The 3.5 Red Hand Of Doom Handbook for DMs [Major spoilers!] - WIP, PEACH!

[Saintheart]

Quick (to ask, at least) question: My group just tore down the bridge quite handily. Now, it looks like they're going to try to convince the town to come hold the foundations of the bridge against reconstruction. So...how should I handle this?

Bear in mind that if you look at the map of the Witchwood, Skull Gorge isn't the only place to cross over. The gorge only kicks in for a few miles upstream; there's at least one track over the stream much further back to the northwest. I had it in my campaign that the Hand doesn't rebuild the bridge, it simply diverts around the gorge via that stream. It still gives the party a few days because that's difficult terrain -- not easy to run an army through unless you've got Abithriax out on roadmaking duty.

[Fyermind]

The Red Hand may come to the far side of the bridge and under cover fire from giants (or skullcrusher ogres) have dragons fly strafing runs. That should help the PCs realize they are outmatched if they don't take earlier hints. If all the townspeople rout when the Ogres start throwing burning rocks (wrapped in oil soaked sacks) and a dragon starts strafing, and then the main army starts circling upstream to get around the gorge, it should become clear very quickly even if it's a little too late.

[Ivellius]

Bear in mind that if you look at the map of the Witchwood, Skull Gorge isn't the only place to cross over. The gorge only kicks in for a few miles upstream; there's at least one track over the stream much further back to the northwest. I had it in my campaign that the Hand doesn't rebuild the bridge, it simply diverts around the gorge via that stream. It still gives the party a few days because that's difficult terrain -- not easy to run an army through unless you've got Abithriax out on roadmaking duty.

That seems to be the actual intention of the module designers, as best I can figure.

However, trying to hold the bridge against the Horde sounds quite entertaining to me, between thrown rocks and manticores and all the flying beasts they could send against the group. The townspeople ought to rout pretty quickly, and Brindol will look a lot more attractive. And they'll waste some time trying it, which is always good in my book.

[Rogue Shadows]

So...

...

...Kharn is dead. Before the Battle even begins.

The PC's attacked the Horde directly when it was encamped outside of Brindol, hoping to take the giants out early. They killed...two...and then had to run as the wyverns and sphinxes and a couple of dragons (Abithriax and Regiarix, the former now brass, and both young adults) came a knockin', Wyrmlords riding in tow.

The PC's were surrounded pretty quickly, of course. One of my players is playing a Samurai (a homebrew variant that basically mashes the Pathfinder, Oriental Adventures, and Complete Warrior versions together). According to bushido, it is dishonorable to be captured in battle. He'd lose most of his class features if the Red Hand captured him.

The player, therefore, challenged Kharn to single combat before he was taken prisoner, with the terms being that if he won, Kharn had to let the samurai's companions go (this was a very honorable solution). I felt that Kharn seems like the sort who would accept the challenge (I had decided to RP him like Cooler from Dragonball Z Abridged).

Yeah...turns out it's a bad idea to duel someone with Iaijutsu Focus.

Not that's I'm surprised - even though my re-statted Kharn was 12th level and the samurai only 7th, I still figured it pretty likely that the samurai would win, and just wanted to see what would happen.

I was rather hoping that Kharn would last longer than 1 turn, though. Not that the samurai wasn't hurting himself - Kharn got a full attack in that took the samurai from 60 hit points to 10 - but the samurai got two turns thanks to winning initiative and in the course of his opening attack followed by his full attack managed to somehow roll and confirm three critical hits, plus his Iaijutsu Focus extra damage.

Many were the jaws that hit the floor at the same time as Kharn's head as he was reduced to -20 hit points. At that point I decided that some reinforcements showed up and bailed out the PC's (because there was no way in Hell that Saarvith, Regiarix, or Abithriax would actually let the PC's go). The samurai, though, took Kharn's body and head with him back to Brindol, so no raise dead for the Great Wyrmlord.

Ulwai (who survived the Ghostlord, though Varanthain didn't) is now leading the Horde. Saarvith and Regiarix are sticking around for now, but after several Bad Encounters with the PCs, they're now bascially waiting for Abithriax to die so that they can flee the Vale entirely.

[Saintheart]

The Battle still happens. The Red Hand only disperses if Kharn's dead by the time the fight in front of the Cathedral happens.

...but my God, that's an awesome way to do it...

[Rogue Shadows]

The Battle still happens. The Red Hand only disperses if Kharn's dead by the time the fight in front of the Cathedral happens.

I know. But needless to say that Kharn's severed head (which the samurai grabbed) is now hanging over the front gate of Brindol, while the body (which he also grabbed) is hanging over the walls elsewhere, and the death of Kharn was a huge morale-booster for the Brindar, while the Red Hand horde, which is already swarming with rumors and stories about these horrible adventurers that destroyed the bridge at Skull Gorge, sent Saarvith and Regiarix packing, and managed to convince a lich to kill Varanthian, has now just seen their warmaster fall inside of twelve seconds to one of these adventurers. They're not feelin' too good about things.

The way I ruled it happening was Kharn's shield-bash against the samurai (I restatted him to use a hammer and shield, so that the party's Paladin could have a nice trophy) ended up simply knocking the samurai - his name is Nanashi - behind Kharn. Nanashi flipped his blade around and plunged it backwards through Kharn's back and heart, much to the wyrmlord's own shock; his last words were "what?" as he stared at the blade protruding from his chest. Nanashi spun, and then sliced Kharn's head clean from his body in one final swing.

It also bought Brindol an extra day to prepare as the Red Hand Horde sorts out if they really want Ulwai in charge, or rather if Abithriax really wants to make her his exarch (all the dragons have been Xorvintaal dragons). Also, someone had to sending Azarr Kul the bad news, while Saarvith and Regiarix weighed their options between facing the heroes again, or fleeing the Vale but potentially being chased down by Abithriax (I'm playing the two of them as sort-of like Starscream: they are quite competent warriors, but also very aware of their own mortality and really don't want to die, at all, and utterly lack any true loyalty to the Red Hand).

Oh, and Ulwai is a gunslinger instead of a bard. Dunno why. I just liked the idea.

[Lachdan]

They should all bunch together and try to develop a plan to get this murderous adventures out of the way. They have clearly seen, that if they get cought alone this group can kill them and nullify their plans.
So instead of the suicidal fly of Abithriax over the city, the sniper and the big battle at the cathedral the leaders wait for the characters resources to go down and attack all at once in a moment of weakness with everything they have (for example directly after the battle at the morningroad).
If that fails, screw the valley and Azarr Khul.

Edit:
Also, to report my current progress:
My players utterly destroyed the garrison in the lake. But they made al lot of good choices. They waited until Regiarix and Saarvith went out hunting and took out Nurklenak by porting directly beside him and casting silence. Even his rebuild as Beguiler was useless, since he could not use his best spells with silent spell.
I would also recommend to make sure the walkways around the townhall have enough place for large creatures. I did not think about this in advance and got my skullcrusher ogres (I replaced all 6 orges with them and removed the ettin) seriously weakened.
The greenspawn razorfiend was quite fun with his bounding assaults in combination with jumping. The cramped space also made the breath weapon quite useful.

Afterwards, while the characters started plundering, the lizardfolk arrived and forced them to retreat. They got everything they neede (although they nearly left without thinking about the dragon hoard) and are wondering what to do with the phylactery. I hope they keep it till Brindol, so the lord can tell them to exchange it for the ghostlord breaking the alliance.

I am currently wondering what Regiarix and Saarvith should do. The players only managed to destroy 9 of the 30 eggs and so the breeding could continue. On the other hand, the complete garrison got wiped an by the book they should retreat, which would also give an excellent opportunity to report the interference of the heroes. They still have the lizardfolk for protection.

[Axinian]

Hey I was wondering if I could get some advice on getting the players into part 2 of the campaign in my sig:

I was thinking about have the lion of Brindol just straight up tell them that a Red Hand vanguard is holed up in Rhest so they actually have a reason to go to the swamp, and have the blockade encounter just be an obstacle along the way. This makes a bit more sense as a threat than the blockades (why bother unblocking the roads if reinforcements aren't coming in time anyway?).

The problem is I still can't think of a reason why it should be the just the PCs who go into the Blackfens to solve the problem. I suppose if they escort the Ferryfolk back to Brindol, Jaarmath can ask them to do it, as recommended in the handbook, but why wouldn't they take a squad of Lions of Brindol or something with them if it's so important to clear this place out? With Vraath Keep they knew that it wasn't a major base, but now that they know that the horde is large and organized the players are probably going to approach further adventures with a military mindset.

Thoughts?

[shaddy_24]

Hey I was wondering if I could get some advice on getting the players into part 2 of the campaign in my sig:

I was thinking about have the lion of Brindol just straight up tell them that a Red Hand vanguard is holed up in Rhest so they actually have a reason to go to the swamp, and have the blockade encounter just be an obstacle along the way. This makes a bit more sense as a threat than the blockades (why bother unblocking the roads if reinforcements aren't coming in time anyway?).

The problem is I still can't think of a reason why it should be the just the PCs who go into the Blackfens to solve the problem. I suppose if they escort the Ferryfolk back to Brindol, Jaarmath can ask them to do it, as recommended in the handbook, but why wouldn't they take a squad of Lions of Brindol or something with them if it's so important to clear this place out? With Vraath Keep they knew that it wasn't a major base, but now that they know that the horde is large and organized the players are probably going to approach further adventures with a military mindset.

Thoughts?

Personally, I didn't even have a problem. The party jumped at the opportunity, especially when the map suggested that the Red Hand was looking to recruit lizardfolk up there, as well as the note on Saarvith. The moment they were informed of the barricade, they ran to go break it down and investigate. If the party doesn't take the hint, have the party somehow learn that there is quite a bit more going on up there from an agent of the Red Hand during or after a fight somehow.

As to why they don't just send a squad of Lions of Brindol, they'd all get massacred. If all else fails, have the party get recruited to break the barricade/investigate Rhest after that happens. It turns out a bunch of level 1 and 2 fighters don't have the necessary skills to handle this problem.

I did have some sort of benefit from them breaking it though. Because the barricade wasn't there, Brindol was able to send messengers for aid, and while not a lot could come, they got a troop of cavalry from the outside who managed to get through and are helping during the battle for Brindol.

[Saintheart]

Hey I was wondering if I could get some advice on getting the players into part 2 of the campaign in my sig:

I was thinking about have the lion of Brindol just straight up tell them that a Red Hand vanguard is holed up in Rhest so they actually have a reason to go to the swamp, and have the blockade encounter just be an obstacle along the way. This makes a bit more sense as a threat than the blockades (why bother unblocking the roads if reinforcements aren't coming in time anyway?).

The problem is I still can't think of a reason why it should be the just the PCs who go into the Blackfens to solve the problem. I suppose if they escort the Ferryfolk back to Brindol, Jaarmath can ask them to do it, as recommended in the handbook, but why wouldn't they take a squad of Lions of Brindol or something with them if it's so important to clear this place out? With Vraath Keep they knew that it wasn't a major base, but now that they know that the horde is large and organized the players are probably going to approach further adventures with a military mindset.

Thoughts?

Aside from the fact a regular bunch of Lions of Brindol would get murdered out there, you could knock it down to a lack of options. The Lions are Brindol's elite guard. You might point out that every Lion is going to be needed for half a hundred other duties the city will have to attend to in order to be ready for an invasion:

For a start, they'll be needed for plain old keeping order. If every town along the Dawn Way panics and starts throwing refugees at Brindol, the population will swell severely (until all women and children are sent to Dennovar, that is.)

Secondly, training. Brindol can call up a militia, but who's going to instruct them, organise them into teams that can actually stand a siege?

Thirdly, harvesting. The campaign happens in summer, i.e. before the autumn harvest, and the Red Hand will be burning every crop it can lay hands on as it drives on towards Brindol. The Lions will be needed to escort or guard Brindol's foraging teams as they gather in what harvest they can before the Red Hand arrives.

Fourth, raising the country. Strictly speaking Brindol's an independent city, but it'll have any number of vassals in surrounding towns and villages it will need to call on to bring in levies to the city walls. The militia Brindol is capable of calling up I interpreted as including every levy from Red Rock down to Dauth the city could call in.

In short, the guards won't have enough men to spare to deal with Rhest.

[Saintheart]

My players utterly destroyed the garrison in the lake. But they made al lot of good choices. They waited until Regiarix and Saarvith went out hunting and took out Nurklenak by porting directly beside him and casting silence. Even his rebuild as Beguiler was useless, since he could not use his best spells with silent spell.
I would also recommend to make sure the walkways around the townhall have enough place for large creatures. I did not think about this in advance and got my skullcrusher ogres (I replaced all 6 orges with them and removed the ettin) seriously weakened.
The greenspawn razorfiend was quite fun with his bounding assaults in combination with jumping. The cramped space also made the breath weapon quite useful.

Afterwards, while the characters started plundering, the lizardfolk arrived and forced them to retreat. They got everything they neede (although they nearly left without thinking about the dragon hoard) and are wondering what to do with the phylactery. I hope they keep it till Brindol, so the lord can tell them to exchange it for the ghostlord breaking the alliance.

I am currently wondering what Regiarix and Saarvith should do. The players only managed to destroy 9 of the 30 eggs and so the breeding could continue. On the other hand, the complete garrison got wiped an by the book they should retreat, which would also give an excellent opportunity to report the interference of the heroes. They still have the lizardfolk for protection.

Have they left the Blackfens yet? You could try and have the Tiri Kitor tell the party that scouts have detected Regiarix and Saarvith moving eggs out of the city by the lake and through the swamp, that the Tiri Kitor have tracked them to ... somewhere, be it a small camp where goblin and dragon are resting up before they start the journey back to meet up with the Red Hand.

[TSED]

So I am working on a combat system for a vidjagam, and in order to playtest it I decided to run the RHoD. This allows me to pay attention to the actual mechanics going on behind the scenes, and not worry about the fluff as much. Plus it makes me think about encounter design, as I have to convert literally everything!

Also, the players were fairly warned that this would be a total meatgrinder campaign. We're about to finish chapter 1, and there have been 3 PC deaths and 2 very-very-near deaths already. And permadeath is on. Straining credibility when it's high level stuff and they are dying all the time? Probably, but whatever, they know what's up.

Some quick notes about the system: it is a 100-level system, so converting levels is pretty easy: multiply by 5. A level 5 D&D PC is supposedly roughly equivalent to a level 25 Squigl guy. Secondly, every PC is basically triple classed. It's just how the system works: there are a bajillion skill trees, each with 33 skills, and they can pick (almost) any 3. They get one skill per level, there are tiers, blah blah blah. Characters can be customized into just about anything. Third, there are no "really really long range" spells in this. Teleport, scrying, sending, all those kinds of things? Nope. I suspect this will become something of a problem later on, but for now it hasn't really mattered. Lastly, this is not a realistic system whatsoever. It doesn't even try, really. At the level the PCs are at now, they can start pulling off some incredibly ridiculous tricks - think level 15ish Tome of Battle, but a lot less flexible. I shudder (in both ways) at the carnage they will be capable of in the 40s and 50s.

Some quick notes about the setting: dragons simply are not level appropriate encounters here. Freshly hatched dragons tend to start around level 80, and the adventure should be finishing up somewhere around level 50, so I am straight up substituting everything draconic for everything demonic. Giants have a similar problem, but that substitution is trickier.

Starting party is as follows, and when someone dies I'll briefly describe the new guy. There was an ogre who was this system's equivalent of an ubercharger. Due to a few old forgotten skills he broke the damage curve, but due to a poor build in general he didn't get to do that too often. Nerfed, but I told players they can keep their old builds unless it's TOO broken because it's my mistake and not theirs. Second, a druidy rune-dropping support wizard who can also set every entity in his skill range (it's a stat) on fire. Then he grabbed a spell that made allies immune to fire, and bob was his uncle. Third, a complete pyromancer. Started off just being fairly passive aoe damage, picked up a nasty nuke and became a plasma flare. Lastly, a dancin' philosopher who is pure support. I mean PURE support.

SO ANYWAY, brief ponderings on the encounters they've gone through!

Spoiler

Show

The marauder attack: is the test bed. Nothing really interesting to say here. Druidy runer almost got himself killed several times due to underestimating the footsoldier's charge range, and a tank build held the party up for a while until they figured out his gimmick. A huge smite from the cleric almost took someone out, but it missed. THING I LEARNED: The action economy in this is not quite as bad as in D&D. Because every entity only gets one action (not standards, swifts, moves, and etc.) it is very difficult to counter-attack in a round where you need to do something in order to not-die. I am not sure what that says to D&D DMs, but it's probably useful somehow.

Hydra: ate the druidyruner. They thought it was just a snake, and a thrown rock 'seemed to have scared it off', so they approached the wagon recklessly. The hydra was going to attack the big ol' ogre tank, but then he moved off right as the hydra skulked into range, leaving only one target. YEP. Here I learned that a 6-1 action advantage (each of the heads was a separate entity tethered to the body, mechanics wise), even if it's only mediocre damage output, will chew through supports. Surprise..?

Called it a night right after that. New player came in and the replacement character: a complete and total tank (he really is quite beefy) and a sneaky trickster illusion type.

Vraath Keep: oh boy this was exciting. So the PCs set off the shed, alerting everyone. And their response was to beat into it head-first. Because of the chokepoint at the gate, and the fact that they were 27s vs waves of 20s, they held off fairly well. The manticore-stand-in (a demonic hummingbird that got bigger the farther away from you it was) kept missing on its gimmick attacks, which resulted in the PCs being more afraid of it than its actual effectiveness. Koth and Karkilan joined up exactly on the round that the last footsoldier went down, and so they went "welp this sucks, time to get out of here." Especially since the pyromancer started nailing the VERY beefy Karkilan for 1/3rd of his hp per round, and there was no way that Karkilan could get to him in time to stop that. After grabbing the map, they fled on a summoned flying ship, and Koth (who has become a sea-magic specialist with some demonic tricks) dropped a blizzard in the courtyard as they flew away. Surprisingly, this was actually the first AoE the party suffered, and it almost killed the Dancin' Philosopher as he had been incredibly strategic about using his allies as cover. But multi-turn AoEs that also include CC if you stay in them too long, plus his paltry hp sum... Yeah. He just BARELY got out of that - he needed to channel a spell AND have the rest of the party rush in to dilute damage (as the bonus damage from casting stats is shared amongst multiple targets).

Thing I learned from Vraath keep: levels, despite adding seemingly very little, are pretty huge! 10 level 20s and a 25 could barely dent five 27s, while a 32 and a 30 could almost took out the support backbone in a single round. If it wasn't for a passive heal that he had, he'd've been dead.

(I made Old Warklegnaw a wood elemental, who had more or less accidentally severed himself from nature. When the PCs returned, they reawoke his... dangerous side, but successfully pointed him towards the Red Hand.)

Next up, Skull Gorge, which was terrifying and definitely the most intense fight so far. Two shamans in the back had a dirty trick where they could maintain a performance (a type of action where they can't take other actions, but the effect is essentially re-cast every round) which prevented their troops from dropping below 1 hp. One shaman maintained that, while the other spammed a nasty curse that would have eaten through the PC's dps AND their own troops, but, well, their own troops were immune to death. The dragon's strafing runs were replaced by a caster demon that had hax: whenever he took damage, he was stunned until his next round, but also invisibility and randomly teleported a fair distance away.

The PCs actually started this very well: they used the trickster to set up their own ambush, and took out the first layer of defences (that is, their side of the bridge) in a single round. This resulted in over-confidence, however, and the ogrecharger overextended into the advancing line of veterans with shaman support. He survived two rounds. Long fight happened after this, with the players being harassed by armour-ignoring persistent aoes being dropped on their lines, forcing wasted actions getting to safe spots, and the trickster took to teleporting the soldiers off the bridge entirely (with limited success as they were fairly resistant to that idea). The shaman kept up his pressure, though, and the pyromancer was constantly nearly death from that curse and the clouds. Eventually a hole in their line formed, though, and Fiero the Pyromancer made a glorious charge at the shaman maintaining their hp. And he went down to the curse (which damaged yourself equal to how much damage you dealt) with the shaman left standing at 7 hp (damage is frequently >60 and almost always >20).

It looked pretty bad, but somehow they just managed to pull through: Ozzy fled, Fiero lucked out on a runner troop deciding not to coup de grace, and basically they somehow got through with only Ogrecharger dying.

Thing I learned: chokepoints and harrier support = brutal. That's obvious, but the party had no way to withdraw once they had committed themseles. Their new tank was incredibly tough and took like 10 points of damage through the whole thing, but he kept the party committed in a very disadvantageous position as his move speed was "nope." Replacement to ogrecharger is a kobold ranged attack specialist who takes a bit of time to get his damage rolling, but once he does it is brutal. After focusing on a single target for 2 rounds, he can begin popping out ~180 damage a round on him over a pretty reasonable range.

The raid was interesting. It was supposed to be a quick and easy encounter, and just show that the Hand is paying a little more attention to them now after breaking the bridge, but the PCs learned that their builds CAN be countered in unorthodox ways. The pyromancer made a grave tactical error and rushed ahead in the dark, and found himself charged by the second wave. Though he ALMOST killed the whole wave simply with his passive abilities, he got one-rounded in a x5 wave. An antimagic specialist attended the third wave, and the professor's equipment betrayed him as it essentially cast on every available enemy every turn. Poisoned, full of buckshot, completely drained of energy, he took to hiding his head in a sack so that he'd stop accidentally getting himself killed.

Thing I learned: 1) overconfidence kills. 2) PCs are only going down when they overextend the rest of the party. This is... interesting. I think I will stop pulling punches in my damage builds and have them deal with my own "insane dps" builds. Maybe they will tone the arms race down? 3) The PCs are beginning to learn to work together AND to make threat assessments. Their initial threat assessment is pretty dangerous for them, though: when confronted with something new, they daisy tap it, and then decide how scary it is based on how much damage they did. I plan on using this against them. Trickster player is bowing out due to real life, and wasn't there for this fight. Ex-pyromancer's character is a plaguebringer, combining pbaoe damage and tankiness.

Any interest in my continued reports of what's going on? They will probably be much more detailed in the future, as this was just an overview-catch-up thing. I can also be a lot more descriptive with what the PCs are actually doing, if there's interest.

[BerronBrightaxe]

Battle of Brindol: (PEACH & WIP )...

The point of this post
The point of this set-up is make the battle for the city more interesting and to give the PC's a more central role in the decision making in the defense of the city, in line with the book, the handbook and other posts. Also, this is pretty much my view of the battle of Brindol with its stages (and events within these stages).

Each phase revolves around making decisions which part of the defense is used to counter which part of the attack. This means there are 'good' and 'bad' choices. 'Good' implies that the defenders win from the attackers and have less casualties. 'Bad' choices means the defenders lose from the attackers (obviously) but also have more casualties. Making too little good choices means that the PC's will lose some of their allies.

Allies
Among the allies can be counted:

• the Tiri Kitor Elves with their Giant Owls, lead by Killiar Arrowswift: an aerial unit
• the Dwarves of the Shining Axe Company, lead by Cpt. Ervath Helmbreaker: a groundbased melee Unit
• the Brindol's Elite, lead by a officer of the Lion's of Brindol, aided by Immerstal the Red. This unit consists of some sword and shield types and archers. The idea is that the Unit protects Immerstal, while he uses his magic to destroy the enemies. A ground-based magical unit.
• Any other specialty unit you come up with. For example: Glyphstone use another informant from the north, because the PC's cleared the Roadblocks given in Part II. I've also heard of a DM using a medium-sized Silver Dragon, I'm using a small grace of Unicorns or whatever fancies your imagination.

The idea for the defense of the city is that each of the allies can handle 1 defeat. Two defeats will destroy that specific unit of allies and lose specific characters in the adventure. F.g. If the PC's make 2 bad choices for their Dwarven allies, the Dwarven captain is killed, their unit destroyed and the left over Dwarves will dissolve into the general army.

Location and Pacing
The idea is that each phase is a next step closer to the battle at the Cathedral. The first phase is outside and at the walls of the city, the second one within the city but at the edges, etc. with the final battle on the steps of the Cathedral.
The story ties stage one and two together. There is not a real indication between the later stages. This gives you room to have some time between the various stages (somewhere between 5 minutes and 1 hour I would presume). A side note: considering the cathedral is dedicated to Pelor, you could have the last battle during the first sunrise.

Victory Points
The VP's from 'Audience with the Defense Council', 'Disrupting Hill Giant Battery', Putting out the Fires', 'Holding the Dawn Way' and 'Catching the Sniper' adds up to 18 VP's. I would recommend awarding 2 VP if they choose to put the clerics in the Cathedral, 1 VP for not going outside the city, and 1 for overall sensible contribution to the plans, help out with training, etc. (up to GM approval)
This leaves 14 points to be spend in the battle, meaning losing 1 VP for each 'bad' choice and each battle lost by the PC's (to a minimum of 0).

Adapting the Battle
As I stated, this is my view of the Battle of Brindol. Feel free to adapt allies, the stages, the events within these stages (or come up with new events), the (sub)bosses and the VP's awarded. You can also make the Battle of Brindol harder by adding an extra stage (2.5) before the 'Streets of Blood'

Also, check the Handbook for the various adaptions for the NPC's, terrain, etc.

Stage One: The Gathering Storm

A Rain of Stones
Bombardment of the east and west walls. This can be done by either Giants or Skullcrusher Ogres and focusing on either the wall or the citygate (see the specifics in the handbook)

Spikes in the Night
a group of Wyverns attack the people in the city at various points, main goal is to case panic, confusion, thinning out the army/militia and cause distraction for Pash-Kari;

Attacking the South Wall
Goblins attack the south wall with ladders etc. head on, with some aerial support from Wyverns. The goal is that the Wyverns keep the defense busy until the goblins have used their ladders and climbed the wall.

A River to Far
A unit attack over the water via crude made rafts/boats, on the north side of the city with some aerial support from Wyverns. Same tactics as Attacking the South Wall.

Burning the Defense
Pash-Kari, Skather and 2 other followers (f.g. Miha Serani) teleport/dimension door into city to attack the Keep.
This is a stealth mission until they have killed Captain Ulverth (and his lieutenants). Goal is to disorganize the chain of command and rob Brindol of it's command centre by setting it on fire.

An option here is to have Pash-Kari succeed with the attack killing capt. Ulverth (and (some of) his lieutenants) and(/or) burning the Keep. Killing capt. Ulverth (and (some of) his lieutenants) gives you the opportunity to put the PC's up as 'chief advisors' of Lord Jarmaath, considering the PC's are the only people with any real recent experience with the goblins. This means Lord Jarmaath will consult them on every decision about the defense of the city and have Lord Jarmaath follow the 'suggestions' of the PC's.
It also gives a reason to move the HQ to the Cathedral and have a good reason to have the final battle at the Cathedral.

Battle matrix - Stage One
{table=head] | A Rain of Stones | Spikes in the Night | The South Wall | A River to Far | Burning the Defense
Dwarven Mercenaries | Win | Loss | Win | Loss | Loss
Tiri Kitor Elves | Loss | Win | Loss | Win | Loss
Immerstal the Red | Win | Win | Loss | Loss | Loss
Special Unit | Loss | Loss | Win | Win | Loss
[/table]

Stage Two: The Fires of Heaven

Abithriax's Rampage
Abithriax goes lose on the city. You can upgrade this encounter 3 ways: bump Abithriax an age category, have Abbi supported by one or two Redspawn Arcaniss or do both.

A Sight of Hell
Barghests with hellhounds dimension door into the streets of the city and slaughter units of troops in the streets. I would recommend a pack of 5 or 6. Considering their casterlevel, they can bring 2 hellhounds per Barghest. To up the challenge a bit have them lead by a Greater Barghest. Failure to defeat them would negate 1 VP from 'stationing troops inside the walls'.

The Death Reborn
Various Doomclerics, with help from a Ghostlord sergeant, preform a ritual to raise the dead on the graveyard as undead eminions. (See also stage 2.5)

An Old Acquaintance (but one we are not eager to meet again soon)
A dragon (or Varanthian) which have survived the adventure attacks another part of the city.

The Breach in the Wall
Assuming one (or multiple) of the attacks from Stage 1 has succes (which it should ;) ), the citywall has been breached and the goblins began poring into the city. A unit is needed to stop or slowdown the arrival of hobgoblins to get into the city.

Spikes in the Night, part II
If the wyverns didn't get destroyed durning the first stage, they continue during the second stage.

Battle matrix - Stage Two
{table=head] | A Sight of Hell | The Death Reborn | An Old Acquaintance | The Breach in the Wall | Abithriax's Rampage
Dwarven Mercenaries | Loss | Win | Loss | Win | Loss
Tiri Kitor Elves | Loss | Win | Win | Loss | Loss
Immerstal the Red | Win | Loss | Loss | Win | Loss
Special Unit | Win | Loss | Loss | Win | Loss
Lose consequence for Stage Three | No barricade for first Allies | Extra Wave of Undead | No barricade for second Ally | Extra Wave of Hobgoblins | No barricade for PC's
[/table]

Stage Two.5: The Death Reborn

For powerful parties you can upgrade the presence of undead in the battle for Brindol. You take the event 'The Death Reborn' from Stage Two and upgrade it to complete Stage. I'm calling it here 2.5 to make it position clear in the complete Battle of Brindol.

I personally like this idea because it seems a bit underwhelming to have only one wave of undead in the stage 'Streets of Blood', while the Ghostlord supposed to be this powerful undead. Also it makes sense that the RHoD have decided it was a wise idea to add some undead to their army (after learning that the adventures are in Brindol) and what better way is there to use the death which are already in the city.

The idea is to use the graveyard which is in the southwest part of the city. The location is fine, it is between the citywall and the centre of Brindol. What I would recommend is to give the graveyard some underground sections (f.g. a couple of long 'forgotten' connected gravechambers in which the bodies of the soldiers who fought in the war with Urikel Zarl are burried).

Where did the RhoD get this horrific ritual? This can come from the fact that they didn't deal with the Ghostlord by keeping him out of the battle, or because the RHoD has extorted the information about some fancy undeadraising ritual from the Ghostlord. Or they might have found this information in an obscure location (which you can use as a quest after they finished the RHoD). Or Tiamat send the RHoD the knowledge about the ritual.

Anyway, as I see it you can play it two ways:
First, the Ghostlord is present in the city, and you can run the encounter as written in the 'Streets of Blood'. This means the Ghostlord has send his 'Sergeant-undead' to help with the raising.
Second, if you have decided that the Ghostlord didn't come to Brindol, use a 'Captain-undead' in the 'Streets of Blood' and have a 'Sergeant-undead' to help with the raising.

The Undead

• the 'Captain-undead': if you decide to use one: Libris Mortis is your friend. A very good option is the 'Wheep' (p. 132). It's CR (11) is about the same as the Ghostlord (CR 13), besides that LM calles them 'undead servants of more powerful unliving lords', which is in perfect line with this approach of the story.
• the 'Sergeant-undead': again LM is your friend. A Crypt-chanter (p. 93) is a viable option, if you exchange some of the feats a bit. As help for this incorporal creature, use some Entombers (p. 97)
• The Undead Minions : it doesn't really matter what you choose here. Most minions shouldn't give the players any problems.

Keep in mind that you can (in general) can chose two types of undead: the first one is the general 'hack-n-slash' types, just a bunch of HP's dealing damage. Second you can choose to go with undead which give abilitydamage and/or diseases. The second one should make it more challenging, especially in the long battle still to come.

The Ritual
A small group of hobgoblin clerics and a sergeant-undead from the Ghostlord succeeded with sneaking into the city at the start of Stage 2 undetected and started the ritual. This ritual takes time, materials (unholy water, incense, black onyx gemdust (5,000 gp)) and negative energy (the cleric's rebuke turnings). The ritual should be lead by atleast a level 5 Cleric (access to the spell 'Animate dead')

T - 50 rounds
Start of the ritual. After a certain amount of time (DM's discression, I use 5 minutes) the ritual starts taking effect and weaker undead start to rise (zombies, skeletons, etc.). A bit later (DM's discression, I use 5 minutes) there are dozens, which are starting to poor out of the catacombs start to walk around in the graveyard. When this happens the 'real' encounter starts.

T
The base of the ritual has been complete:

• the ritual is powerful enough to raise 2 zombies/skeletons every round at any point in the graveyard (so not only in the catacombs);
• the ritual is strong enough to raise some more powerfull undead in the catacombs (CR: 2 to 3, again DM's discression);
• the undead get noticed by the guards in the city, which send word to Cathedral/Keep;

T + 10 rounds

• the Cathedral/Keep receive word of the undead in the Graveyard and send word via Telephatic Bond to the PC's (assume the allies are still in their encounter)
• the catacombs are considered a desecrated area (as the spell)
• the ritual is powerful enough to raise 4 zombies/skeletons every round at any point in the graveyard (so not only in the catacombs),
• the undead start pooring out of the graveyard into the city and attack everyone
• the ritual is strong enough to raise some more powerfull undead in the graveyard and catacombs (CR: 2 to 3,)
• the ritual is strong enough to summon some very powerfull undead in the catacombs (CR 4 to 5 undead), 1 every 3 rounds seems decent to me.

If the PC's came up with something clever about the graveyard or communication wise, have them receive the message early (T + 5 rounds) that 'something is going on at the graveyard', this means they save the guards/people in the area.

T + 25 rounds
If the PC's haven't shut down the ritual in time, it is completed and the following happens:

• a large army of undead raises at once: about 100 skeleton/zombies, about 10 CR 2 or 3 undead and 5 CR 4 or 5.
• the Doomclerics give their life as part of the completion of the ritual and are instandly raised as very powerful undead (CR 6 to 7) and start leading the undead towards the centre of the city
• the catacombs, the graveyard and a 100 ft. radius emanation are considered a desecrated area (as the spell Desecrate Battlefield)

T + 30 rounds
The undead, lead by the undead-sergeant and the Doomclerics, start moving towards the city center, which should be the first encounter of Stage three.

Disrupting the Ritual
The Ritual can be disrupted by killing at least half the Doomclerics participating. If you use an undead-sergeant, killing it will also be sufficient. All participating in the ritual are considered helpless and can not cast spells. Disrupting the ritual won't undo the effects it already caused.

Surviving Doomclerics (and only the Doomclerics) will give one (or more) of the Emtombers the order to collapse the entrance, effectively locking the PC's in. The Doomclerics hope by locking the PC's inside, they can't participate in the battles to come. Effectively, it will make them late for stage three. This means that the barricade has been destroyed and lots of cityguards have been killed.

Stage Three: Streets of Blood
Encounter as in the book (see the specifics in the handbook for some nice options). The idea is that each of the allies defend one of the main streets during 'Street of Blood' (you can have the number of 'main' streets, depending on the number of victories in stage 1)

The barricades (and the channeling of the forces) should have been prepared before the Battle. Depending on what the PC's thought up, you can change the barricades/battle as you chose. The 'main' roads you can consider:

• Northside: starting at 5 (Brindol Market), either passing 9 (The Craven Raven) or 10 and 14 (Velorian's and Teskerwill Manor) and ending at 16 (Cathedral Square)
• Eastside: Starting at 8 (Shrine of Yondalla), passing 12 (The Laughing Manticore) and 11 (Brindol Academy), ending at the north side of 17 (Cathedral)
• Southside: Moving along the 'Southroad' and via 15 (Discreet Departures), ending up at 16 (Cathedral Square)
• Westside: Starting at 2 (the Stone Wyvern), moving via 3 (Axenhaft Security) and ending up at 16 (Cathedral Square)

Also check the results of stage 2.


Stage Four: Embracing Death

Runes of the Past
Specific for my adventure (details on request, I don't know if any of my players are reading this thread)

Cry for your Salvation
One of the recurring bosses of the Campaign challenges the PCs to a final battle in the marketplace as the Hand regroup elsewhere in the city

An Arrow on the Stairs
Skather's attack on the Catheral Square, as in the book

In this Stage the first written event happens before the second and third one, which are interchangable (atleast in my adventure). My idea is to give the PC's a bit of hope if they win 'Cry for your Salvation' and then knocking them back with 'An Arrow on the Stairs'.

Stage Five: A Memory of Light
The final battle with Kharn, backed up by any of Abithriax, Ozzy, Saarvith, Skather and Pash-Kari who survived their events. The 'all-out,-keep-no-reserves' battle for Brindol

Winning the Battle for Brindol
Permanently defeating the Horde is the same as book, defeat Kharn (and any other Wyrmlords) and have enough VP.

Credits:
Some of the titles I beg/stole/borrowed from Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson.

Edit 1: Rewriting, added Stage Two.5 and added battle matrix Stage One and Two

[Saintheart]

I still have to read through all that, but on making tables in the forum, here's Glyphstone's table which I put into the handbook. If you do a quote of this post it should reveal all the markup code that allows you to make a table. Use that as your template for a table in the previous awesome post.

{table=head] | Dwarven Mercenaries | Northern Reinforcements | Tiri Kitor Elves | Immerstal the Red | Loss Effect on Streets of Blood
Initial wall assault | Win | Loss | Win | Loss | Extra wave of Cannon Fodder
Hill Giant Battery | Win | Win | Loss | Loss | Random boulders falling on defenders
Manticores | Loss | Loss | Win | Win | Fewer friendly mooks
Abithriax | Loss | Win | Loss | Win | No barricade
[/table]

[Lachdan]

Have they left the Blackfens yet? You could try and have the Tiri Kitor tell the party that scouts have detected Regiarix and Saarvith moving eggs out of the city by the lake and through the swamp, that the Tiri Kitor have tracked them to ... somewhere, be it a small camp where goblin and dragon are resting up before they start the journey back to meet up with the Red Hand.

They already left the Blackfens. I think I will leave both of them there for the fun of the Razorfiends in Brindol. The assassination on the pc can happen later.

Yesterday I finished the visit in Brindol. I used an adaptation of the plague plot someone posted here in the forum. Skather and Miha are already in Brindol and poisoning the water in the cisterns. They also placed Glibering Mouthers there to stop anyone from investigating. My players found the poison and the Mouthers but did only order the guards to protect the cisterns and no more research at all.

I made one of the players a Lion of Brindol so they work really close with the authority and therefore got the order to convince the Lich to withdraw his support and do whatever is necessary with the phylactery. But first they were ordered to bring the mercenary their gold. Since my group has some npc accompanying them I made the encounter more difficult:
Location was farmland with corn fields to hide. The enemy leader, a greater barghest with 11 hd and 1 level barbarian, opened combat with 4 hobgoblin-archer (level 1 cannon fodder) while the 2 other greater barghest and 4 hobgoblin-duskblades (level 5 with spiked chains for the fun) buffed and then flanked the group.
It was a really interesting fight, although the duskblades not survived one round after attacking.

Edit:
While rebuilding the Ghostlord I also wondered if the use of Forbiddance is fair against the players.
None of them will be able to use Disple Magic (cl too low ) and 12d6 damage (if you fail your save) are quite heavy. Using Greater Glyphs of Wardings and some nice spells (mostly Unholy Storm with Fell Drain or simple Blast and Slay Living for the Heart of the Lion) for the important passages is in my opinion not that big problem since they can be found more easily and disabled.
Is there another way for an Ur-Priest to protect his lair against teleportation effects?

Edit2:
I think I will also go with an Unhallow spell and Life Ward for everyone who enters. No healing for you, mr. cleric

[BerronBrightaxe]

Edit:
While rebuilding the Ghostlord I also wondered if the use of Forbiddance is fair against the players.
None of them will be able to use Disple Magic (cl too low ) and 12d6 damage (if you fail your save) are quite heavy. Using Greater Glyphs of Wardings and some nice spells (mostly Unholy Storm with Fell Drain or simple Blast and Slay Living for the Heart of the Lion) for the important passages is in my opinion not that big problem since they can be found more easily and disabled.
Is there another way for an Ur-Priest to protect his lair against teleportation effects?

Edit2:
I think I will also go with an Unhallow spell and Life Ward for everyone who enters. No healing for you, mr. cleric

Fair? Yes... Do they have a chance to die? Absolutely.
The idea is that the Ghostlord is a very powerfull caster who has been sitting and modifying his lair for a very long time.. To have him protect his lair by a simple 'Bane' spell would not make any sense. Several overlapping 'Forbiddances' keyed with various passwords would make much more sense.

If the Ghostlord has contacted them before, he could have given the password for the first forbiddance spell (so they can fight Wyrmlord Ulwai without being weakened). But he didn't give them the password(s) for the Forbiddance(s) protecting the inner layer of the dungeon, which will trigger when the PC's go to deep into the layer. Second, you can drop hints (via Immerstal or Capt. Ulverth in about the Ghostlord being a powerfull spellcaster who has had his layer for centuries. If they are smart they don't just rush in, and if they aren't that smart....

Keep in mind that this is an encounter they are not supposed to battle but to RP. A triggered high-level spell (like 'forbiddance') should give them they idea that they are in over their heads.

For your teleportation question check: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthr...-Teleportation

[BerronBrightaxe]

While preparing the chapter with the Ghostlord, I noticed in the MM (p. 25): "Behirs are never friendly with dragonkind and won’t coexist with any type of dragon." It struck me as strange that a half fiend behir would devote her life to Tiamat, as a goddess of (evil) dragons. An argument can be made because of the half fiend part, but I really have doubts if that is 'enough' to convince the 'Behir-part' of the creature to go completely opposite of it's own 'alignment' (or however you want to call it).

I've been looking for other options and staying in the ballpark of the Encounter Level of the encounter (8). Also you have the option to change the setting, meaning you can change it from a ground fight, towards an airfight (thus making it a big air creature) or making it several creatures (either on the ground or in the air).

Options are:

• Abyssal drake (Draco, CR: 9), and change the Alertness feat. I find the combo: Flyby attack + Powerfull Charge + Power Dive nice: 1d6+9+poison+3d6+2d6+9. The poison has a DC of 20, with 2d6 Con damage. Adding Power Attack gives you a bit of extra damage (max +10). Using this combo: attacking every other round with 6d6+28 damage +poison.
  I like this option because of the background of the beast (wyvern, demon & red dragon), and it also refers to otherworldly help the RHoD gets, which hits at the portal.
• Draconic Creature/Half Dragon/etc. (Draco; CR varies). Take a creature and slap a template or something like that on it.
• another Dragon (various books; CR varies). I've heard of people using Fang Dragons, Blue Dragons, etc.
• Velroc (DM, CR 12), a bit thougher, but the 'Magic Distortion Aura' gives a nice twist on the encounter. Also, the dragon is CN, so not really in line with Tiamat.
• add some mooks to defend Varathian. And with defend I mean just keep Varathian alive for just .... one ... more .... round....

[Bubzors]

Huh, never noticed that about Behir's before. But you should definitely change up the Varathian encounter. My party just went through it and it was particularly underwhelming. Especially because my players love anklets of translocation. Almost every single character they make have them. So the battle went like this:

Varathian does good damage with breath attack on 3 PC's. PC's close in and take ranged attacks. Varathian successfully grapples cleric. PC's whoop on Varathian. Cleric uses the anklets to get away avoiding being swallowed whole. PC's kill Varathian...

Personally I really like your abyssal drake idea. Fits very well conceptually and should make him last longer if you make the encounter right outside the lair where he will have room to fly about.

[Dusk Eclipse]

I have considered to replace Varathian with a Young Adult Half-White Fang Dragon (Draconomicon) same CR as the behir, but fits better the theme in my opinion, give it the feat from RotD to use the breath weapon every 1d4 rounds and it is a nasty melee bruiser (especially if you pile up the sovereign archetype which gives tiger claw maneuvers/fighter feats)

[Lachdan]

Simplest fix I'd suggest is: let the wall fall after 15 hits from boulders, give the Hill Giants a single level in Hulking Hurler (Complete Warrior), use that book's rules on thrown objects, and have two of the giants chuck real boulders at the PCs while the other two concentrate on breaking the wall as you describe audible CRACK noises from the wall as the boulders rain on it. The Hill Giants probably won't last any longer, but the players should sweat more.

I started working on the "siege ogres" but stumbled across the range increment. An ogre could lift an impressive rock, but would have to stand 50 ft away from the wall to hit it. This seems very unimpressive compared to the range increment of 100 ft for the small sized rocks (and maximum range of 500 ft therefore).
Any suggestions or is this simply not working for a siege?

Edit:
I know they would still profit from some of the hurl tricks, but not really from the massive rocks (at least until the pcs get close).

[BerronBrightaxe]

Huh, never noticed that about Behir's before. But you should definitely change up the Varathian encounter. My party just went through it and it was particularly underwhelming. Especially because my players love anklets of translocation.

Did you play Varathian as written or did you make modifications? And with the anklets... about the same as freedom of movement.. How often is a pc in a situation with more the 3 rounds of grappling (or something simular)...

The problem with Varathian in general is that it is a single monster, with limited movability and nothing really special (the swallow whole takes too long). You want to even the action economy and create multiple targets. You want to throw in some cannonfolder (lowlvl mooks) and/or create an additional threat to distract the PC's.
I don't mind big monsters, but I prefer them somewhere in the wilderness with a random encounter.... Not with a prepared, disciplined and fanatic army..

Personally I really like your abyssal drake idea. Fits very well conceptually and should make him last longer if you make the encounter right outside the lair where he will have room to fly about.

"The abyssal drake is the horrific result of an ancient breeding program that combines the nastiest elements of demons, wyverns, and red dragons."
I agree ...
You use the dive attack combined with flyby attack.. The Drake dives the target into the ground with their melee attack and continues their flight before the heavy hitters arrive. It works best on single targets which look squishy. With 2 or more people in range, use breath weapon. Although it is a dumb creature, this strategy seems basic enough to me. Potential problems can arise due to their average AC and vulnerability to cold.

I'm probably going to run this encounter with 7 decently optimized players.. I think I'll give them Varathian with mooks and the Abyssal Drake.. And have Ulwai arrive in round 3 or 4 of the battle...
Varathian can chew on the melee, while the Drake buries the casters and Ulwai inspirering and throwing electricity.

I have considered to replace Varathian with a Young Adult Half-White Fang Dragon (Draconomicon) same CR as the behir, but fits better the theme in my opinion, give it the feat from RotD to use the breath weapon every 1d4 rounds and it is a nasty melee bruiser (especially if you pile up the sovereign archetype which gives tiger claw maneuvers/fighter feats).

Sounds like a good options (due to trip, ability drain and some SLA's). Even better with classlvls

[BerronBrightaxe]

A quick question to all you smart playgrounders out there

Considering my group didn't do what they were expected to do, which means following the adventure, like they are supposed to and not coming up with bright ideas on their own.

Anyway, more to the point:
the PC's have found the phylactory and returned to Brindol. In Brindol they decided they would visit the Ghostlord and talk to him not to join the RHoD. They talked to Goldenbrow to leave the phylactory with her. So if something would go wrong with the 'negotiation', the phylactory would be save (so that they wouldn't return it, or getting killed while returning it).
The PC's asked if Goldenbrow could keep the phylactory in a bag of holding and have her contact them via the spell 'Sending' about 3 to 4 days after their depature. If she didn't get contact, it would mean the PC's had died and Goldenbrow would be free to act as she would seem fit.

So the PC's will meet the Ghostlord, without the phylactory, but with new demands. So the Ghostlord would go from one blackmail right into the next one. So how would the Ghostlord react to this and what are the options here:

1. The Ghostlord attacks the PC's: In line with the discription in the book, it seems normal for him throw a big tantrum and try to destroy the PC's. After the death of the PC's he goes after his phylactory himself.
2. The Ghostlord gives the PC's a couple of days to bring the phylactory: he gives the PC's an option. They return the phylactory within a couple of days of he joins the RHoD, even if it means he losses his phylactory.
3. Ghostlord agrees with PC's: he promises to stay out of the battle if they promise to return the phylactory afterwards. This doesn't seem the most logic considering his temper and the situation of the last couple of weeks.

Anyone got a good idea how to handle this?

It also would make sense for the Ghostlord to keep going after phylactory. So how do you find an item which is placed inside a bag of holding (scrying doesn't work on items)? And how to work around the sending part?

Any thoughts would be appriciated.

Cheers,
Berron

[Saintheart]

This is much more psychology than rule-based stuff. My thoughts on it:

Per RHOD's text, it took all of Ulwai's persuasive wiles to get the Ghostlord to agree to the deal with the Red Hand. And that was after the Ghostlord basically ripped up his own chambers and had a temper tantrum for a full day on discovering his phylactery had been stolen.

I somehow doubt he's going to be terribly receptive to another bunch of adventurers coming along and trying to seal the same deal with him. In Ulwai's case he had least one element of his alignment in common with her; if your players are obviously worshippers of a good god, I doubt he'd even make such a deal unless he thinks he can pragmatically use their goody-two-shoes-ness to get his phylactery back. I think there's a strong argument there for him flipping out if another formal blackmail attempt is made against him.

I think in running this you have to decide for yourself exactly how cunning and intelligent the Ghostlord is versus how batcrap insane and obsessed he is with his phylactery. The truly insane don't know how to defer gratification, i.e. wait for a result; they simply act on their desires without thinking. The issue here -- and I think it's why we get the question again and again about the Ghostlord -- is that he's written as on one hand being unable to defer gratification (i.e. going insanely angry when the phylactery was stolen) but on the other being able to defer gratification long enough to do deals with beings from opposed alignments to his. It's not a terribly good fit.

Getting back to the point, you have to decide for yourself how far the Ghostlord is willing to defer getting his phylactery back. Once you know what his limits are, you can then roleplay his demands and his negotiation with the PCs.

To advance the prospect of item (2) in your list playing out, I'd suggest you make more obvious that the Ghostlord really could not care less about the Red Hand's cause generally and has no interest in trashing Elsir Vale - to draw it out clearly that the moment his phylactery is returned to him, he'll go back to his solitary existence and won't be looking for anyone at all. See, your party proposing to return the phylactery to him after the battle is over may be coming from a belief by them that the Ghostlord will join the fight on the Red Hand's side even if the phylactery is returned to him. That's not how I understood the Ghostlord to be motivated: it's clear on RHOD that he has no interest in participating in the Red Hand's schemes beyond whatever is required to get his phylactery back. It is literally all he cares about.

I also think it is a good idea to have the Ghostlord search for his phylactery. You could finagle him knowing where the phylactery is via scrying by having him scry on "The individual who has my phylactery", since the Bag of Holding is in Goldenbrow's possession one way or the other. Remember, no knowledge of the subject is required for Scrying to work.

[fishyfishyfishy]

I could use some input on how to handle this situation in my current game.

They barely managed to take Ozzy alive the second time they ran across him. I know he's supposed to show up later if he manages to escape, but I felt it was appropriate to have him try to torment them. I upped his age category by one and gave him the fiendish template just to keep up with the power level my group plays at. So anyway, I ran the Barghest encounter against them just before they got to town with the unconscious dragon in tow (they got really creative when it came to deciding how to get him there).

The Barghests goal was either to rescue Ozyrandion, or to kill him to prevent him from falling into enemy hands. Several PCs ended up charmed but they refused to give up their prize; so the Barghests attacked while one used dimension door to get away with Ozzy, only to find out that he couldn't get any further since the dragon turned out to be paralyzed from Dex damage on top of being unconscious. The rest of the Barghests flee via DD and the players persue. They managed to track them down rather quickly. Upon seeing them approach the one that initially escaped with Ozzy finished the dragon off. The players got super pissed off at the enemies and slaughtered them.

The druid PC that didn't pursue decided to take the last remaining Barghest, who had him charmed, into town by picking him up and using the spell Master Of Air to get to Kenrun (renamed Brindol, we're playing in Eberron) as quickly as possible. They were just outside town, waiting for morning to come in with their prize and make a grand entrance. The druid explained to the creature that he has a friend that can "help him find his friends and track down that dragon". The Barghest lied about knowing where his allies went, but decided to go with the PC and possibly use this as an opportunity to learn more about their enemy, spread dissent or possibly assassinate someone important.

What advice does the playground have on how to handle this situation? I'm thinking of trying to charm as many people as possible but I can't imagine the townsfolk's initial reaction being favorable, considering they know about the advancing horde. The Barghest is parading around in Hybrid form since Goblin is a liability here.

Edited for neatness and grammar.

[Saintheart]

I should note that barghest wouldn't stay a prisoner for long. They have Dimension Door once per day, and with an ECL of 6, that means the barghest can teleport 640 feet as a standard action. In wolf form, it gets Pass Without Trace as a free action, meaning you're then down to magical means to find it. In wolf form, it can then use the Run action to pull another 150 feet or more per round. The Master Air spell gives you a Fly speed of 90 feet, but you can't use Run and it only lasts around 10 rounds or so. The barghest should time its escape to right before it gets its next daily use of Dimension Door: it uses the first DD, then gets the next one and DDs another 640 feet, and then runs like hell in wolf form under Pass Without Trace.

The barghest could go after a low-level cleric, say the halfling cleric at the Temple of Yondalla. In no realistic world is it taking down Tredora Goldenbrow solo, and the other leaders aren't that accessible.

[BerronBrightaxe]

This is much more psychology than rule-based stuff. My thoughts on it:

Per RHOD's text, it took all of Ulwai's persuasive wiles to get the Ghostlord to agree to the deal with the Red Hand. And that was after the Ghostlord basically ripped up his own chambers and had a temper tantrum for a full day on discovering his phylactery had been stolen.

I somehow doubt he's going to be terribly receptive to another bunch of adventurers coming along and trying to seal the same deal with him. In Ulwai's case he had least one element of his alignment in common with her; if your players are obviously worshippers of a good god, I doubt he'd even make such a deal unless he thinks he can pragmatically use their goody-two-shoes-ness to get his phylactery back. I think there's a strong argument there for him flipping out if another formal blackmail attempt is made against him.

I think in running this you have to decide for yourself exactly how cunning and intelligent the Ghostlord is versus how batcrap insane and obsessed he is with his phylactery. The truly insane don't know how to defer gratification, i.e. wait for a result; they simply act on their desires without thinking. The issue here -- and I think it's why we get the question again and again about the Ghostlord -- is that he's written as on one hand being unable to defer gratification (i.e. going insanely angry when the phylactery was stolen) but on the other being able to defer gratification long enough to do deals with beings from opposed alignments to his. It's not a terribly good fit.

Getting back to the point, you have to decide for yourself how far the Ghostlord is willing to defer getting his phylactery back. Once you know what his limits are, you can then roleplay his demands and his negotiation with the PCs.

To advance the prospect of item (2) in your list playing out, I'd suggest you make more obvious that the Ghostlord really could not care less about the Red Hand's cause generally and has no interest in trashing Elsir Vale - to draw it out clearly that the moment his phylactery is returned to him, he'll go back to his solitary existence and won't be looking for anyone at all. See, your party proposing to return the phylactery to him after the battle is over may be coming from a belief by them that the Ghostlord will join the fight on the Red Hand's side even if the phylactery is returned to him. That's not how I understood the Ghostlord to be motivated: it's clear on RHOD that he has no interest in participating in the Red Hand's schemes beyond whatever is required to get his phylactery back. It is literally all he cares about.

I also think it is a good idea to have the Ghostlord search for his phylactery. You could finagle him knowing where the phylactery is via scrying by having him scry on "The individual who has my phylactery", since the Bag of Holding is in Goldenbrow's possession one way or the other. Remember, no knowledge of the subject is required for Scrying to work.

Thnx for your response..

The PC's don't have any desire to return the phylactery what so ever, but I think they would promise it to keep the Ghostlord out of the war.

The way I play the Ghostlord is like the crazy researcher/spellcaster. Possible to focus within his interest (phylactory/node/magic/selfdefense), everything else just crazy/distracted/etc.

Considering the psychology of the Ghostlord, I don't think he will accept any blackmail. The 'easiest' he will go on the PC's is to capture some of them and send one of the PC's back to Brindol to fetch the phylactory. If he/she refuses to get it, he will kill all the PC's on the spot and tells them he will join the RHoD in the destruction of the valley (not just Brindol). If he/she takes too long to get back, the Ghostlord will start killing a PC a day it takes too long.

The Ghostlord has been scrying the PC's for a while now, so he has been able to prepare and not being surprised, like he was with the theft of the phylactory.

Although I don't mind character deaths, I prefer not to have a TPK as long as I can keep things believable/reasonable.

[fishyfishyfishy]

I should note that barghest wouldn't stay a prisoner for long.

Well it's not exactly a prisoner...

It charmed the Druid and attempted to persuade him to help free Ozzy. That didn't work and the other Barghests used Dimension Door SLA to get away at their rendezvous point. Since this one had already used it's Dimension Door to get in close to the PCs, it tried Levitate to get out of range of the Dread Necromancer and his horde of minions. The Druid decided to help his new friend out and flew up and grabbed him, promising to get him away from the undead monsters as quickly as possible. He questioned it about the other Barghests and where they might have taken Ozzy.

Barghest: "Oh I don't know dude, they just wanted me to help." *Bluff check 30*
Druid: "Ok buddy. Well I have a friend in town that can help ya find them with spells. We'll go ask him"

I decided to roll with it and see where this goes.

They have Dimension Door once per day, and with an ECL of 6, that means the barghest can teleport 640 feet as a standard action. In wolf form, it gets Pass Without Trace as a free action, meaning you're then down to magical means to find it. In wolf form, it can then use the Run action to pull another 150 feet or more per round. The Master Air spell gives you a Fly speed of 90 feet, but you can't use Run and it only lasts around 10 rounds or so. The barghest should time its escape to right before it gets its next daily use of Dimension Door: it uses the first DD, then gets the next one and DDs another 640 feet, and then runs like hell in wolf form under Pass Without Trace.

He's used the first Dimension Door already, but that's still a viable tactic for when he does need to break for it.

The barghest could go after a low-level cleric, say the halfling cleric at the Temple of Yondalla. In no realistic world is it taking down Tredora Goldenbrow solo, and the other leaders aren't that accessible.

So perhaps I should stick to a scouting mission? Get as much info in as short a time as possible and get out kind of deal?

The Horde has recognized the players as threats, but they don't have a whole lot to go on. A few Speak With Dead spells and the occasional member of the horde getting away have revealed a little info about the party, mostly fighting strategy. This could be the opportunity for them to learn more.

OR do you think I should have the Barghest try to get away ASAP?

EDIT: Also Saintheart, I just want to take the opportunity to thank you for this wonderful resource. It has proven to be incredibly useful to me.

[Starbuck_II]

Since my RHoD game I am playing in went into haitus (DM looking for a job). I might DM a similar idea.
I was watching Quantum Leap and thought what if the players play the bad guys after Leaping themselves?
They would be from future when goblinoids are enslaved and treated as nothing. They do low wage work like janitor work. This was how this group got access to the machine.

The Wyrmsmoke Mountains shook with the thunder of ten thousand screaming hobgoblin soldiers. From the phalanx emerged a single champion. One by one the tribes fell silent as the warlord rose up, blue scales gleaming along his shoulders, horns swept back from his head. A hundred bright yellow banners stood beneath him, each marked with a great red hand. He stood upon a precipice and raised his arms.

“I am Azarr Kul, Son of the Dragon!” the warlord bellowed. “Hear me! Tomorrow we march to war!”- Azarr Kul.
“Oh Boy!” –Hobgoblin soldier

—Excerpt from “The Red Hand of Doom” Vol. I

Something like:

Spoiler

Show

Original:
"Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. He woke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home”

Hobgoblin who leaped:
“Crom think he can leap too. Crom step into machine. Crom He woke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better for goblinkind. And so Crom finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put wrong what once went right, and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home. Red Hand of Doom will win this time!”

Basically they play (some of the) bad guys and I'd play some generic good guys who try to beat red hand of doom.
If they die, they leap into the next encounter.

Trouble is how would I determine which the PCs become? Maybe roll a die?
(because Bridge encounter if they be the dragon, that seems a better choice than the veterans or Sergeants I think. Although in the keep there are more varied choices like a minotaur, Manticore, or Koth besides the goons.)


Also:
Would a gestalt-ish multiclass idea be good idea (because Sam kept his old abilities and gained the new persons abilities as well: even chimps can use guns because he can for example):
they are level 1 in whatever class they were before leaping + new creatures level: this wouldn't affect feat/ability score progression, bab stacks, saves stack, and they use both creatures feats/spells, special features, and etc (keeping racial abilities beside ability scores since they use new creatures).

They'd get exp in origin class.

Am I thinking too much and should just make them the creature?

Then the Good guys is the issue:

Spoiler

Show

While I'm decided to give them LotR names for ease of naming: maybe(Frodo [Rogue], Gimli [Fighter], Legolas [Zen Archer Monk], Gandalf [a magus], Merry [a Bard], etc)

The order of the encounters will different as well.
Like I'm thinking one of the the 1st encounters might be helping Ulwai steal the phylactery. This would be a bit more Tomb of Horror since they would be red shirts (whether Doom Fists, Veterans, or Doom Priests) vs the Ghostlord's defenses (I think he had more defenses but most were set off by the Red Hand and he never put up more as they Hand moves throughout the area and he didn't want to harm his Phylactery in case they had it).

Do you think this idea had any merit?

[Saintheart]

So perhaps I should stick to a scouting mission? Get as much info in as short a time as possible and get out kind of deal?

The Horde has recognized the players as threats, but they don't have a whole lot to go on. A few Speak With Dead spells and the occasional member of the horde getting away have revealed a little info about the party, mostly fighting strategy. This could be the opportunity for them to learn more.

OR do you think I should have the Barghest try to get away ASAP?

EDIT: Also Saintheart, I just want to take the opportunity to thank you for this wonderful resource. It has proven to be incredibly useful to me.

I think the scouting mission is a good idea. If you want to make things more complicated, consider whether the barghest tries to link up with Miha Serani (assuming she isn't already dead) - remember she's been sent in as the Red Hand's master spy, to conduct recon and undermining operations of the kind you're talking about. If you really wanted to exert yourself you could turn it into a full-on sidequest for the party trying to identify Miha's network of traitors, which could easily include members of the Black Knives guild (the thieves' guild under Rillor Paln, Verassa Kaal's lover.)

Also, you're welcome on the guide .. although thanks is owed to all the people who post here and keep us out of lockdown, as well as contributing lovely ideas and feedback!

Since my RHoD game I am playing in went into haitus (DM looking for a job). I might DM a similar idea.
I was watching Quantum Leap and thought what if the players play the bad guys after Leaping themselves?
They would be from future when goblinoids are enslaved and treated as nothing. They do low wage work like janitor work. This was how this group got access to the machine.

The Wyrmsmoke Mountains shook with the thunder of ten thousand screaming hobgoblin soldiers. From the phalanx emerged a single champion. One by one the tribes fell silent as the warlord rose up, blue scales gleaming along his shoulders, horns swept back from his head. A hundred bright yellow banners stood beneath him, each marked with a great red hand. He stood upon a precipice and raised his arms.

“I am Azarr Kul, Son of the Dragon!” the warlord bellowed. “Hear me! Tomorrow we march to war!”- Azarr Kul.
“Oh Boy!” –Hobgoblin soldier

—Excerpt from “The Red Hand of Doom” Vol. I

Something like:

Spoiler

Show

Original:
"Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. He woke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home”

Hobgoblin who leaped:
“Crom think he can leap too. Crom step into machine. Crom He woke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better for goblinkind. And so Crom finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put wrong what once went right, and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home. Red Hand of Doom will win this time!”

Basically they play (some of the) bad guys and I'd play some generic good guys who try to beat red hand of doom.
If they die, they leap into the next encounter.

Trouble is how would I determine which the PCs become? Maybe roll a die?
(because Bridge encounter if they be the dragon, that seems a better choice than the veterans or Sergeants I think. Although in the keep there are more varied choices like a minotaur, Manticore, or Koth besides the goons.)


Also:
Would a gestalt-ish multiclass idea be good idea (because Sam kept his old abilities and gained the new persons abilities as well: even chimps can use guns because he can for example):
they are level 1 in whatever class they were before leaping + new creatures level: this wouldn't affect feat/ability score progression, bab stacks, saves stack, and they use both creatures feats/spells, special features, and etc (keeping racial abilities beside ability scores since they use new creatures).

They'd get exp in origin class.

Am I thinking too much and should just make them the creature?

Then the Good guys is the issue:

Spoiler

Show

While I'm decided to give them LotR names for ease of naming: maybe(Frodo [Rogue], Gimli [Fighter], Legolas [Zen Archer Monk], Gandalf [a magus], Merry [a Bard], etc)

The order of the encounters will different as well.
Like I'm thinking one of the the 1st encounters might be helping Ulwai steal the phylactery. This would be a bit more Tomb of Horror since they would be red shirts (whether Doom Fists, Veterans, or Doom Priests) vs the Ghostlord's defenses (I think he had more defenses but most were set off by the Red Hand and he never put up more as they Hand moves throughout the area and he didn't want to harm his Phylactery in case they had it).

Do you think this idea had any merit?

I like the idea of an evil campaign based on Red Hand of Doom -- there's a couple of posts in this thread by Menteith where we kicked around a few ideas for encounters. You can find the discussion on this page. I don't know if he ever got round to running it.

I love the concept of Quantum Leap. As to how exactly you pick which characters they become, I'd be a bit leery about randomness since it really is a crapshoot of races. At least humans get an extra feat; hobgoblins, bugbears and goblins are meant to be cannon fodder against low-level opponents. Me, I'd say roll randomly for the species they wind up with, then let them create a character specifying that they can't change species. And if you're going down this path, stretch out to all the Monster Manuals so there's lots of variety -- everything from Ogre Tempests to Hobgoblin Spellscourges.

I'm not sure if I'd leap them in and out of each encounter, mainly because I don't think it creates much continuity. If they're going to wind up jumping out at the end of the encounter, how do they build up any interest? I think it really becomes a case of just a random set of encounters rather than giving the party the sense that it is making a real difference in history. I think you can still have the Quantum Leap thing, but I'd make it a longstanding leap and turn them into a slightly-above-average-antihero band of monsters, sort of the go-to squad for the Red Hand.

[Axinian]

Hey Saintheart, any sage advice for when I run the Battle of Brindol? I'm using something similar to Glyphstone's idea. I've detailed it in the campaign journal thread.