I know it hasn't been out for long but has anyone started (or even finished) the Ashen Crown adventure? Any advice for someone who is going to be starting it soon? Either I-wish-I'd-thought-of-that-beforehand advice or maybe some pitfalls to avoid?
I have to finish off the Mark of Prophecy adventure first so I thought about foreshadowing some of the people or events to make the two flow naturally together. Has anyone done this or have some suggestions? I'm only about halfway through reading it.
Err... that should be Seekers of the Ashen Crown in the forum title Whoops!
I just started the mark of the prophecy adventure myself, and I will follow with the Ashen crown adventure too. i got nothing to say that would help, but i'm interested in the possible answers =)
We're starting this on Sunday so I'll report back on Monday...I'm pretty excited. Skipped Mark of Prophecy, drew up 2nd level chars and going to dive into the bug hunt.
I recently ran Seekers for a group of 5 players.
The module is combat-heavy, but I have one general thing to share.
The skill challenge on the market place in Graywall was THE highlight of the mod. So don't run it as a skill challenge (my players still don't know what a skill challeng is).Encourage role-play in Graywall as a nice break from all the combats. Have an idea of what your players could come up with (i.e. renting a tent to cover up the excavation) and have some NPCs in mind, and how they react to what the players do.
I wish I have had access to the "Backdrop: Graywall" article (DDI, Keith Baker) before running the mod. I am fairly new to Eberron and didn't really know what Graywall was all about.
After reading that article (and the Droaam info in the ECG) I wanted to run a whole campaign in that land and went to the next bookstore to buy "Queen of Stone". It is rich in detail and a unique place.
So my advise: Use Graywall! Use it for sidequests (outside of the calabas), to introduce future adventures, and use the atmosphere in the city for heavy role-playing opportunities.
That sounds like the info you needed. Hope this isn't unwanted detail in this thread...
Two of our players cancelled, so we lost a few hours calling (awesome) replacements.
We had two brand-new players and three with varying degrees of experience - playing a Githzerai Monk, a Kalashtar Scion, a Gnome Artificer, a Half-Elf Ranger and a Warforged Fighter.
The first encounter went well, although the kruthiks were all bunched together in initiative. There were so many, I think I'd prefer to stagger their arrival through the encounter if I were to run this one again. The ranger and monk took a lot of damage (ranger on 4 HP at one point) but selective use of Gnashing Horde aura got them through alive, along with the cleveer Psion finding the magic item before combat began.
The Gnome found the clue and the key, but the headstrong Warforged insisted on smashing the latch on the door.
This behaviour carried into the next room (I won't even mention the idea floated in the corridor between), wherein the whole party was carefully exploring the room and the puzzle while the Warforged goes straight for the gems in the booby-trapped statue:
Fighter: "Hey, Ranger - lend me one of your magic swords so I can prise these free"
Ranger: "Sure!"
DM: "As he hands you half of the magically paired weapon, it vanishes"
Fighter: "Okay, can I have the other one?"
Ranger: "Um, Su-"
DM: "I'd like everybody else in the room to perform one action before you try again"
Fighter: "Okay - Gnome, can you have a go at getting these out?"
Gnome: "Sure!"
DM: "As you clamber up the statue, the piece of leather falls out of your pocket onto the floor."
Monk: "This could be a clue!"
DM: *Sigh*
Luckily for all concerned, the Psion solved the puzzle without summoning flaming death, and they all made it into the secret passage WITH the gems from the statue. I think this room is great, even if you let your players make the wrong decision.
I'll report back after the next session unless I've bored you all.
I'm on my 3rd session on that adventure, but i reskinned it because my PCs are an Aundarian Royal Eyes mercenaries, and i'll throw the plot to the Mourning after lvl 7 or 8. Seekers is just a fast way to put then all on the game while i'm thinking on the rest.
They passed through the first room without any trouble, and on the rune room they simply pased without even look at the statues, avoiding the runes at all. Since the next door isn't locked, then i cant hold then (because i know that they are going to the "wrong" route). The Dragon's Maw was worthless because of the crappy DCs, and i had to double the number of kruthiks to give then some challenge.
The next 2 rooms was gone as writen, and wasn't bad at all. They stopped the last session in front of Ashurta's door.
Until now, except by the very low DCs (really, perception 12? Almost everyone on the group have that passive value on lvl 2. History 7? Pft), I'm satisfied with the adventure. Its very Eberronish, and the encounters are very well done.
For starters, i just recommend what i say to everyone: Read all the adventure before start DM it. Much things are well conected only in the end, and you need to know that to give "hints" to your players, so they can even find some stuff by themselves.
SPOILERS!!!
I finished Mark of Prophecy last night, and will be jumping into Ashen Crown next week. I did a bit of foreshadowing by having Professor Nephret at the Mourning memorial ceremony (since it is held in the university district) and by having Captain Kaeles in charge of the watchmen who responded to the ruckus created by the PC's at Aric Blacktree's house, having been tipped off by Bren ir'Gadden. I tied them together by having the two of them as former comrades in the Citadel. Hopefully this mean's it will be easier to get my players to go along with the Captain's schemes, since they'll already know him.
The module is combat-heavy, but I have one general thing to share.
Most published adventures are, but I have been seeing a lot of RP for our group (we are at the Moonwell*). So either our DM added a lot of RP, or our group is just more prone to talking even if attacked. In my experience, the published adventures contain enough RP potential, but they do not spend that many words on it. It just requires the DM to highlight the potential if the players are of the more aggresive type. Since RP is one of the more group-based aspects of the game I can see why it gets less attention in published adventures. For example, in P2 (so NOT this adventure) there is a conflict going on between two different factions, one of which is willing to make an alliance with the PCs. In the first scene though they attack the PCs. If you want the PCs to talk, and they are anyway like mine in the home campaign I am running, then you better not have them attack. On the other hand, if the players are like in the campaign in which I am a player then there is no need for such a change. The PCs will talk even if attacked.
* And yes, Magicstar, I have just scanned these messages and avoided any true spoilers ;)
SPOILERS!!!
I finished Mark of Prophecy last night, and will be jumping into Ashen Crown next week. I did a bit of foreshadowing by having Professor Nephret at the Mourning memorial ceremony (since it is held in the university district) and by having Captain Kaeles in charge of the watchmen who responded to the ruckus created by the PC's at Aric Blacktree's house, having been tipped off by Bren ir'Gadden. I tied them together by having the two of them as former comrades in the Citadel. Hopefully this mean's it will be easier to get my players to go along with the Captain's schemes, since they'll already know him.
I did something similar. One of the characters works at the university so I just made Prof. Nephret a colleague of his. Then after the ruckus at Aric Blacktree's house I had the party summoned to meet with Captain Kaeles to thank them for their assistance and to ask them to keep quiet about how close some Sharnites were to being blown to smithereens. With a bit of modification, I'll use the captain to get the group started on the Ashen Crown adventure. So, rather than showing up a few pages in, he shows up at the beginning.
As to how to tie it together, I had the officer they saved give them a house just outside Sharn as a reward for saving him. It gave them a reason to be together and a base of operations. Then I just had him show up with a request for help about the kuthriks.
As for the Ashen Crown module itself. I would recommend increasing all the skill ckecks in the entire module. They are rediculously easy for a well-rounded group. Some of them just don't make sense. For example, there is a DC 12 history check that enables a DC 10 history check.
Besides that, I found the biggest pitfall is the honor fight outside Six Kings. My group ended up in a testing honor fight--and, dispite the help from the other Citadel operative, they lost. There is really no recovery from that loss. My characters were so irritated with the Wordbearers and their "honor fight" that they followed them into Six Kings and destroyed the obelisk once they found out what it did. That pretty much was the end of the adventure. They walked out, met the airship in Greywall, and took it back to Sharn.
Too bad, I made the honor fight have a lot more significance than just convincing the Word Bearers of your intention. I used it as an honor to the Six Kings and to give the PCs some clues on how to deal with certain threats and opportunties below the mountain, including some foreshadowing that one of the seekers wasn't to be trusted entirely.
However I modified quite a lot about the encounter in the mountain to make it more than just a dungeon crawl.I used an overall skill challenge to signify the pervating nature of the Dealkyr here and forced the PCs to lose healing surges on the way. Blood running from their nose, ears and eventually eyes. Hiding a secret temple below which needed to be restored and gave all the players another HS so they would push on another encounter etc.
Something that would work really well and I partially did but couldn't do entirely is in the last combat there. Use the moon pool as a long combat site and make more monsters appear out of the pool unless the PCs detroy all the minions around it. DMG 2 speaks about this, make them aware the minions are the driving force of the ritual giving them more to do then just slaughtering the monsters below and also making their presence more clear. In my Eberron the entire Six Kings is a seal to bind a gate to Khyber, one of my PCs is closely linked to that seal as well.
But a shame your players ran out of the adventure. After Six Kings the RP potential in Graywall is huge, supported by Keiths article on it my PCs are having a blast. Last session ended with all the PCs jumping through an already closing portal Tikulti just used to escape to Sharn.
Now deciding on what to do...