Fixing Adam's Wrath

[Ultramyth]

Hi everybody. It has almost been a decade since the last time I logged onto the Fraternity of Shadows, but I am pleased to see my account still works and that the site is still alive! (or is it unliving?)

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Adam's Wrath
I don't know why, but I have a soft spot for Adam's Wrath... but so much is wrong with it. First, it railroads the characters into dying at the hands of a sea hag, then the PCs wake up as flesh golems in Mordenheim's laboratory. They get thrown into a conflict between Mordenheim and Adam and are forced to rescue Victor's wife, Elise from Adam's clutches and destroy Adam to return home to their own world.

Recently, I have started running Adam's Wrath and adapting it to my Ravenloftesque campaign. I have actually privately copied the text into an inDesign document and have converted it to 5e D&D. At the moment, I have converted it purely and not touched the adventure.

I've been playing pathfinder for a few years now and Star Wars Dawn of Defiance before that. I have been inspired by the GM guides for improving adventures, and as I am about to modify Adam's Wrath, I thought I would share my thoughts here.

As a side note, I reread Mordenheim in preparation for this.

I had the PCs come in through a portal from another world which is in a Cthulean peril. So in that way they follow the adventure as is written. They were decimated by Kadra and her sisters

There are four main things that irk me about Adam's Wrath:

1. It railroads the players into dying.

2. Kadra's story makes no sense. Her background seems to go against the canon (Adam fell in love with her when he was living at Schloss Mordenheim, however, he never left the castle until the accident with Eva and losing himself to rage, mangling Elise). Her reasons for sending the bodies to Schloss Mordenheim are never explained, and even how they got to Schloss Mordenheim is dubious - yes, she is now a sea hag, but did she really swim with 4-6 bodies?

3. There is no way for the PCs to deal with the fleas of madness unless they have a cleric or wizard with them. Finding either of these in Lamordia is near impossible.

4. How would Mordenheim have learnt about the portal of fear out of Ravenloft? Or for that matter, why would he create any more Flesh Golems after Adam? Later material suggests he can't do it any more. Also, why create broken ones? What's the point of that? The only thing I can think of is that he has experimented heavily in trying to find a cure for Elise.

So, any feedback or help on these four points would be helpful for anyone who is familiar with this adventure. I know many believe it to be of poor quality. But lets fix it!

[Ultramyth]

Problem #1 - Railroaded into Dying

The players start being shipwrecked on the Isle of Agony. This assumes that A. They are on a ship and B. that they are outsiders from Ravenloft and all desire to head home again. The PCs swim to shore, losing any equipment they don't have on them (there is no way to recover anything else on the ship either). They then either have the option of heading towards the village of Seastalkers, which would see 18 lycanthropes murder them, or meeting Helpful Hans and being railroaded into visiting Kadra's out of place hut where they would be murdered by three hags with coven powers and their bodies for some dubious reason will then be handed over to Doctor Mordenheim for experimentation. In fact, they lose all their equipment and even clothing (why would Kadra send it to Doctor Mordenheim) and are 5th level by this point, and may have quite a few valuables and mementos.

My players did come from another world and were dropped into the sea via a portal. I did murder them with hags, but I told them it was planned. We have a very flexible gaming group that doesn't take as much issue with this sort of thing, so long as they are aware at this is a part of the story.

Possible Solution
Why not start the adventure with the PCs waking up as brains in a tank. They don't need to remember what happened, due to stress/trauma-induced amnesia. The only important factor will be how did they die and what happened to their things?

Yes. This is still railroading, but far less so than before where the story was on tracks from start to waking up in Victor Mordenheim's laboratory.

In this case, you could remove the sea hag and her sisters from the adventure entirely. In fact, if you have a party of Ravenloft natives, there is no reason to continue the adventure after Victor Mordenheim restores the hearts to the PCs.

[Ultramyth]

Problem #2: Kadra's story

In the adventure, it is stated that Kadra was the most beautiful woman in Ludendorf and was captured by Adam when he still lived at Schloss Mordenheim, spurned Adam, fought with Adam and nearly died, being thrown into the sea, and then the mists made her a sea hag.

And then she sends Doctor Mordenheim bodies for some reason?

Well, according to the novel Mordenheim, and most material before Adam's Wrath, Adam only lived at Schloss Mordenheim between the time he was created and the fateful night that Eva fell from the balcony and Adam beat Elise into the sorry state she is now in when she freaked out and he went berserk.

So how can we make this work? Well, lets get this story straight by filling in the gaps.

Possible Solution:
Kadra, once known as Kadra Von Karnstein was the most beautiful woman in Ludendorf, aside from Elise Mordenheim, her best friend. Whilst Victor shut himself up in the Schloss to work on his experiments, Elise still travelled to Ludendorf and Neufurchtenburg and socialised when she did with Kadra. Kadra was one of the few of the townsfolk of Ludendorf who visited Schloss Mordenheim to visit her friend, Elise.

Adam saw Kadra from his tower window, observing her coming and going and thought she was lovely. After fleeing Schloss Mordenheim, he tried to make a life for himself. After establishing himself on the Isle of Agony, he stole into Ludendorf and continued to spy on Kadra.

Kadra had several encounters with Adam the following summer, thinking him to be an unfortunate. She showed him kindness, never really seeing his face, and in return, Adam did whatever she asked. Eventually, Adam plucked up the courage to reveal himself to Kadra and declare his love. She laughed at him, shunned him completely. She had manipulated him to do her bidding, and then crushed his spirits with a moment of cruelty, declaring that a creature so hideous would never have a chance with a woman as beautiful as herself.

Adam went berserk and tried to strangle her, however, she wiggled free, but slipped and fell off the cliffs of Ludendorf, landing in the sea. Dying, she cursed Adam, begging for the opportunity to survive and have her revenge.

The Dark Powers answered, making her powerful and providing her a safe haven where she could plot her revenge. However, she was cursed for her vanity, and turn into a sea hag.

Kadra knows that Adam hates Mordenheim more than anyone, and knows that she can always harm him by helping the doctor, which is why she provides him with body parts. The doctor and Horg/Igor do not know who is providing the bodies, only that they come with a note from K.V.K.

[jamesfirecat]

For what it's worth on the making Broken Ones, I do have at least one thing in mind that might help you.

You can argue that Victor didn't make them.

Instead they were sent to him by the Core's #1 Producers of Broken Ones, Frantisek Markov.

In my headcannon Markov and Mordenheim (prior to the grand conjunction) keep fairly regular letter exchanges with one another because both of them consider themselves to be the very best surgeons in the entire Core, but are willing to concede that the other is second best and thus are worthy of exchange a few tips, how to, and suggestions back and forth.

Markov is in fact interested in having Mordenheim come and visit him in Markovia to show off the amazing things he's achieved via conducting surgery on living bodies while Mordenheim prefers to stick to the deceased most of the time, so he sent him some broken one servants as a taste of what he is capable of/to try and wet the Doctor's interest in visiting him.

This isn't too insane in my book since after all as far as I can recall Markov did send a group of Broken ones into Nova Vassa to try and grab the Table of Life before a bunch long chain of events took place which lead to the Order of the Guardians having it instead.

Does that theory/approach help/interest you at all?

[Quinntonia]

I do like the idea of just starting in the jars if you don't like the railroading at the beginning.

That being said, I just played the adventure with my group as their introduction to Ravenloft and after role-playing out an epic shipwreck (they got to ran all around the ship and do everything they could to save it) had them wash up on shore. When the ship went down, I had them have to swim for it, and they made decisions based on what they wanted to take with them. That made it their call, more or less.

When I had them meet the hags, I did relish the horrific little girls being imprisoned thing, and they had no way of knowing that the little girls were actually polymorphed animals, so their vacant gazes and babbling was all the worse as they came off as cute, helpless, things that it became apparent the hags were eating. The players rushed to encounter whomever would do that and I brutally TPKed them, having them hand me their players one by one as they died, to keep them from tearing them up or some such thing.

Following that, having them wake up in the jars came as a welcome relief.

That being said, even with the best I could do, it felt a little railroad-y for my group.

As far as the fleas of madness, I ran into the same problem. First, it was difficult for them to figure out what was going on, but they still talk about how nuts everything was. But second, since I was constantly playing up how freezing cold and covered in snow everything was, with the 40% chance per day of there being a blizzard, I let them kill the fleas with cold.

That is, they could cast any number of spells to deal with the fleas, but even beyond that a simple Endure Elements and a long walk would do it as well. If necessary, I would have someone be able to make a check that told of insect bites that caused similar problems.

They actually ended up figuring it out, casting endure elements on the Baron and his daughter, which last 24 hours, and leaving to the monastary telling them only to start a fire to warm themselves when they absolutely couldn't stand it anymore. I had that wipe out the entire infestation.

[Ultramyth]

Yeah, that would get rid of the infestation, but not the madness. In 5e I am permitting lesser restoration to work, as cure disease is no longer in the game as far as I can see.

I was also thinking that the house could be exposed, but all the animals, etc. would have to die or be protected in the same way. Perhaps there is room here to necessitate a trip to Ludendorf, but I am wondering what kind of mundane solution might be possible for curing the madness. Perhaps some sort of detox powder or something in a Ludendorf apothecary...

My players don't have magic. Or at least, no cleric or wizard. Just a ranger and arcane trickster.

[Ultramyth]

Hmm... back to Kadra, what if she was friends with Elise because she was jealous of what she had and secretly plotted to take it from her? This establishes her as the sort of manipulative woman, using her beauty for selfish reasons that might attract the attention of the dark powers. She manipulates Adam, aware of what he is, but because she has an infatuation with Mordenheim and wants to replace Elise.

She could have used Adam to further her gains, using his infatuation towards her to her advantage. She is not freaked out by Adam because she is so self-confident, and he is the creation of her brilliant soon-to-be-husband. She is actually happy that Adam ruined Elise's beauty, but frustrated that he didn't finish the job. Kadra wanted him to return to finish the job, Adam agreed, but professed his love for her and only could bring himself to do it if she felt the same. Then Kadra crushed his heart, laughing at him and mocking him, and he went berserk.

She fell off the cliffs of Ludendorf escaping Adam's wrath and made a pact with the Dark Powers to get her revenge, becoming a sea hag. The price was of course her beauty, because her vanity was her sin. She lives on the Isle of Agony, trying to figure out how best to get her revenge on Adam.

Of course, she still pines for Victor Mordenheim, but knows that she is a hideous monster that he could never love. Still, she sends him gifts from time to time, knowing how much Adam loathes Victor and how furthering Mordenheim's goals inevitably will harm Adam.

Which gives her a decent reason for getting the body parts to Schloss Mordenheim. Still, it seems a bit far fetched and impractical. Sea hags are hardly powerful and don't possess the magic to teleport objects. Would she really swim 20 miles to deliver some body parts?

The Problem of Kadra's Sisters
Another stupid thing about Kadra is her sisters. Why would her mortal sisters become hags? Did she ever really have sisters? It states in the adventure that they are meeting for the first time since Adam hurt her, but that was when she became a hag. False history?

Dubious origins aside, how do they make the mainland? How did they get to the Isle of Agony in the first place? Again, these hags are not fantastic spellcasters really, definitely not in 5e. Why were they approaching Schloss Mordenheim? Did they see Adam's golem allies on the move and incensed by what Adam did to their 'sister' which they just recently learned decided to go on a rampage (without coven powers and against creatures partially immune to their magic)? Why appear on the balcony? How did they get there of all places without the power of flight?

I have given them brooms of flying. I don't want my PCs to be able to use them though, that kind of flight is just too powerful in Ravenloft. I am thinking they are cursed, and either only work for hags, or take the riders back to the sea hag's cove. This is a way that the PCs could recover their equipment... But then they would be stranded on the Isle of Agony. Still, if they were as golems (and the PCs will probably encounter the hags when they are in golem bodies), the sea wolves would allow them to pass unmolested... hmm...

[Quinntonia]

Well, I treated the fleas' madness as somewhat naturalistic, so if the characters were themselves exposed to the cold they would recover as well.

[Ultramyth]

Well, I treated the fleas' madness as somewhat naturalistic, so if the characters were themselves exposed to the cold they would recover as well.

The only problem with that logic is that the Baron's son died of exposure because of the madness... Although I guess longer recovery times might be possible...

[Ultramyth]

The Igor Problem

In Mordenheim, Victor had an assistant named Horg who had been with him since the beginning. He died by the end of the story, and has since then been replaced with a cliché so blatant that it is almost insulting. Although we can admire that in Adam's Wrath the Author has the audacity to call a spoon a spoon and name Victor's hunchback assistant Igor, I never liked it, and for some reason I always think of the Young Frankenstein version which is less than tone-setting.

The Horg Solution
My solution is to bring back Horg. Victor is in the process of perfecting his 'cellular regeneration', but until now it has been flawed. He would be able to bring back Horg using this technology. Horg makes an ideal test subject, as he is useful to Victor and someone Victor would likely test on before Elise.

Horg doesn't remember much of what happened before, and he has been regrown from a sample of the original Horg's cells from before he was cursed by gypsies and died a gruesome death. Of course, the process was flawed, and Horg still has his characteristic hump (actually a caliban). Horg is as loyal to Victor as ever, but should anyone ever tell him the truth of his origins, he may rebel against his master.

[Quinntonia]

I know, but I had the fleas die and symptoms start to recede in a few hours of extreme cold (again, endure elements) which would be fatal to a man in his pajamas...

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

A few things (keeping in mind i haven't read or played the module in over a decade):
- if you don't go with Kadra and Elise as rivals, you could go with them as true friends. Kadra sends Victor parts because she hope it will help him save Elise.
- According to VRGttW and later sources, Hags are born as apparently human "changelings" and switched for human children. They don't become full hags until later in life. That could explain Kadra's sisters. Either they are true sisters, drawn together after the Change, from being placed in separate human families, or they were raised as sisters in a single human family that had the misfortune to have multiple daughters swapped for changelings.
- I like the idea of giving the fleas a weakness to cold. It keeps them from spreading beyond Schloss von Aubreker, and gives a way to cure them. The baron's son might simply have died before his fleas. endure elements will prevent that from happening.
- I think the idea of Igor as a clone of Horg was in the recent books somewhere. Victor liked Horg enough that he kept cloning succesors.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

One more thing: the forced TPK told later as a flashback worked well for me when running From the Shadows. They are more likely to accept it if they've already played out the "present" and know that the "past" ended poorly. They can then play out the past without fighting the inevitable as much, since they already know how it fits the story, and that their deaths won't be permanent. If they don't know that, they will be more likely to try to avoid the railroad beforehand.

[jamesfirecat]

One more thing: the forced TPK told later as a flashback worked well for me when running From the Shadows. They are more likely to accept it if they've already played out the "present" and know that the "past" ended poorly. They can then play out the past without fighting the inevitable as much, since they already know how it fits the story, and that their deaths won't be permanent. If they don't know that, they will be more likely to try to avoid the railroad beforehand.

If you've already gone past the TPK via starting in media res, why go back an actually play out the TPK at all? It would seem pointless since you've already established what happened effectively enough....

Granted this may just be a different preference in storytelling/I'm not sure how/when you had the flashback take place that might have made it a more effective part of the story...

[Zettaijin]

Upon first reading the title, I thought you were going to suggest anger management classes for Adam...

Sorry, I have nothing else of value to add except that Horg reminds me of Horgh, Immortal's drummer and butt of many jokes... (he's the one in the back)

Horgh of Immortal