Then this month's, the first paragon adventure in the path, and it seems like the end of an adventure... not an adventure in and of itself. No write up on the town of Talar. Why are the adventurers supposed to care about this place. Also, Meghan Swiftblade has been cool to the party up until this point. Why would the party want to help her out.
Why are we killing off the only real villain we have in the AP? Now we have to start the process all over again. And one other thing. How is the party supposed to get back to Overlook when they are left standing on the top of that tower in the Sea of Fire?
Sorry for the rant, just want some story instead of a filler and then a quick chase.
This is an adventure path. It is not modules. It is not independent, it is a path, relying on the previous modules for explanation. While it is ideal to have modular adventures that can be used independently, this goal is hurting the more important goal of creating a path of adventures that are coherent and have underlying story flow. The same problem I feel is present in 4th edition. The default setting is not the forgotten realms setting and it is not the Eberron setting. Instead of saying everything is core, make distinct campaigns where stories flow naturally. Giving thousands and thousands of options means it is harder to choose exactly one story, one adventure, one campaign, or one module to play.
Anyone else with a more positive view?
Tom
My problem is that there is hardly any development in the story. If the next installment isn't any better II might just take over the narrative after the Temple Between.
My thought when I saw this village mentioned was that at least it allows for a little foreshadowing for me when I run the campaign. The party will definitely move through this village a few times through the campaign before this module and during those times there is an opportunity to portray it as a quiet little sleepy village. The party can spot and maybe chat to Meghan at the inn one night when passing through and she can say that she lives here, so they have that knowledge up front. They could also meet the man who lives in the Tower (don't have the module with me so can't recall his name). Also the Tower itself will be an obvious feature to this village so mentioning it earlier in the campaign will be more good foreshadowing. The party might even have reason to go there to talk to the owner at some stage.
This is one of the massive advantages to waiting till the whole campaign is out before running it. I can foreshadow all the places I need to when I know what will happen.
The village is left well open for development by us if required but gives enough to go on - I like that. Of course if you develop it yourself and they return here later in the AP, your development might screw up what's to come but that is always a risk.
Anyway, I didn't think it was too bad and I did love the idea of adventuring within sight of the City of Brass! Cool location!
Blakey
I am wondering where the plot is going to go from here with Sarshan defeated, but I'm not too worried.
Posted by PDS:
No write up on the town of Talar. Why are the adventurers supposed to care about this place. Also, Meghan Swiftblade has been cool to the party up until this point. Why would the party want to help her out.
Is your party entirely amoral and/or evil? If so, just do something like a) have Megan offer a reward for someone who can solve her problems, and/or b) really follow up on the bounty Sarshan placed on the PCs heads, making them want to get rid of 'whoever did that', and add some evidence suggesting it's the same person going after Megan. I don't think most parties will have a problem with this, as the general assumption is that your party is at least mainly composed of people with heroic intent.
As for how they get off of the tower at the end... paragon tier adventurers are resourceful. They've probably either got a) a short-term means of flight or b) some kind of teleportation ritual to help them out. If the party can't do any of that, it's pretty easy for you to Deus Ex Machina them out of it. Have some Efreeti from the nearby City of Brass come by, ostensibly investigating the recent disturbances at the tower. Maybe make it an interaction skill challenge, with the reward being the Efreeti transporting the players to safety in the City of Brass without too much questioning, or something like that. Use your imagination.
Show
Adding to that the fight on the tiny islands that starts you near a guy that can push everyone into the lava? That sounds like a recipe for a TPK.
I'm wondering if anyone has tried creating something like an AP Outline from the modules that have been created so far, possibly with some ideas on ways to inject foreshadowing into the earlier ones? This seems like a pretty cool project (I know I'd be willing to contribute, were the project structured as such).
I plan on starting SoW at some point in a few months, but the idea of reading ALL of the modules released at that point in an attempt to get a coherent plot is somewhat daunting. It'd be nice to work collaboratively with others instead, share out the work ya know?
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1151740
http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/250357-dungeon-163-beyond-mottled-tower-2.html#post4666232