chest and is reduced to 0 hp. He yells "medic!" and retreats to the middle of the roof where he lays prone. Warforged climbs down the wall and moved towards Saber, who gladly lays down his crossbow and goes to meet him in combat. Party warforged does remarkably well against Saber (due to 18 STR and great axe) who winds up fleeing and cut down by the ranger.

Everyone had fun. One thing to change is definitely the position of the warforged rogue in the sewers. The battle never made it to the valves so that fun part of the combat never happened. One thing to make sure of is that the party has enough rope. That little bit with the forge nearly cost the warforged his life.
Armorlord
01-08-06, 01:44 PM Everyone had fun. One thing to change is definitely the position of the warforged rogue in the sewers. The battle never made it to the valves so that fun part of the combat never happened. One thing to make sure of is that the party has enough rope. That little bit with the forge nearly cost the warforged his life.

Rule Number Two That All Adventurers Should Live By: You can never EVER have too much rope.
Rule One is of course: Don't Die. No, not even if you like that PrC with it as a requirement.

And advice to all heavy armored warforged- Climb/Jump/Tumble are NOT your friends. See Also: Rule 2.

All and all, it's fun adventure and it sounds like most people have at least a couple near-death moments. Let's face it, an adventure the almost kills you is always more fun than one that doesn't pose a serious threat.
JoshuaWilhoyte
01-10-06, 07:16 PM I have to agree, the toughest fights were really the Swarms and the Horrid Rats. If you aren't ready for them, they suck. Especially if you're players don't know the Swarm's weaknesses (or don't metagame it).
cactusblue
01-11-06, 01:18 PM I downsized some encounters for the group I DMed. I made the beetle swarm a spider swarm (CR 1 and 2 less HD), I had only 1 horrid rat, and I made Saber 2 HD instead of 3 HD. The party retreated and healed up after the swarm attack. They never fought the horrid rat. Even after all of that, Saber took the party out (they used action points to stabilze) and stole the schema for himself. I could have had Saber coup-de-graced the whole party, but I had no desire to spend an evening making new PCs again. A tough adventure for some seasoned players even when I reduced the challenge.
LugWrench
01-11-06, 03:37 PM My players did alright, considering I ran the adventure before the errata and such was available.
The bridge wasnt too rough. The warforged landed a few solid blows, but was unable to finish people off. A few blown diplomacy rolls later, and the artifacer spends the night in jail for 'disturbing the peace'.
The valves didnt do much. The group made their spot checks right off the bat, and were able to take the warforged rogue down pretty fast, despite being single-filed in a stairway. The two shifters waited and mugged the first person to enter the valve chamber proper. Again, minimal damage spread out over the party.
The group was adequately prepared for the beetles. They barely broke stride going over them. The horrid rats, on the otherhand, nearly killed the partys rogue. The cleric did some impressive combat medicine to get the rogue back on her feet. The group wisely decided that the chapel was a good place to rest up for a while, though they were baffled by the fountain and its contents.
I gave them a bit of a warning about the Iron Defenders ("You think you see two orbs that could be eyes reflecting your torchlight, inside the structure, but they are only there for a second.....'). The warforged led the way, and with a good series of dice rolls, turned the first Defender into scrap in less than three rounds. The second defender managed to lay a solid shot on the artifacer, but was quickly put down.
After the rogue took a mild zap from the trapped forge, the group had their loot, and was ready to go. Then things went to Khyber....
On the way out, Saber took a shot from his crossbow and scored a critical on the warforged fighter. Second round, same results. Two criticals to the chest, and the warforged was face-down on the floor. The party managed to keep Saber at bay, while the cleric laid some healing on the warforged to get him (barely) operable again.

My party managed to survive this thing, as is, but nearly lost two characters in the process. Still, a good time was had by all.
altharis
01-14-06, 12:35 AM Great tips guys, i'll be using them in my upcoming campaign.

Thanx,

Altharis the messenger.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Lux72 01-06-06, 11:22 AM	I'm going to be starting my very first Eberron game and I plan on running the Forgotten Forge in the ECS as well as the adventures that follow it. For those of you who have already run it: what sort of issues/concerns should I keep an eye out for? Is there some problem you ran into or something your characters did unexpectedly that derailed the game. I'm a pretty experienced DM so I don't anticipate problems but since I'm sure others have run these modules before, I figure I can learn from your experience with it. Thanks in advance for any advice!
MarkB 01-06-06, 12:37 PM	SPOILERS for Forgotten Forge follow! General comment: Unless at least one player is a warforged, it's worth introducing at least one sympathetic, or at least clearly lawful, warforged character early in the game. Otherwise, your players may fall into going on first impressions and start looking at all warforged as probably being dangerous terrorists who hate all 'fleshies'. Making one of Sgt. Dolom's two Watch colleagues a warforged might be a good idea. Taking the encounters in order: The first encounter at the bridge is relatively simple, but be careful how you adjudicate the warforged's emergence from under the bridge - I had a couple of complaints that Cutter shouldn't have been able to swing up onto the walkway in one surprise round, especially as one of the first things my group did upon finding the body was for one of them to peer over the edge of the bridge. Be careful of what the party do with the journal - with any luck, if they kept it after the encounter they will bring it along to the meeting, but these are impoverished first-level characters and the thing's mithral-bound - it's not impossible that, after finding it blank, they'll just pawn it. Sharn Sewer encounter: Keith Baker has confirmed that the starting position given for the warforged on the accompanying map is incorrect, and if you use it, expect to see all the tactical possibilities of the flushing valves go to waste. I had greatest success with this encounter by having the warforged disguise himself as a rag-clothed corpse amidst the detritus in the filthy water of the main channel, between valves 7 and 9. The party failed their Spot checks as they moved up, and when the first had passed the warforged he rose up and attacked. Beetle Swarm and Horrid Rats: About 80% of the people who've posted about problems with this adventure mention one or both of these encounters. A swarm can be deadly to an unprepared party, especially at first level, so make sure you give them fair warning - even if they don't ask the appropriate questions of Lady Elaydren, it's best to have her provide the warning about bringing fire voluntarily, and maybe remind them of that warning if they don't figure it out for themselves once they encounter the swarm. As for the rats, they are very nasty to a melee-oriented party - combine AC 20 with a 2d6 attack and they can be very tricky to take down before they kill somebody (unless your party's wizard casts sleep and finishes the encounter in half a round :rant: ). If the party fare badly against the swarm, either reduce the rat encounter or move it further up the cavern so that they have the opportunity to rest at the temple first. The Forge: One big thing to watch for here is the dollar signs that will light up in your players' eyes when you present them with a set of massive adamantine doors. There are numerous stories of the lengths parties have gone to in order to bring those doors back to the surface and sell them. I recommend either making them adamantine-bound steel doors, or using a suggested ruling from Keith Baker on adamantine: That it is a once-forged material, which cannot be re-used once it is set into a particular form. So unless the party can find a buyer who'se looking for a particular size of adamantine door, they'll be out of luck selling them. Iron Defenders: Unless the party bash their way in through the doors or wall, or they are foolishly unobservant going in through the roof, this can turn into a turkey-shoot. Basically, the party can just sit back and throw arrows, alchemist's fire and rubble at the dogs until they fall over. Saber: Be very careful when you get to this encounter. If the party decided to forego rest, or if they fell particularly foul of the iron defenders and the shocking grasp trap, they may be in poor shape now, might even have one or two downed party members. In such a case, you might put Saber in a less-than-totally-healthy state too - maybe he's had to fight off a horrid rat or two himself - and make him utterly committed to reclaiming the schema. If he clearly has the uper hand, he'll bargain with the remaining party members for it, and retreat as soon as he has it, rather than risking standing and fighting even against badly wounded foes.
Armorlord 01-07-06, 12:03 PM	Once we finish them all I'm going to have to start a thread on pre-written adventure breaking. For now I'll share a few experiences with Forgotten Forge. We went in with a two man 1st level party, an unnamed at the time Cyran Warforged cleric of Onatar (with Adamantine Body and Improved Damage Reduction with a Flaw of Unreactive) and a Talenta Halfling Ranger without his mount. With the starting money not spent on armor the warforged loaded up a heavy pack and some bags with tools and random useful things and some odd ball stuff. The Bridge: After running into reach other (literally) the two exchanged words, the 'forged confused as to why the halfling didn't love all the contruction marvels. Enter the beginning of the adventure. They also looked over the side, only to have the opposing warforged swing up the opposite side while they were looking the other way. A rough fight to be sure, the cleric dropping a couple rounds before the halfling managed to land a blow to drop Cutter. Fortunately the halfling had a charisma bonus enough to keep from being attacked by the guards with his bad rolls. By some fortune someone had a repair spell prepared among them and belived the halfling enough to 'help that one, he must know what was going on'. So the Cleric with no cha bonus rolls well enough to agree to be held while his story is checks out- having a church to confrim who you are can be very useful sometimes. The Sewer: MarkB's post explains why those valves only ended up hurting the one that tried to run away. The halfling was off moving ahead of the slow-arse 'forged, even though he resented being called 'scout'. Missed one hiding in the stairwell and got to the ones at the water, meanwhile the cleric ends up attacked from behind. All in all it went decently, and the halfling chased and shot at the final messanger for as long as he could. DM nearly turned purple when the cleric started trying to saw his way through the grate at the opposite end from where the Door turned out to be, before the halfling got bored and wandered the other direction and found it. They climb down (who is crazy for buying 200ft of rope now?).. Beetle Swarm: Cake walk. The cleric stocked up on more alchemist's fire, he already had a one and some lamp oil, the halfling bought high-proof subtances to double as 'supplies'. The cleric lowered the halfling down from the opening, and when the noises started right away he just pulled him back up again. Handing fires to the halfling they started flame right in front of the hole, the cleric smashed oil on the side of the wall next to the opening (lighting when it dripped down to the fire below, and by that point the halfling threw fire behind the swarm to cut it off, topped them off with high-proof then drank some as they waited for everything to burn out. Horrid Rats: Ow. See also: OW. The halfling was taking it bad from the start on this one, got to the point fast where a cure minor wouldn't help him survive another round, so then the Warforged unfastens his pack with a crash and scoops the halfling onto his shoulders. From there is was still a long, if comical fight. The Warforged didn't move from that spot and just swung at the rats while the halfling fired down at them. With the shield and armor the forged was just as hard to hit, but couldn't hit them to save his life, while the halfling was doing considerably better. Managing to limp away intact, the party was fortunate to investigate the temple first. Which the cleric found do be something of a holy revelation to find a sanctuary of his chosen deity at this time and place. Fortunately, since we hadn't established what time it was, the DM allowed the cleric to pray for his spells while they rested. The Forge and the Defenders: After looking around it for a bit, then sending the halfling up top to look around, they find hole in the roof. A dozen failed climb checks later and trying to rope up there to give him a bonus, the Warforged makes it to the roof as well. A couple simple tests later- lower halfling in: Grrr "Pull me BACK UP!", halfling in view from hole: Grrr, Warforged holding the book, a shield with the crests of Cannith and Cyre, and wearing a holy symbol: No Grrr. So, with the halfling staying out of view, the Cleric goes down alone. Searches the room, searches some more, takes a twenty, tried making a key for the forge-holes bzap a few times, gets hinted at about the pile of rubble, tries to move the large piece, fails, gets out his crowbar and pries it off. Aaaww, poor iron defender. Finds one of the 'keys'. He declares that he would not harm these ancient noble defenders, considering them works of Cannith under the grace of Onatar. So he lays down his weapons gets out the same tools he'd use on himself and declares that he is going to service the Iron Defenders, reasoning that they been down here a while and that they could use some oiling, cleaning, polishing. Keeping the journal and such well displayed, he makes his craft checks and the Dm allows him to make search checks in the process to locate a release for the keys. Succeeding at this (no you aren't able to repair the smashed one), he gets the stuff out of the hidden room, and everything he can't carry out he seals in it. Goes back out the roof leaving the doors closed. Saber: Another painful one, the fight ended up being next to the forge building since the party took cover once fired at. Eventually the halfling climbs the rope back to the roof and starts trying to aid another by distracting Saber. At one point the cleric considered trying to get back in an release the Defenders, but decided against it after failing his climb and getting AoO'ed. But eventually they manged to fight him until he tried to flee, but the halfling finally got to make some decent ranged attacks and dropped him. The halfling is still walking around with Saber's head in his pack. The Cleric fully intends on returning there one day and restoring the temple and the forge, thus birthing his name of Restorer. Much high fiving between the two players for surviving the 4 person adventure. :dancin::w00t:
scarhead 01-07-06, 12:47 PM	I ran this last night with five players; warforged fighter, elven cleric, elven rogue, shifter ranger, and changeling wizard. Bridge: The party took out the warforged in two rounds, without taking any damage. Three of them had high diplomacy rolls and were able to be paid by SGT Dolom for preserving the peace. Sewer: The shifters took down the rogue while the warforged blocked the passegeway so the rest of the group could not assist. Soon after the warforged was killed and the cleric was able to save the rogue before he bled out and the shifters were easily dispatched. Swarm: The wizard had a scroll of burning hands which reacted quite nicely with the two flasks of oil that the warforged had thrown on the swarm. Instant bar-b-q. Horrid Rats: Toughest encounter for the party by far. Early in the fight the warforged missed his attack by one and since action points are new and he forgot about them and didn't realize how tough the rats were to hit, he didn't use an action point. That proved to be a fateful decision, for no one would touch the rats again for at least five rounds. Before the fight was over at least every character except the warforged had been reduced to 0 or fewer hit points. Luckily for the party they had purchased healing potions with their up-front money from Elaydren. That is the only thing that allowed them to survive this battle as they all rolled poorly and didn't hit the rats for a long time, and the rats do lots of damage. Having low hit points for your only weakness doesn't matter too much when no one can hit you. Forge: This was comical as the party only had one rope and it was still hanging in the entrance tunnel so they could get out. They were all able to climb the walls fine, but the warforged without thinking it through just decided to jump into the room. 10 points of damage (8 after DR) and a few Iron Defender attacks later warforged is at -5 on the floor and no one else wants to jump in because the fall damage would probably knock them unconcious. I allow them missile fire at the dogs as they are around the warforged body and they manage to finish off the one the warforged wounded before he went down. The other dog is uninjured however, and begins to gnaw on the warforged. The have one scroll of feather fall (because they were afraid about falling off the towers) and cast it on the cleric who enters the fray. He casts a healing on the warforged to take him to one point, they gets mauled by the dog and taken to 0 hp. Warforged attacks from the prone until the cleric backs up fighting defensively. Warforged gets up and finished the dog. Pretty tight, since they didn't have a rope. They all get into the room but can't get out throught the doors due to Arcane Lock. With no other way to get out I allow them to move the forge and pile other rubble and debris until they can climb out. Saber: The first out the rogue who takes a flaming crossbow bolt in the chest and is reduced to 0 hp. He yells "medic!" and retreats to the middle of the roof where he lays prone. Warforged climbs down the wall and moved towards Saber, who gladly lays down his crossbow and goes to meet him in combat. Party warforged does remarkably well against Saber (due to 18 STR and great axe) who winds up fleeing and cut down by the ranger. Everyone had fun. One thing to change is definitely the position of the warforged rogue in the sewers. The battle never made it to the valves so that fun part of the combat never happened. One thing to make sure of is that the party has enough rope. That little bit with the forge nearly cost the warforged his life.
Armorlord 01-08-06, 01:44 PM	Everyone had fun. One thing to change is definitely the position of the warforged rogue in the sewers. The battle never made it to the valves so that fun part of the combat never happened. One thing to make sure of is that the party has enough rope. That little bit with the forge nearly cost the warforged his life. Rule Number Two That All Adventurers Should Live By: You can never EVER have too much rope. Rule One is of course: Don't Die. No, not even if you like that PrC with it as a requirement. And advice to all heavy armored warforged- Climb/Jump/Tumble are NOT your friends. See Also: Rule 2. All and all, it's fun adventure and it sounds like most people have at least a couple near-death moments. Let's face it, an adventure the almost kills you is always more fun than one that doesn't pose a serious threat.
JoshuaWilhoyte 01-10-06, 07:16 PM	I have to agree, the toughest fights were really the Swarms and the Horrid Rats. If you aren't ready for them, they suck. Especially if you're players don't know the Swarm's weaknesses (or don't metagame it).
cactusblue 01-11-06, 01:18 PM	I downsized some encounters for the group I DMed. I made the beetle swarm a spider swarm (CR 1 and 2 less HD), I had only 1 horrid rat, and I made Saber 2 HD instead of 3 HD. The party retreated and healed up after the swarm attack. They never fought the horrid rat. Even after all of that, Saber took the party out (they used action points to stabilze) and stole the schema for himself. I could have had Saber coup-de-graced the whole party, but I had no desire to spend an evening making new PCs again. A tough adventure for some seasoned players even when I reduced the challenge.
LugWrench 01-11-06, 03:37 PM	My players did alright, considering I ran the adventure before the errata and such was available. The bridge wasnt too rough. The warforged landed a few solid blows, but was unable to finish people off. A few blown diplomacy rolls later, and the artifacer spends the night in jail for 'disturbing the peace'. The valves didnt do much. The group made their spot checks right off the bat, and were able to take the warforged rogue down pretty fast, despite being single-filed in a stairway. The two shifters waited and mugged the first person to enter the valve chamber proper. Again, minimal damage spread out over the party. The group was adequately prepared for the beetles. They barely broke stride going over them. The horrid rats, on the otherhand, nearly killed the partys rogue. The cleric did some impressive combat medicine to get the rogue back on her feet. The group wisely decided that the chapel was a good place to rest up for a while, though they were baffled by the fountain and its contents. I gave them a bit of a warning about the Iron Defenders ("You think you see two orbs that could be eyes reflecting your torchlight, inside the structure, but they are only there for a second.....'). The warforged led the way, and with a good series of dice rolls, turned the first Defender into scrap in less than three rounds. The second defender managed to lay a solid shot on the artifacer, but was quickly put down. After the rogue took a mild zap from the trapped forge, the group had their loot, and was ready to go. Then things went to Khyber.... On the way out, Saber took a shot from his crossbow and scored a critical on the warforged fighter. Second round, same results. Two criticals to the chest, and the warforged was face-down on the floor. The party managed to keep Saber at bay, while the cleric laid some healing on the warforged to get him (barely) operable again. My party managed to survive this thing, as is, but nearly lost two characters in the process. Still, a good time was had by all.
altharis 01-14-06, 12:35 AM	Great tips guys, i'll be using them in my upcoming campaign. Thanx, Altharis the messenger.