Grand Conjunction Problems

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Re: Grand Conjunction Problems

Post by Quinntonia »

Hamiclar wrote:Port d' ElHour 15 miles north of the village. The town is a port town and a way to get the group moving, the ship of horror would be a good starting point. Being that its a port different cultures would be encountered all the time. I had thief guilds, halfings organized, pirates which were there with another ship it had chased from the fog from Boston pre colonial.

Ah OK. I guess I haven't had them interact with anyone outside of the small town in the module. And I first had them lost and wandering in teh swamp for a few days being attacked by giant frogs and dire crocs. Now that they are here, things started to happen and they have sort of gotten caught up in events. They have now heard of Port d'Elhour but haven't ventured out yet.

I am trying to play this straight as I read it in the module, the books, and the Gazetteer. They seem to suggest that while there is some limited trade coming from the Core, I think they specifically mention Darkonian merchants, but also mention in some of the sources that the Mistways are very treacherous and few chance it. This, added by the constant mentioning of how haughty and hypocritical the upper classes are, and their belief, against all evidence that they are the most cultured and pristine people in the world, rather than the squabbling upper classes of shitty backwater, led me to play it that even if the Port ha a few foreigners, they would not be common. So, the module mentions that one of the shops in the Tarascon Village is a dwarf from another world, and I made the dude that died when the Zombie Lord passed by the inn a Darkonian representative of a merchant house that deals in Souragne.

I am also planning that they never really get to the Port after this whole thing ends as they will meet with the Vistani from the beginning of Touch of Death on the road out of town.
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Re: Grand Conjunction Problems

Post by Hamiclar »

All good, I ran the module but changed the plantation part because my thief broke into it. Was a real fun encounter the ghoul house staff met him when he went to the lower floor.

I ran the city intro after the module adventure, but had made reference to the town when the group was in the cemetery the hill actually overlooks the road leading to the town to the north. I actually also had the group travel north looking for the water craft to chicken bone's hutt which I had the people share rumors with Bard. Was real fun when the Palidan and cleric went into the swamp and were attacked by a alliagator which attempted to tip the craft over but the charectors made there saves.
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Re: Grand Conjunction Problems

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Yeah, we aren't quite there yet.
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Re: Grand Conjunction Problems

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Alright, so to update the campaign:

They had left off with having saved the Masked Madman's last victim and then lost him as he sprang from rooftop to rooftop faster than they could follow.

They called the Constable, healed the girl, and returned her to her family after questioning her briefly.

For whatever reason (possibly because one of the PCs is slowly going insane and thinks everyone they fight are "constructs") they gathered a blood sample and gave it to their mage, who is also a pretty rocking alchemist, to ensure that what they were fighting was human.

Well, at this point a Darkonian visiting nobleman reached out to the gnomish mage and promised him magical knowledge and power and possibly a faculty position at the magical university in Il-Aluk where his research could be funded and he would have access to their library. And he may have intimated that his king, Azalin, while he rarely takes on apprentices, sees much promise in him and then left him with a Ravenloft specific spell as a gift and show of good faith in return for reporting on everything he knew and noticed about the party to the Kargat agents within various large centres, or to write missives and send them to Il-Aluk.

Then, the same Kargat agent contacted the Darkonian knight that they had recently started to travel with and identified himself as an agent of "their" king and appealed to his sense of patriotism and basically the fact that he was Kargat and this knight had heard enough stories to be intimidated, in order to get him to do the same.

Finally, an aged Professor who identified himself as Darkonian contacted the cleric of the group, Father Max, and basically explained that he was a member of a the FoS and needed his help to keep tabs on this group as they were believed to be at the centre of a "great prophecy."

The Cleric and the Mage, who had become close friends in the group, confided, to an extent, with eachother about the contacts.

Following all of this, they decided that they would go to the Plantation House, which meant that they could re-arm the knight as they had left city limits.

They soon came upon a group of zombies that were attacking some townies. During the melee, the cleric turned the zombies, destroying them outright, but before he got in range, the zombies had managed to kill a couple of the townies and injure the rest. As they were tending to the wounds of the living, the dead townies then raised as zombies and had to be turned. Then, the townies dropped dead. The cleric actually got bit as one of the ones that dropped dead reanimated as a zombie, which saw him making a Fort save to stave off the infection.

In this set up, they were kind of annoyed, but it dawned on them they could get infected and die, even if they had a bunch of hit points left, and that should set them up for the later zombie horde.

They got to the plantation house, went around back and saw the ghouls sitting down to their feast of the young murder victim, only to have the mage decide to batter the entire room to death in an ice storm, which brought that combat to a premature close. Meh. But I did have Luc appear as an apparition and give them the second verse in the prophecy.

They then searched the house and camped there the night before heading back to town, where they contacted Father Brucien and Constable Gremin to explain about the house and the zombies, before demanding that Constable Gremin let them impose a type of "martial law" since as far as they were aware ghouls and zombies were roaming the countryside in large numbers and they wanted to save the townspeople by making them stay in their homes. After some finagling, Gremin and Brucien agreed, but warned that they wouldn't be able to convince the townspeople for long.

They got a key to the Tarascon Townhouse and borrowed a tall ladder (they took the one designed to get on the roof of the church for repairs) and split up. The Lamordian musketman/fighter and the outlander rogue/team leader took the key to search for Jean, who they thought was missing at this stage and went to the townhouse. The rest (gnomish mage, outlander cleric, Darkonian knight, Formorian Druid from southern Barovia) went to the old graveyard to try and get in using the ladder. The cleric cast something that would allow him to know if they other team was hurt, and away they went.

So, the first group went to the townhouse and started searching, only to get snuck up on by Jean in his Masked Madman outfit and the fighter got sneak attacked bad. He then proceeded to fight the both of them, while his magic blades (short sword and dagger) healed him as he damaged his opponents. The other group dropped everything they were doing and ran to help, but were met on the road by a group of ghasts. They proceeded to make pretty short work of them, but it tied them up for a bit. The fight in the townhouse went on for awhile and Jean took the both of them to almost death, with the fighter pulling back to quaff a healing potion at one stage and still ending combat at 9 HP and the rogue pulling back to quaff two healing potions and ending the combat with only 16. Both felt like they were one round away from death for a couple of rounds, which is exactly the kind of fear I wanted them to have.

I ended the session as they dropped Jean, which caused the rogue to pull an axe and take off his head, just to be sure, and the rest of the group arrived breathlessly at the doorway to see the bloody scene.

Overall, a packed session with a tonne going on, but everything went pretty well.
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Re: Grand Conjunction Problems

Post by Hamiclar »

I was wondering how much involvement does the Kargat have with the group? I was going to have them introduced when my group goes to Gundarak.
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Re: Grand Conjunction Problems

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So I have had them start to sniff around. And just see where it goes. I want there to be the sense of dark forces interested in them, but also have the Fraternity of Shadows lurking. Interestingly the players are really having a tough time believing that the FoS are not part pf the dark forces. I am also going to start to work on ensuring that there are hints that whenever they run into the Vistani theier every move is being reported.
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Re: Grand Conjunction Problems

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Nice, I was debating on having them take Hyskoka from his troop which comes into play later, or have the group meet a kargatene branch in town in Borovia. Been a good read so far, my bad guy was noble/thief. The final confrontation was Monty Python style. The bard cassed a sleep spell which was successful the Palidan went to execute him but rolled a critical failed, which caused him to trip and fall on the sleeping killer and woke him up. The fight was fast as it should have been. The final scene I ran in a separate session, which when ended had the dwarf sorc slaying him
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Re: Grand Conjunction Problems

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So we finally were able to get together and finish off the "Night of the Walking Dead" module. It was pretty badass.

Basically, in the last couple of sessions they decided to make their way to the the Tarascon Plantation House. On the way there they found a group of locals getting attacked by bloated zombies from the bayou. They helped the people by having the cleric turn the zombies, which destroyed them with his roll, and then when they got closer, they found that a couple of the locals had been injured, with a few more dead. Of course, since I was going to use infectious zombies, the ones that were dead rose again and attacked, which caused the cleric to turn them. Then while they were dealing with the wounds, the locals fell into a fever and died, and then raises as zombies, which had to be destroyed but not before the cleric who was examining the body got bit and had to make a Fort save or become infected - he made it. This really kind of freaked them out, and they were far more wary of zombies from that point on.

Then they finally arrived at the house, which I played as a very traditional southern plantation where they encountered a much larger group of ghouls dressed in servants' clothes than the module calls for, which was scary for about a half a second when the mage stepped up and ice stormed the entire dining room, which did exactly one HP more damage than was required to kill the stringest among them. Smashed up the dining room pretty good too, but whatevs. They stayed there that night after searching the house, and then went back to the town.

While in the town they decided to split up, with most of the party heading to the graveyard to examine it for threats, and the party leader, an outlander rogue named Zoltan, and a Lamordian rifleman (fighter) named Augustine decided to go back to the Tarscon Townhouse and break in to search it in case they had missed anything when the rogue had searched it previously. Of course, Jean, the Masked Madman, attacked, sneak attacking the fighter into near oblivion before turning his attention to Zoltan and whittling him down to size. At the same time, the rest of the party was ambushed by ghasts, which they dealt with pretty expertly but it very much slowed them down. The other two were in this pitched and frenzied battle, which played out wonderfully, with Jean bringing them both to the brink of death , causing them to protect the other while one of them stepped back to drink a healing potion and then jump back in, and with him healing with every point of damage that he laid out. In the end, two quite high level characters finally prevailed, but one was at 16 HP after quaffing his last potion and the other was at 9. They both felt like the battle could have gone either way, which was awesome and exactly the feel I was going for.

Then, they decided to do more investigating, even as Shaman Brucien and Constable Gremin urged them to the inn for a celebration as they had "saved the town." They would have none of it, and between their piecing together of the prophecy bits from Luc's ghost and the fact that the clouds overhead and the constant rolling thunder never stopped, they were convinced that the danger was not yet over. Of course, I needed them to go to the inn so that the story could continue, so I tried to convince them to come and meet with most of the townspeople who wanted to wish them well.

When Shaman Brucien told the story of Marcel and then Luc appeared to tell them the last nit of prophecy from the Vistani seer and finally a local died and became a zombie, they were already freaked out. That meant that when the man rushed in from the torrent of rain and talked about an army of the walking dead coming to the town, they rushed out. They saw the zombies, and after some quick discussion as they yelled over the gale force winds, they decided to let Constable Gremin go back and try and defend the town as they pressed onto the cememtary. There, they finally entered the Tarascon crypt and a fight ensued with Marcel and his zombie minions keeping everyone busy as they worked there way throuh the whole bunch. They finally destroyed all of the zombies and killed Marcel, and saved the town as I had the zombies collapse with their master.

They then came back to the town and spent most of the rest of the night helping the victims, putting out fires, tending to the wounded, etc. With morning, the sin came, and while the townspeople were grateful, they were now wary of the group, and they were advised that they would give them as many of the supplies as they wanted, but suggested that they make for Port d'Elhour.

Of course, on their way they will encounter some Vistani and move into the next module, "Touch of Death."
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Re: Grand Conjunction Problems

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Huzzah! sounds like a bang-up job. Congrats!
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Re: Grand Conjunction Problems

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Thanks a lot! I really couldn't have done it without the various helps and suggestions that everyone on here provided.

I think I am going to start a thread for "Touch of Death" to get some pointers as well.
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Re: Grand Conjunction Problems

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So I am moving people from Souragne into Har'Akir this weekend, and that part of it should be interesting. Sadly, for such a drastic change, I think I am going to have to rely on the Mists for transport, but from this point on I don't want that to be the default. How has anyone else handled this for the Grand Conjunction?
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Re: Grand Conjunction Problems

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Well, there is the Jackal's ruse Mistway. It leads from the Nocturnal Sea to the deserts of Har'Akir, stranding any ships that come through in the sand. The Wake of the Loa Mistway leads from Souragne to the Nocturnal Sea. Granted, this is still using "the mists" but it's a bit more flavorful than just "the mists drop, the mists rise, poof, you're in Egypt." You could even skip the middleman (the Nocturnal Sea) and say that the Mistways shifted and connected Souragne straight through the Jackal's Ruse to Har'Akir, if that fits your campaign pacing better. Just give your PC's reason to board a boat for the Core, and "you sail into the mists.... oops, you're in Egypt, shipwrecked on a sand dune"
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Re: Grand Conjunction Problems

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That is a really fantastic suggestion. Hmmm. I'm not sure I have time to figure out how to put that in, but wow.
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Re: Grand Conjunction Problems

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I've found that chasing fleeing villains (especially when they're carrying loot!) can give people motivations to flee after people into the Mists. (It's how I got people INTO Ravenloft several times.) Perhaps they could chase Jean Tarason onto a boat if he has survived and stolen something valuable of theirs. Or there might be any other number of enemies in Scouragne that could be worth chasing down. (See the various netbooks or the Scourange gazetteer.)

Another thing that I've found to work to get people to do things is prophecies and warnings of impending doom. Luc (if he survives) could be something of a psychic magnet for where to go to solve the prophecy. The shaman from the module could also work (and could be a back up healer throughout the Grand Conjunction modules if needed).

Another way to get them to the desert domain without necessarily shipwrecking them would be to have Sheneya (weresnake assassin, see Children of the Night: Werebeasts) hire them to accompany her to Har'Akir to retrieve the artifact she's looking for. (You can either substitute something for the Serpent statue that would match fulfilling the prophecy more likely, or have her fabricate a lie of what she is seeking completely.) And then you could run her adventure as a side quest/red herring in between the Conjunction modules to give the campaign some more variety.
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Re: Grand Conjunction Problems

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For that matter, Abu Al Mir's adventure (Akiri werejackal and former associate of Senmet fleeing from Ankhtepot's minions, see Children of the Night Werebeasts) could work with some alteration. Have the werejackal reside in Souragne instead of Port-a-Lucine, and then have his adventure be a prelude/lead in to the Touch of Death. (The mummy chasing him could send telepathic word back to Ankhtepot about the scrolls, which sets about the mummy lord trying to take advantage of the prophecy and sets the second module in motion.) If the characters become marked, that might give them motivation to head to Ankhtepot's domain.
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