My thoughts on CORE1-8 *SPOILERS* - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 JohnLynch Apr 23, 2009 9:00:09	I've just read through this adventure and I like it. A lot. I feel the 7-10s have mostly been a big improvement over the original 1-4 mods, but this one would have to be in the top 5. I like the alternatives in how to approach the Show earthmote
#2 mikron Apr 26, 2009 2:27:54	I played the mod yesterday and had a very good time. The following spoilers are massive and will ruin your fun with the mod if you haven't played it! Show Our party probably wasn't meant to infiltrate the Monastery the sneaky way. We had a heavily (that's understated) armored dwarven cleric of Moradin that looked a bit odd in the cultist's robes, an elven ranger who is a dedicated defender of the wilds but tends to untamed outburst of anger towards Zhentarim, Netherese and the cult of Shar after his parents were killed by the former and his Dalelands are under threat by the later. Highlight of our "stealthy" party was our dragonborn fighter who doesn't believe in evil deeds ("Don't hurt the monster!") and does not lie. Ever. So our first approach to get up onto the earthmote was to secretly enquire. The dragonborn went to the first person in sight and asked for "directions to the earthmote and the dark Monastery to rescue orphans". :D We quickly sent him off to get hay to feed the hippogriffs in the nearby stables... We had the city watch on our heels quite soon and decided to quickly take a vessel to the elevator. Up we went and stood in front of the massive doors. We tried to bluff our way in by pretending our fourth party member - a female drow - was invited by a high-ranked cultist. She claimed to have been robbed of her invitation letter whilst sleeping while the others (aside from the dragonborn) tried to create a feeling of uneasiness in the guards by stepping away from the dangerous and powerful dark elf. ... the superior of the cultist didn't quite fall for the trick and we had to fight our win in. Well, at least we had robes, now. Dragging one cultist tied, gagged and equipped with a hood into the Monastery worked alright. Our DM created a nice atmosphere with the constant fear of being detected. Luckily, we found a small chamber to interrogate our prisoner. ...it happened to be a boiling room. Drow, hot metal and a cultist's cheek worked wonders, and we soon figured out how to reach the children. (Our poor dragonborn was sitting on the outside, hands covering his ears and telling himself how Jane, the drow, would just ask for the orphans and not hurt the man.) Up the elevator we went - determined to be even more secretly. Given that four cultists (two with deep wounds caused by edged weapons and two burned by fire while trying to climb down the elevator shaft on ropes) AND the elevator dropped crashing down to the ground floor soon, it is save to say that we failed... So here we were: Wrong level, no stairs and no elevator. We eventually made it up, freed the kids, had the dwarf bash a wall to get out of a tunnel leading down and found the stables were we headed into the final encounter. Facing devils, even our dragonborn saw the necessity to hurt things (at least a little), and we quickly got the upper hand. Our ranger rode a hippogriff to take on the flying devils while the drow quickly took out the humans, the dragonborn immobilized the leader and our poor dwarf with her AC 31 tried to jump down from her hiding point while being slowed, dazed and whatnot. We quickly gained the upper hand and soon flew off into the sunset - the children happily sitting on the beast's backs while the dragonborn finally got to feed the flying mounts.
#3 JohnLynch Apr 26, 2009 4:31:50	I was the DM from the game above so here's my notes on the same game, from the perspective of a DM and how I reacted to the situations the players put themselves in ;) Show We had the city watch on our heels quite soon and decided to quickly take a vessel to the elevator.
#4 Madfox11 Apr 27, 2009 3:14:48	Good to know you had fun. Show You were correct about the location of the kids, and I am sure it is somewhere in the adventure. You were also correct about how I envisioned the elevators would work, and if it is not in the adventure, I might accidently have cut it to save space. Other then removing the staircase (there is central stairwell that runs along the Great Fall that connects virtually all levels) I don't think you changed much ;)

Show

Our party probably wasn't meant to infiltrate the Monastery the sneaky way.

We had a heavily (that's understated) armored dwarven cleric of Moradin that looked a bit odd in the cultist's robes, an elven ranger who is a dedicated defender of the wilds but tends to untamed outburst of anger towards Zhentarim, Netherese and the cult of Shar after his parents were killed by the former and his Dalelands are under threat by the later.

Highlight of our "stealthy" party was our dragonborn fighter who doesn't believe in evil deeds ("Don't hurt the monster!") and does not lie. Ever.
So our first approach to get up onto the earthmote was to secretly enquire.
The dragonborn went to the first person in sight and asked for "directions to the earthmote and the dark Monastery to rescue orphans". :D

We quickly sent him off to get hay to feed the hippogriffs in the nearby stables...

We had the city watch on our heels quite soon and decided to quickly take a vessel to the elevator.
Up we went and stood in front of the massive doors.

We tried to bluff our way in by pretending our fourth party member - a female drow - was invited by a high-ranked cultist. She claimed to have been robbed of her invitation letter whilst sleeping while the others (aside from the dragonborn) tried to create a feeling of uneasiness in the guards by stepping away from the dangerous and powerful dark elf.
... the superior of the cultist didn't quite fall for the trick and we had to fight our win in. Well, at least we had robes, now.

Dragging one cultist tied, gagged and equipped with a hood into the Monastery worked alright.
Our DM created a nice atmosphere with the constant fear of being detected.
Luckily, we found a small chamber to interrogate our prisoner.
...it happened to be a boiling room. Drow, hot metal and a cultist's cheek worked wonders, and we soon figured out how to reach the children.
(Our poor dragonborn was sitting on the outside, hands covering his ears and telling himself how Jane, the drow, would just ask for the orphans and not hurt the man.)

Up the elevator we went - determined to be even more secretly.

Given that four cultists (two with deep wounds caused by edged weapons and two burned by fire while trying to climb down the elevator shaft on ropes) AND the elevator dropped crashing down to the ground floor soon, it is save to say that we failed...

So here we were: Wrong level, no stairs and no elevator.

We eventually made it up, freed the kids, had the dwarf bash a wall to get out of a tunnel leading down and found the stables were we headed into the final encounter.
Facing devils, even our dragonborn saw the necessity to hurt things (at least a little), and we quickly got the upper hand.
Our ranger rode a hippogriff to take on the flying devils while the drow quickly took out the humans, the dragonborn immobilized the leader and our poor dwarf with her AC 31 tried to jump down from her hiding point while being slowed, dazed and whatnot.
We quickly gained the upper hand and soon flew off into the sunset - the children happily sitting on the beast's backs while the dragonborn finally got to feed the flying mounts.