Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 TheBigBZ Oct 16, 2014 6:52:42	Anybody have any tips for a new (old) DM running this?  Can't seem to find a lot out there on Ep 4.  Have many people run it? What's the best way to narrate the travel?   Thanks
#2 Guest283680897 Oct 16, 2014 13:34:01	I personally skipped much of the travel until after Baldur's gate
#3 jerryb78 Oct 16, 2014 14:09:50	I can't help much but I'm prepping this episode now as well.  I understand why it's laid out the way that it is so that it fits into the structure of Encounters, but I can't help but feel that they missed out on alot of fertile ground for adventure between Greenest and starting the journey out of Baldur's Gate.   My high level thoughts so far are that I want to do a little bit of exploration in Elturel before finding Ontharr followed by some of the contests laid out in the module.  On the way from Elturel to Baldur's Gate, I'm going to create one or two encounters to occur on the river.  (ambush, storm, etc.)  Finally, since the party will most likely arrive in Baldur's Gate a week before the cultists, I'm going to plan about a session worth of city adventures that are unrelated to the overall arc of HotDQ.  The Murder in Baldur's Gate campaign guide is a really good source of information/inspiration.
(Reply to #3) TheBigBZ	Actually, I think I have a plan.  My party let Frulam Mondath escape so I think have them have to assassinate her in BG before the wagons depart so that they can join without being recognised. That will give them a little bit of a chance to chill out in BG a big and explore and shop and things cause it's been quite directed and puah puah so far.   Then they can start their journey and I'll run the second half of the journey with Episode 5 which feels a bit thin as is.
#5 Theros Oct 17, 2014 3:39:22	The text says encounters with bandits, humanoid clans, and roving monsters are appropriate. I can see why the developers left it up to the DM to fill this part out. This is a logical point for DM’s to start creating their own content and diverge from the module.   I think another likely explanation is that there’s only so much space you can put in the book and they needed to progress the story.   As for me, my players kept the dragon eggs so I worked in a plot thread that Leosin’s monk order (in Elturel) would love to hatch the eggs themselves in order to discover if chromatic dragons are evil by nature, or if a nurturing upbringing can make them good.   For the road encounters I’ve created a bandit clan called the “Imbéciles sans frontiers” (fools without boarders). Their plan is to steal the eggs while the party is asleep and raise the dragons as their own.   I wanted to road test some ranger, warlock, and rogue builds and this is a good opportunity in the module to do that.
#6 Eugee Oct 20, 2014 10:32:09	I'll have the trip to Elturel be fairly uneventful.  I'll let them fool around with Ontharr and the gang as long as they find it interesting, but I'd rather get them up to BG and start the long journey then.  There will be plenty of encounters along the way then, and really the trip to BG is the first breather they've had since the start of the campaign.   And they dropped Langdedrosa and Frulam in the same fight (plus the two berserkers) so I think they've earned some peace and quiet for once.   I like that the module really leaves it open.   All that said, Science shows us that you should have one random encounter on the journey.