Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 skrapsan Jun 29, 2012 13:11:49	OK so this autum I'm going to run a group of new gamers through the old adventure chain that contained the following adventures. Forgotten forge. Shadows of the last war. Wisper of the vampires blade. Grasp of the emerald claw. I have played another group through forgotten forge, shadows of the last war and wispers of the vampires blade, a few years ago. But we never got around to grasp of the emerald claw. I havent studied it in detail, more skimmed through it. But it seems a bit anticlimatic at the end... And even though the ruins are cool and all, I feel like there is a bit to many rooms, it seems a bit to dungeoncrawly for it to be a realy cool thing. Yeah sure its cool to be "back where it all started" but well I dont find a dungeon crawl to be all that climatic, it sort of removes the notion of hurry that one might have. Anyways, my question for tonight is as follows: 1. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this questline, what worked and what didnt work. 2. Any sugestions to how to spice up the last part in the jungle. The part with the dire shark and sahuagins are a keeper. 3. Any other advice you might have. here are my thoughts so far: Forgotten forge, have the last warforged who ambushes the party have some sort of minion. so there is two of them. include some foreshadowing of the Emerald Claw perhaps. they are after all the second main bad guys. shadows of the last war. do something to realy make Darguun stand out. do something to make the mournland realy stand out. wispers of the vampires blade. let the final encounter get a little more pulpy, it was fine the last time. But Lucan was feeling a little bit weak at the end. grasp of the emerald claw. i havent really goten to think about that. so any help is apriciated.
#2 Orkbard Jun 29, 2012 16:17:33	I am currently doing just this, what a coincidence.  I will be putting any interesting developments, especially since my players tend to take directions the writers of adventures never seem to have considered, here maybe that will help.  I haven't made many modifications yet to Shadows, Whispers or Grasp, but the few things I have done is add a few extras to the encounters. What I have done is: Running this for PCs of 2nd level. I bumped up Cutter by a level by adding Rogue for when she suprises the PCs on the skybridge.  Planning on making the goblin in the Rat Market more of a shrewed haggler, requiring the PC to role-play, but allowing dice if they get stumped. Adding a couple of extra feral shifters aiding the warforged in the sewer. Saber has a couple of spiked & bladed Iron Defenders to aid him that are rigged to releasse a smoke cloud to aid in Saber's escape. The Iron Defenders are in place to flank the PCs. On top of that I've bumped him up a level.
#3 skrapsan Jun 30, 2012 1:52:17	That would be great. I ask one of my players what he remembered from the adventure chain. And he remembered alot. He did not quite remember Garrow, the changeling vampire "wanabee" so I guess I need to present him a bit bether next time. I also found a house for them to live in in Sharn. They seemed to enjoy it, so I was thinking of actually adding a bit of "comunity service" for them. So that they feel a litte bit more invested in the world. Perhaps root out a local bad guy problem, that has an conection to the emerald claw. I read somewhere that the final encounter in grasp has a cool background. But that it wasnt really all that there. So It was recomended that one added some terain effects or similar things. Just a few thoughts from the top of my head right now.
#4 Ogiwan Jun 30, 2012 5:40:08	Thinking about it.....the weakest thing about that thread is that Garrow is a great baddie in SotLW, but in WotVB and GotEC, he really isn't that prevalent or noticeable. Which is a shame, because he's a great character! A changeling pretending to be a vampire? That's awesome. Anyways. Your ideas for the first three mods are solid. Eberron is about feel, so, you have to work that in. Now, working in what I remember of GotEC......ditch the boulder trap and Wail of the Banshee trap. Both of those are just BS. You might need to also work in more Emerald Claw/Garrow interference throughout the story chain. I can review GotEC later and give you more ideas, but I'd like for others to chime in.
#5 Orkbard Jun 30, 2012 19:34:11	If you play in my game, and you know who you are, don't read this. You have been warned. One thing that ended up happening was I had a Warforged trying to recruit the Warforged artificer in the group and then I had, did not occur to me until after that this might be a problem, the Lord of Blades agents targeting her. It just kind of happened that way based n PC placement.  So the session ended right after the warforged rogue beat feet after the last shifter got beheaded by a halfling with a talenta sharrash, this player always crits on crazy moves, so what I decided after the realization occurred is that the Warforged that is trying to recruit the artificer is going to take out the Warforged that escaped. Causing it to fall back down the stairs with holes blasted through it. Hinting at who may have been "helping" them with the runner. A flash of magical light or something.  Since this goes against the other Warforged plans to get the artificer. As far as the EC go the party has had a couple of run ins with them already so there is a growing animosity there.
#6 skrapsan Jul 01, 2012 10:13:45	OK here is one of my thoughts on Forgotten forge. To change the encounter in the sewers from a warforged and shifters and into three emerald claw soldiers, one sergeant (rouge) and two regulars warriors. It would foreshadow the other adventures a bit more. In Shadows of the last war the Emerald Claw presence is quite good. As well as the warforged presence, I was thinking that perhaps some of the warforged should chase them through the city as they try to travel for Darguun. Only thing that I was wondering is if all the encounters in the research area is all that necessary... When it comes to Whisper of the vampires blade I think that Lucan should also possess some ragamuffin connected to the schemas as well. Just to explain why Garrow wants him. As I find it to be a bit that he suddenly shows up in an airship and crashes with you. Perhaps he could be at the gala as well. It would at least give the players more to think about, if they spot him at least. This would also help explain why the warforged is chasing down Lucan. As I find “we want all the PCs want, a bit thin on the motivation side. Now as I understand it, the Garrow & Sabre encounter/final showdown in Grasp of the Emerald claw is a bit uninteresting but I still haven't really read that part yet, so I might be wrong. Well that's all my thoughts for now. (edited to remove double copy paste of post).
#7 Ogiwan Jul 01, 2012 10:57:04	OK here is one of my thoughts on Forgotten forge. To change the encounter in the sewers from a warforged and shifters and into three emerald claw soldiers, one sergeant (rouge) and two regulars warriors. It would foreshadow the other adventures a bit more. That's a good suggestion. When it comes to Whisper of the vampires blade I think that Lucan should also possess some ragamuffin connected to the schemas as well. Just to explain why Garrow wants him. ....like when he stole the sword, he also stole a part of the schema from the vaults of the Dark Lanterns?! Another good one! As I find it to be a bit that he suddenly shows up in an airship and crashes with you. Perhaps he could be at the gala as well. It would at least give the players more to think about, if they spot him at least. This would also help explain why the warforged is chasing down Lucan. As I find “we want all the PCs want, a bit thin on the motivation side. True, but Garrow is a shapeshifter. That makes finding him hard.
#8 skrapsan Jul 01, 2012 14:38:06	True, but Garrow is a shapeshifter. That makes finding him hard. That is true, but he has some underlings. And it is possible to have one of them show up and try to stopp the players from chasing after Lucan, this is also the plan of Lucans sister. So that could lead to an interesting enemy of my enemy situation. Also, its nice for the story drive to beat up more and more important badies. Both forged and claws. This would also help explain why they start teaming up at the end of the adventure chain. Because its clear that the players are more than a anoyance, they need to be propperly dealt with, and then they can deal with each other afterwards.
#9 Orkbard Jul 02, 2012 18:14:32	OK here is one of my thoughts on Forgotten forge. To change the encounter in the sewers from a warforged and shifters and into three emerald claw soldiers, one sergeant (rouge) and two regulars warriors. It would foreshadow the other adventures a bit more.   Actually already ran that encounter, but I think I'll put another encounter at the end of the adventure with the Emerald Claw waiting for the PCs to come back up with the schema. After the encounter with Saber at the offical end of the adventure, the players will think their done, (a couple of my players will expect a double cross or ambush anyway) and then be confronted by a small hit squad sent to recover the schema.  I think that will get put into the Rat's Market area. The PCs will notice the lack of scavenging poor people when their confronted by the EC and told to hand over the schema. If/when the PCs defeat them there will be a note with instructions from Garrow, to recover the schema from whoever is recovers the schema from the depths of Sharn.  Or something like that.
#10 skrapsan Sep 04, 2012 7:30:02	I need a travel encounter at sea/onboard a ship for 2nd level 3.5 ed players. The adventure sugests a necromancer on land that sumons some undeads and then vanishes as he sends the undeads to create some trouble for the party. The problem I have with this is that it is no real thought behind the encounter. It makes no sense to me why this man should even be there (sorry Keith). So my thought  is to use something that is not realy going after the PCs, but rather the ship, passengers or something similar. So any ideas?
#11 Ogiwan Sep 10, 2012 14:30:42	Why not an Emerald Claw necromancer that pops in just to mess with the PCs?
#12 Delazar78 Sep 11, 2012 2:38:43	Why not an Emerald Claw necromancer that pops in just to mess with the PCs? like Demise, from Queen with the Burning Eyes!