Running Freeport Trilogy

[arnon]

My GM wants to take a break from the current Ptolus campaign (and he deserves it), so i'm going to volunteer to the group to run Freeport (using Savage Worlds if I can convince them, d20 if i fail).

So i wanted to hear from people what was their experience with it. What did you like? what would you change? what would you add? etc. etc.

Nothing mechanical or system related please, just pure adventure...

Thanks

[Talwyn]

I liked the entire trilogy as my group had a great time playing through the adventures. Still I can share some advice:

- Be prepared for your players to visit the lighthouse during Terror. That's not really a problem as they shouldn't find anything suspicious but still you should have already read through Madness so you can come up with descriptions that don't conflict with those you will give during the showdown.

- The trap in the mortar factory in Terror is a killer. My party managed to escape except for our druid who was grinded in the scene.

- The Black Dog's Caves / Sunken Temple episode in Madness is extremely tough if the group doesn't have a cleric. Incorporeal undead are very tough opponents if you aren't able to turn them. If your group doesn't have a cleric, you could place the ghost touch weapon in one of rooms closer to the entrance. Also make sure that the party can somehow access lesser restoration or similar effects for the ability damage and the negative levels dealt by the undead can cripple your party.

My personal favorites during the trilogy were:
- The trap in the mortar factory
- Verlaine calls the PCs to the courts in order to intimidate them
- The PCs discover Verlaine's body in his manor. I added a slaughtered family in order to amplify the cruelty of the Brotherhood.
- The Lighthouse Ball at the Sealord's Palace You should definitely stretch that scene and allow your PCs to meet some of Freeport's big names. Think about how to play NPCs that might want to reuse in later adventures (in my case: Marcus Roberts, Lady Elise and Arias Soderheim). Also, the Lighthouse Ball is a great possibility to fan the PCs' detestation for Milton Drac by playing him as a vain, arrogant bastard. He should make a clear statement about the PCs *not* being equated to him or the other rulers of Freeport ("a pig in a fancy coat is still nothing but a pig" was the phrase I used). In order to support the atmosphere of the scene, you can use baroque chamber music such as Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons and serve your players sparkling wine (or even champagne for the more moneyed roleplayers among us ).
- The exploration of the Sunken Temple - extremely tough for my group (which didn't contain a cleric), yet unbelievably suspenseful and rewarding as a result of the time pressure.

[arnon]

Thanks for the comments Talwyn

I'll certainly keep an eye on the death trap; and i very much look forward to the party, as I (and out entire party) have a very fond memory of another party in the Ptolus campaign.

The plan is to then chase them off or send them off away from Freeport and to run them through the Red Hand of Doom. I'm still not sure how i'll do that; but if its the chase-them-away option, then it could easily be both the militia (for killing the sea lord!) and/or falling on the "bad" side of that halfling crime lord (name escapes me).

Sending them away... i'll have to think about this other option...

[Patrick O'Duffy]

The plan is to then chase them off or send them off away from Freeport and to run them through the Red Hand of Doom.

Another option - a tricky but doable one - is not to send them off to fight the Red Hand, but have the Red Hand come to them.

Turn the plot of RHOD from a land-based invasion into a sea-based one. The Red Hand Fleet, manned by hobgoblins, is sweeping through the islands around the Serpent's Teeth, with the aim of eventually taking over Freeport. The PCs can discover the fleet, fight landing parties on various islands, search for allies in the Teeth or underwater, and finally rally the Sea Lord's Guard when the fleet vanguard reaches Freeport.

It'd take quite a lot of work to convert the adventure, but it could be done...

[arnon]

Thanks for the idea, but that'll be too much trouble for me right now to deal with. And besides... i've recently read the Black Sails Over Freeport is a nice adventure, so i might want to run them through that as well... maybe after Red Hand, maybe as a new campaign...

[Set]

The trap was indeed a near TPK. With some amazing rolls, and a Tanglefoot Bag they'd gotten off of the assassin Jesswin in scene 23, they stuck themselves to the wall, while hanging from the tiny window one-armed (which they couldn't fit through, obviously, but the wizards raven familiar and a badger summoned by the Druid made short work of the poor guy inside!).

I used Thieves Quarter and Temple Quarter (from Game Mechanics) to flesh out some NPCs (and used the Temple of Tur in place of the 'Knowledge Gods Temple' layout), and had the various characters interact with people in town for training purposes. (The Fighter has trained with Bill Sangalapulatele, who taught him Dodge by chucking coconuts at him repeatedly, with the players joking, 'If you can dodge a coconut'..., the Transmuter trained with Delinda Knorbertal and the Druid started training with the Blooms, but since has moved on to the dwarven herbalist, Dordendun, whom I made a Druid instead of an Expert.)

I wrote up some of my ideas in this thread.

[mvp]

I didn't know my group to be hack'n slashers (and maybe they aren't, things just evolved to a certain direction), but by the end of day 1 in Freeport the group of three adventurers had assaulted an orc pirate ship, killed the crew and walked away with the loot, leaving a burning ship behind. When things started to get dangerous, I decided that Cpt Scarbelly would not be on board, because for me it looked like a certain team kill, even without the captain, with nine pirate orcs and a first mate, on their own territory. However, the players played the stunt and ran away (badly wounded, though) with the treasure of Scarbelly.

Now I have two questions to deal with, what to do with the staff and what Scarbelly is going to do? I can imagine the captain has at least some connections to Freeporters to be able to get some help in tracking down the PCs. Still worse for the players, the wizard PC decided to carry the staff openly around the town next day. I can feel something bad is going to happen soon, what it is a have time till next week to decide.

[arnon]

A fight with the orc pirates was very possible in my game (you can see the log in the thread i created), as the barbarian character wanted to win a staring contest with the second mate. In my case, since the characters are 2nd level, i took all the orcs up a level.

I can imagine the captain has at least some connections to Freeporters to be able to get some help in tracking down the PCs.

Finn perhaps...?

I can already imagine a pack of halfing barbarian and orc rogues ambushing the party

[mvp]

Finn perhaps...?

I can already imagine a pack of halfing barbarian and orc rogues ambushing the party

I was thinking how to introduce some NPC from Terror/Madness to PC:s through Scarbellys actions. Scarbelly could have some kind of connection to someone in town watch or even in Counsil.

Most likely Scarbelly is mad from rage and is terrorizing the neighborough until he can track the PCs down. Maybe he gets arrested after a murder or two, after which his friend from the administration interrupts and saves his green butt to mobilize him against any adventureres that could cause trouble in future. Should PCs learn about Scarbellys disappearance from imprisonment, that should give them some insomniac.

Hmm by Finn do you mean a Finnish person or is there someone called Finn in Freeport?

[arnon]

Finn is THE crime boss in Freeport (a halfling). I think he's mentioned in the Freeport trilogy as a side-adventure or something... but i might be wrong.

[bryan.mullins]

Finn runs the Eastern District...maybe more depending on how much you'd like him to feature in your game. I've always thought it was interesting that Finn is said to once have been an adventurer himself. Then he settled down and became a crime lord. Good stuff if you want to use it. It means hes at least passingly familiar with the type of psychopath that thinks crawling into a hole, killing whatever lives inside and taking it's stuff is a good career.



>WBM

[mvp]

There is nothing about this Finn character in Freeport Trilogy, that is the only Freeport material I've red. Thanks for the info anyway. I think I'm trying to keep the PCs busy with the cultist underground, leaving the criminal underground untouched.

About angered shipless Scarbelly, I've decided to try to play out it like this. Currently the PCs are exploring the temple in Death, but they have a nasty suprise waiting: someone has broken in their rooms and destroyed just about everything. That would be the captain himself looking for the PCs for revenge and to find the missing staff. Soon PCs should hear a rumour about new serial killer, as Scarbelly has gone through several sources of information, to the point that he was finally arrested while causing trouble in a perfectly decend Scholars Quill -inn. With the lost lives and property damages Scarbelly earns himself a death sentence in court. PCs will witness this, as they are summoned to the courthouse to testify against Scarbelly for their property losses (Scarbelly must be totally furious from this fact). However, later PCs hear that Scarbelly has escaped the prison with the help from someone from administrator. In Terror, then, PCs are taken again to court, that time to the other side of the room.

I'm also planning to somehow get the blame from the final events in Madness on PCs, so that they have to flee for their lives as far and as soon as possible.

[arnon]

I'm also planning to somehow get the blame from the final events in Madness on PCs, so that they have to flee for their lives as far and as soon as possible.

That's partly what i'm planning as well...

The party will have both the guard blaming them for the deaths they caused in the lighthouse, and they will have (by then) angered quite a few people of the underground. I've already started to set things in motion in that regard, and the underground will rear its head every so often to keep the PCs on their toes...

At the end of Madness I want to see them tired and exhausted and running for their lives; jumping into a departing ship (or something)... and that will bring them to the second part of the campaign: Red Hand of Doom.

[arnon]

I hope to have time to post the latest log from my campaign tomorrow, but in the meantime...

I just got an e-mail from a player playing a cleric of a good God, asking if he could take over the building they have just left (meaning the bricked up building from Murder in Freeport) and set up a temple to his god there.

Of course I can't let that happen, tough I do like the initiative he is taking. What I guess I'll need to do is drown him in bureaucracy, which is what the 'bad guys' will do anyway because they still need that place for the next part of the adventure (Horror in Freeport).

Maybe have him go to the record office and try to dig around as to who owns the place... just had an idea! The owner of the building might be a certain person (name to be decided), but he is just a name on the paper, the real owner is the halfling in straw hat that knocked Samrok (the cleric) out last time... who in turn is a part of Finn's gang. The owner knows nothing of what happened in his building (don't ask don't tell policy)...

This will probably put more suspicon on the straw hat halfling, but that's fine by me. Let them focus on one character and then be surprised when he truly does have nothing to do with what's happening... not in regard to the trilogy at any rate.

[mvp]

arnon, I just red your campaign notes and it's funny to see that things are going so similar with my players, too. Today we're going to continue the final dungeon of Terror. Unfortunately, last time they lost initiative by starting to _change heavy armours_ in the middle of the heat (after clearing the skeleton room). Too bad, I'm sure Milos has some very bad suprise for them!

I just got an e-mail from a player playing a cleric of a good God, asking if he could take over the building they have just left (meaning the bricked up building from Murder in Freeport) and set up a temple to his god there.

This is great! Maybe he could somehow do it anyway, giving the cult a perfect disguise?

[mvp]

arnon, it's totally fun to read your journal! Keep it coming!

Here's what's happening on our campaign. Tomorrow we're coming to the final encounter of Terror (on post above I meant Death when talking about Terror). PCs found hot clues about the temple of knowledge being the source of serpent men. Egil was with them in Verlaines house and convinced them to be totally unaware of such claims. So we ended last session when the wounded PCs are rushing to the temple, with fatigued Egil and captain Lloyds unconscious body.

I made Lloyd female in our campaign because I felt there was not enough female NPC:s in the adventure. By accident I called her Lloyd anyway so it became her surname. One of the PCs got an eye on her earlier so I positioned her in Verlaines bedroom, just dying from the attack of the assassins, and just as I guessed this one PC of ours used all his efforts to stabilize Sara Lloyd before doing anything else on the crime scene (like joining others to fight the assassins).

Tomorrow is also exiting because we finally got our hard copies of Pathfinder Beta RPG and we're going to switch to that. Players got homework to add +2 in one attribute and to re-count and distribute their skill points. Quite a power-up, I guess I don't have much choice but to make the attack on the temple a really tough one!

[arnon]

I need to write and update my party's progress.

We've have completed Horror last session and will start Madness either next session or the one after... between now and then i'm going to have them get in trouble with the criminal side of Freeport...

[mvp]

At the end of Madness I want to see them tired and exhausted and running for their lives; jumping into a departing ship (or something)... and that will bring them to the second part of the campaign: Red Hand of Doom.

So what happened to your group, arnon?

The lady character in my group got an invitation from a nice sea captain (who of course was a captain of a pirate ship but the PC:s don't know that, not even after current events, see below) to join them, their ship was scheduled to leave Freeport on the morning after the lighthouse opening.

After the assault on the lighthouse, I ruled that some madness got spread in the town anyway, and now the public opinion is heavily against the PC:s. Lady Elise, Gwendolyn and Thuron with their factions are on the PC's side, but with all the political issues, especially with the people who were pro Milton, they can't help the real heroes facing anger and hostile reactions everywhere in Freeport. So the PC's decided accept the invitation by the good-looking pirate guy and left Freeport.

But that was not the end of the Madness. This lady of the group, paladin by profession, had grabbed the Sword of Sorrow from the Black Dog Cave during the Madness of Freeport and failed to make the save against the curse on a very first day. And so it happened, that by the end of the sea travel day one, our good lady was very close with the handsome captain, who seduced her into captains cabin (at this point, the player of this character was aware about the curse and its effects). After a while, the curse hit in and forced her to attack her partner, who got killed. Earlier the good paladin had had some problems with her faith. This forced attack was the final catalyst for her to turn her back on Halav and reverting to evil. Those seamen who had the watch at that night saw a flaming, female shape diving to the waters, never to be seen again.

Questions about the dead captain were immediately placed on the remaining PCs and the other travelers on board. That is were our campaign continues.

Freeport Trilogy was a massive amount of fun and excitement. Didn't regret a day that I picked up that book and introduced it to our new gaming group. Greets to GR!

[arnon]

I never got to writing those updates and it's too late now...

But i'll tell you how it ended

I described herethe final session of the Trilogy.

With the end of the battle the party hears the shouts and applause from the bay understanding that no one really knows what just happened, and then, looking at the "esteemed" bodies laying at their feet understand that they are in deep s&!t.

The quickly get out of there, and decide to look for Lady Eliese (sp?) because she was clearly against the lighthouse and didn't like Milton. They find her and some other influential people looking at the bay on the porch of a high-class tavern. They convince the guards to let them talk to the lady, and once in a private place explain what happened. She tells them to stay put till she'll get things in order, and after some time comes into the room an ally of Eliese (don't remember his name, supposed to be head of intelligence or something). He thanks the party for their actions, but regrets to tell them that the full truth cannot be revealed yet as it was cause massive unrest. So the party needs to leave Freeport quickly.

The party is fine with that. They are given about 2000gp (in total) as a thank you (it was all they could muster on short notice); a remove blindness potion to the sorceress; and are told to go a ship that is leaving bay first thing at dawn...

The party is half-way on the pier, walking towards the ship when they hear shouting from behind them: "Those are them! Get Them!!!", they turn their heads to find a squad of Sea Captain Guards charging towards them...

The party make a dash to the ship and manage to jump on board just as it leaves port. They get on their feet and wave good-bye at Freeport and the chasing guards and then two things happen:

1. The barbarian character is violently turned around and receives a tremendous punch in the face that sends him sprawling. As he looks up the man that punched him says: "That's for my brother! Now let's settle this..." (character back story has the character killing a man of his tribe because the man tried to force himself upon the PC's sister. The PC ran away)

2. The sorceress who has the Sword of Sorrows (the dwarf rogue had it at first, but was knocked unconscious and the sword was taken by the sorceress. Also, she failed her Will Save the day before) took out the sword and attacked the Monk PC...


And then I said: "The End"

Those are actually cliffhangers. We are going to return to those characters in about 6 months time (maybe a bit more) and then I will run them through Red Hand of Doom.