Thank you all for your geat comments and suggestions!
Chaderick wrote:Hi, Joel,
I loved this adventure. I normally DM, but this was one of my few opportunities to experience Ravenloft as a player. The gradual degredation of the village was truly horrifying. In the end, we took so long that the village could really mobilize against us.
This adventure has lots of potential to be creepy, indeed!
My character had befriended Myrna Wulch (I believe that was her name), one of the elderly old ladies in town. She came trundling into the street once the fracas began, brandishing an arquebus, and at that point we knew that everything had fallen apart!
Unless your DM changed names, Myrna Wulch is already a podling at the start. I guess you mean the old lady, the school teacher gossip font? Ezra Crumsen?
The only advice that I would give, as both a player and DM, is to look carefully at the effects of the comet once the characters reach it. Some of them (I believe the character's skin turning violet, or his dietary needs changing so that he subsists solely on dirt?) seemed to lack a realistic approach. After such an awesome build up, it seemed less alien and more ...just weird...to have those bizarre effects hit the characters.
I wanted to remove this part indeed. It felt too Gamma World and not Ravenloftish enough. I’ll probably remove the radiation effects unless I think of a creepy effect.
Hope my experience can give you a little help! I know your advice on other threads has helped me over the years!
*blushes*
Chaderick wrote:Oh, and sorry...I forgot to say anything to your question!
I'm pretty sure that my group was just "passing through" when they got wrapped up in it. There are so many curiosities going on in Delmunster that any adventurer worth his salt is going to have his curiosity piqued within twenty minutes of getting to town...Even if it's just that everyone's "too friendly..."
There is this scribe in town (a podling at the start). I was thinking of having Van Richten sending them there for an errand / having this scribe write to VR for advice when the crisis start (when the PCs arrive, he got this surprising “no, everything is fine here” attitude, triggering something is wrong.).
Or the Mordentshire Ezra church gets a strange message from the Delmunster church, and it sends the PCs to investigate.
While I know Delmunster is set in Falkovnia, the location of the village isn’t set yet IMC. The PCs are now in Mordent, so I’ll locate the village in a remote location around.
Mortepierre wrote:Aaaaaah, Delmunster.. the memories...
Aye, I remember it well as the best RL adventure I ever ran for my players. Very creepy and lots of potential subplots.
IMHO, the keys to make it an experience they won't soon forget are:
a) make sure your players befriend some of the villagers, including podlings (remember: they'll try to be nice to the PC.. at first)
b) use all the "false" adventure hooks provided (werewolf problem, undead infestation, etc..) so that they don't come too quickly to the right conclusion
c) delay their visit to the manor by having a podling tell them all kind of lies about the burgomeister; if possible, lies that will make him look like a prime suspect ("why, yes! One of our burgomeister's ancestor was a necro.. er.. an arcanist. Of course, he doesn't like people to talk about it. Family reputation and all that..")
d) use the "dead church caretaker" subplot to scare the living hell out of them. Heck, when I ran it, I gave an Animate Dead scroll to one of the podling casters and used it to necroanimate the corpse! The sound of the two priests caught inside the church with a zombie, screaming for help, was more than enough to divert their attention from the real problem
Interesting advices!
I was tinkering with the zombie plague mixed with it, for fun and confusion. One podling could indeed be raising the dead to go after the players.
e) always keep the list of villagers (found in the mod.) at hand as reference. Made the DM's job a lot easier.
f) when they finally find the comet (and the mother-plant), make sure to fill the area with a bank of fog and describe the "birth" of a podling
Cool scene indeed!
g) describe in horrific details the "innards" of the first podling they kill
Never hesitate to trigger horror checks, indeed!
Since my players knew next to nothing about RL monsters when I ran it, they didn't suspect a thing. Actually, they thought I was giving them easy access to some kind of weird starmetal. If needed, use that hook with the astronomer
"I'll need to examine the comet but, if there is any metal in it, I'll give it to you afterwards"
I’ll probably remove the astronomer adventure hook, or have him pop in town himself if the players are far from finding the truth.
The biggest problem I ran into was that the village is supposed to be in Falkovnia. Hence, no citizen but the militia can have weapons. That applies to the foreigners (aka PC) too! I solved it by placing the village just over the Borcan border. Thus, some locals are ex-members of the Falkovnian military that were hired by the burgomeister to help maintain order.
I do not think the players will ever go back casually to Falkovnia
So to make it easier, as I said I’ll relocate the village.
I didn't use this hook back then but if I ran the module today, I would include an encounter with a pseudo-natural animal in the forest. After all, the village isn't too far from the "dead trees" section of Falkovnia.
It doesn't need to be something big. Just something that the PC won't expect to turn into a hideous monster. That too can be used to prevent them from coming to the right conclusion immediately.
Interesting idea for another red herring.
Mortepierre wrote:Actually, something I forgot to add was that if your PC are of the "blast-them-first-and-loot-the-corpses-later" school, do remind them that this is a village filled with ordinary innocent civilians (for the most part). Just because they're suspicious doesn't mean they have been given leave to torture, mind-search, and kill at random.
If they pull such a stupid stunt, then arrest them and confine them to the jail. That will make them easy prey for the plant (especially if the militia has been replaced by podlings).
Another good idea if they are too careless, but I doubt it will happen, knowing them. But if it does, I’ll remember the idea. Or perhaps a NPC could do this, and when the PCs visit him/her in jail, he has changed attitude completely as a podling.
Band2 wrote:I don't have the adventure (Though I hear it is a good one.) so I cannot offer much advice. But as an avid fan of your campaign journal - could you use George Weathermay to lure them to the village? The characters had tried to bring him in on their quest to kill the werewolves and he never showed up. What if van Richten receives word that George was on the trail of someone or something and was either in Delmunster or nearby. Would that make the PCs curious enough to go see why he did not join them for the werewolf hunt.
Or not knowing the outcome of the werewolf battle, did any of the werewolves escape and flee north towards Falkovnia?
Bringing George back in this could be an interesting lead! (and I’m glad you like my journals. Comments like this makes me want to continue writing it! Expect sessions 21 and 22 soon!)
Joël
