Deus Ex Machina - any tips

[Kalendraf]

At our next session, I plan to spring Deus Ex Machina upon the party. It seems like it should be pretty straight-forward to run, but I'm wondering if anyone has any tips or suggestions to help pull it off smoothly or any nifty modifications they used.

[Kalendraf]

Here are some of my questions which I forgot to list in my initial post:

1) How does Claret cast Sanctuary on Harcourt if she is a block away (60'). According to the PHB, Sanctuary has a range of touch.

2) The building 5 description indicates that followers may fall into the courtyard, but I'm not clear as to why. The shortest path should take Harcourt and any pursuers along the southern part of the building which is away from the courtyard. Does Harcourt take some kind of strange path here to try to trick his pursuers?

3) According to the map, the distance between building 1 and 2 is 15'. However, in the key for Building 1, it lists this as 10'. Which is correct?

4) If Harcourt is being pursued, I would expect him to untie/cut the tightrope connecting buildings 2 and 3 similar to how he impedes followers by kicking away the plank between building 1 and 2. Why doesn't he do this?

[timemrick]

Between running MiF and reading F:CoA, I haven't gotten around to doing my errata/notes thing for this adventure yet, but this one seems easy to answer:

4) If Harcourt is being pursued, I would expect him to untie/cut the tightrope connecting buildings 2 and 3 similar to how he impedes followers by kicking away the plank between building 1 and 2. Why doesn't he do this?

Presumably because speed is of the essence, and that would take more time (an attack or skill use that will likely take longer than a single move-equivalent action). The rope (DC 25) is harder to cross than the 4" plank (DC 15), so it will slow down pursuit even without being removed.

Tim

[Kalendraf]

That does make sense regarding the tightrope. I was thinking that maybe they could have tied a special knot that would be easy to pull free from the far end, making it another move equivalent action to untie it, but if not, then it would be too hard to cut or untie it if speed is of the essence.

Unless the MiF wrap-up of role-playing thru the aftermath of the lighthouse events takes much longer than I anticipate, I strongly suspect the Deus Ex stuff will start this evening.

For now, I'm going to assume that the map is wrong and the 1st gap is 10' and that Harcourt takes a path very near to the courtyard.

However, I'm at a loss to explain how Sanctuary is going to be cast from 60' away, unless I give Claret some item or spell that lets her deliver touch spells at range.

[timemrick]

However, I'm at a loss to explain how Sanctuary is going to be cast from 60' away, unless I give Claret some item or spell that lets her deliver touch spells at range.

Yeah, it was a cool idea, but as you've pointed out, it breaks the rules. I'd say that giving her a clerical version of Spectral Hand is the tidiest solution (esp. if you're running tonight!). Since it's not on the PHB Cleric list, she must have had to specially research it; and maybe it's 3rd level instead of 2nd?

Tim

[SassyRonin]

On 2002-05-07 11:09, timemrick wrote:

However, I'm at a loss to explain how Sanctuary is going to be cast from 60' away, unless I give Claret some item or spell that lets her deliver touch spells at range.

Yeah, it was a cool idea, but as you've pointed out, it breaks the rules. I'd say that giving her a clerical version of Spectral Hand is the tidiest solution (esp. if you're running tonight!). Since it's not on the PHB Cleric list, she must have had to specially research it; and maybe it's 3rd level instead of 2nd?

Tim

This made me wonder why there wasn't already such a spell. Hmm, thought I. Cure wounds spells (or cause wounds) from afar... What other cool things could a cleric do with holy handshake?

Might a one-level-higher ranged touch version of sanctuary be better than a divine spectral hand?
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[Kalendraf]

On 2002-05-07 13:30, SassyRonin wrote:

Might a one-level-higher ranged touch version of sanctuary be better than a divine spectral hand?

I was actually thinking along those same lines. Since Claret doesn't really need to cast much else, and is a 5th level cleric, she has plenty of available slots. It seems reasonable that a Trickster god would encourage certain types of spells being able to be delivered from afar. (Note: The Arcane Trickster PC gets the ability to do things from range, so "Tricksters" seem to have a knack for this kind of thing.) For lack of a better name, I'll just call it Ranged Sanctuary and maybe make it only available in the Trickery domain at level 2.

[timemrick]

Might a one-level-higher ranged touch version of sanctuary be better than a divine spectral hand?

Good point, that would be more "clerical" in feel. I'd make it available as a Protection spell, too, since it has a similar feel to Shield Other.

When I do the errata/notes thing, I'll take a look thru my PHB (and Deities & Demigods) for other possible solutions.

Tim

[Jeff Quick]

Hey, I'm Jeff Quick, author of DeM. Chris alerted me to this post, so I thought I'd shoot some answers out.

1) How does Claret cast Sanctuary on Harcourt if she is a block away (60'). According to the PHB, Sanctuary has a range of touch.

This would be the product of dumbass writer error.

One mildly clever way to salvage that would be to swap out her Brew Potion feat for the Reach Spell metamagic feat (found in the Defenders of the Faith guidebook from WotC). It makes any touch spell a ray with a range of 30 feet, and the spell is prepared at two levels higher. Have her drop bestow curse for the metamagicked sanctuary. Then place her 30 feet away instead of 60 feet.

Less complicated options include having her cast it on him ahead of time and give him, say, 5 rounds remaining by the time he makes the grab, or just skip that step since it get logistically dodgy.

2) The building 5 description indicates that followers may fall into the courtyard, but I'm not clear as to why. The shortest path should take Harcourt and any pursuers along the southern part of the building which is away from the courtyard. Does Harcourt take some kind of strange path here to try to trick his pursuers?

The idea is that Harcourt knows that there's an abrupt dropoff, but pursuers do not, therefore he does a quick fake to try to get followers to ditch into the courtyard. Probably not explained as well as I'd have liked in the text.

3) According to the map, the distance between building 1 and 2 is 15'. However, in the key for Building 1, it lists this as 10'. Which is correct?

See answer to question 1 re: dumbassness. I meant it to be 10 feet, not 15.

4) If Harcourt is being pursued, I would expect him to untie/cut the tightrope connecting buildings 2 and 3 similar to how he impedes followers by kicking away the plank between building 1 and 2. Why doesn't he do this?

There are a couple of things going on here.

The first, as other posters surmised, is the time issue. I decided kicking a board could be done as a free action, but stopping to cut a rope is definitely a standard action.

I suppose you could say that Harcourt tied some tricky knot, but without any Use Rope ranks, I don't think he has the mad skillz for it.

The meta-game aspect of it was that I wanted this portion of the adventure to test skills, so I wanted there to be a Jump check and a Balance check.

Which are all completely negated by someone with a fly spell. But still.

Also, for those of you playing at home, remember that using spider climb means you move at half speed. That will occasionally be a factor for Harcourt, so he uses the slippers when it's faster than just running.

I hope you have/had fun running the adventure. If you liked it, feel free to inform the management. =)

--Jeff

[SassyRonin]

On 2002-05-07 16:25, Jeff Quick wrote:
Hey, I'm Jeff Quick, author of DeM. Chris alerted me to this post, so I thought I'd shoot some answers out.

1) How does Claret cast Sanctuary on Harcourt if she is a block away (60'). According to the PHB, Sanctuary has a range of touch.

This would be the product of dumbass writer error.

For the record, I'm pretty sure I edited part one of DeM, so I should get some dumbass points, too, for not doublechecking the range of sanctuary. I guess I should play a cleric one of these days.

[anoxos]

Hmm. Errors aside, I honestly just pretty much skipped most of the pursuit. My version of the 'missing holy symbol gambit' ran thusly:

Harcourt runs down an alley, boldly in view of the PCs. His accomplice gives chase, shouting 'stop thief, he took my holy symbol!' and the party chases after him. Since none of the group that sat down that night was a rogue, he quickly lost them. I didn't worry about the Sanctuary spells of anything. Since at the time that I ran Part 1, the map wasn't out for it yet, I faked it.

the 'wronged cleric of retribution' played it up with the party, lifting the party cleric's holy symbol while they all groused and railed at the "thief" that got away....

Then they parted ways with the real thief, and discovered THEIR holy symbols were missing (the party fighter had a collection of Yellow sign pendants from dead opponents that went missing as well). They went to the "Godshop" (gee, you guys musta read my mind, I had something like that already and you put it in the book) only to find he was sold out of the materials necessary to consecrate holy symbols, due to a rush on them from the Clerics of the god of thieves, among others. Gee, their holy symbols were stolen too... Go figure. He couldn't get any materials in for at least a week.

Of course, having just finished MiF, they all think this a plot by the Cultists of the Unspeakable One to soften up the resistance for a major assault, so they waste little time tracking the thieves. They find all the major temples have been mysteriously raided within the past 3 days, and of course the real clerics of retribution have no idea who the 'robbed cleric' was.

By various detective works, they manage to track them back to their hideout, and the rest runs pretty much as written.

I did have a concurrent subplot running though, involving the party dodging Lady Elise's guards, since they took the 'lighthouse diamond' and used it as the material component to resurrect a dead companion. They owed the city treasury BIG TIME and they had to get the moolah to replace it. They brokered deals with several of the major temples to get a 'reward' for recovering as many of the missing holy symbols as possible. This made them somewhat reluctant to bash up the golem... Fun, fun.

I think that golem-building magic-user may have to recur in my campaign, as they all want to figure out who that was....

[Kalendraf]

I sprang Part 1 of Deus Ex Machina on my group last night. They were returning from a visit to Falthar's Curio shop in the merchant district where they got the items from the lighthouse identified. They were on their way back to the Temple of Knowledge, so it seemed like a great time and place for Deus Ex Machina. Unfortunately, things didn't go nearly as smoothly as I (or at least the NPCs) were hoping it would.

Resseka started things off by getting the attention of the lead fighter. Unfortunately, they were not the least bit interested in such an "opportunity", so they just ignored her. She pressed on, next propositioning the ranger, then the rogue/sorcerer and eventually the barbarian. All of them just blew her off. She pouted, and kept up the act trying to slow them down. She was somewhat successful, and gave Harcourt enough time to get into position near the druid hanging out in the back. He made his pick-pocket attempt (a modified 28) and then retreated toward the building. Claret attempted the ranged sanctuary, but rolled a 1 on her ranged touch attack. I ruled that she missed as a result with the spell fizzling.

Harcourt shimmies up the wall, and as the adventure lists, I gave the party a chance to notice him. Two characters rolled high enough to realize he had the druid's sprig of holly in his hand. We rolled initiatives at this point. The rogue/sorcerer (one of the successful spotters) went 1st, and fired an arrow at the fleeing halfling. I ruled that the halfling had a +4 on his AC from this vantage point with the top of the roof giving him a small degree of cover. The arrow shot got a modified 23 and hit for 6 damage. Harcourt ducks out of range at this point preventing anyone else from having a shot at him.

Next to move is the barbarian. He reaches the wall with his 40' move and then climbs to the top succesfully (20'). Next is the druid, who's 1st action is to shapechange into an eagle, then spends his 80' move flying up to a spot very near the barbarian. Then the fighter/wizard moves and reaches the wall and starts his ascent. The ranger decides to focus on Resseka and corners her in.

Knowing that there are spellcasters on the way up, Claret cast silence centered near the roof edge, covering a large section of the roof. Chemb keeps an eye on Resseka and the ranger in case something goes unexpected over there.

On the next round, Harcourt runs across the plank, and then uses a move equivalent action to kick it away (it's listed as a move equivalent in the adventure, though one of the previous posts makes it sound like this is intended to be a free action. Free action makes more sense now, but I went with it how it was written and ruled it a move action.) Barbarian goes next, but fails his balance check by 3. He spends the rest of the round regaining his feet. The eagle catches Harcourt and attacks, hitting with a claw and beak for 5 damage. Harcourt has taken 11 at this point. The fighter/wizard scales the wall (rolled a 10 exactly) and discovers the silence area and uses his last few steps to move diagonally to the middle of the roof. He makes his balance check by 1.

On the ground, the ranger and rogue/sorcerer attempt to keep Resseka penned in. At this point, she's still playing her role to buy time and plays along with their advances. "Wait your turn big boy, he was here first", etc.

Seeing the eagle attack on Harcourt, Claret summons a fiendish hawk and sends it after the eagle to distract it. Chemb sees the two characters harassing Resseka and relays this to Claret.

Harcourt takes this opportunity to quaff his potion of Expeditious Retreat. The eagle misses its attack of opportunity. Harcourt boogies across the roof and decides to just leap across instead of messing with the tight rope. He's guaranteed to make the jump now with the bonus from the potion.

The barbarian again tries to pursue, but this time fails his check so badly that he falls off the roof and hits the ground for 10 damage. The eagle closes on Harcourt again and hits for 1 damage. Harcourt has now suffered 12 damage. The fighter/wizard moves forward with a successful dex check and unleashes Ice Knife, and rolls a 19 on his attack. Harcourt makes his save, but suffers 9 points. He's now taken 21 damage.

The fiendish hawk flies up toward the eagle, but doesn't have enough movement to make an attack at this point. Claret hopes that Harcourt will make it from here, and takes this opportunity to cast Obscuring mist on the area near Resseka. Then she and Chemb head to the plaza to help give support to Harcourt.

The ranger and rogue/sorcerer find themselves in a fog cloud. The rogue moves out to try to figure out who cast it. The ranger makes a grapple attempt on where Resseka was standing. But she has already taken this opportunity to shimmy up the wall and is now on he roof.

Harcourt runs across the roof and reaches the pigeon door. He decides to try opening it to cause a pigeon storm which may hold off the pesky eagle. But as he's reaching for the door, the eagle again closes. It hits him for 2 points. Harcourt has now taken 23 damage. The barbarian runs along the buildings on the street level. The fighter/wizard casts magic missile and hits Harcourt for 3 more points knocking him to -1. Since he was right next to the edge of the roof when this happened, I rolled a reflex check and got a 2. Harcourt fell from the roof suffering another 9 points in the fall, dying on impact.

The fiendish hawk makes a swoop past the eagle, but misses.

Claret and Chemb enter the plaza just in time to see Harcourt's unexpected fall. They start moving toward him, but then realize that the barbarian is moving that way as well. They attempt to blend into the crowd.

Meanwhile, the ranger decides to back away from the cloud to help the rogue. The rogue finds 4 strangers that on the street that he figures must be the casters of the fog cloud. He starts interrogating them (various intimidate and diplomacy rolls ensued).

Resseka has been watching from the roof top, and now climbs down on the other side near the plaza.

At this point I gave the barbarian and druid (eagle) a spot with DC 30 to see Claret and Chemb moving across the busy courtyard. The druid rolled a 30+. He swoops down, cawing at the barbarian and makes a beeline for Claret and Chemb. The barbarian follows. The fighter/wizard elects to jump down from the roof, and only suffers 6 damage.

Knowing they've been spotted, Claret and Chemb attempt to draw the party members away and head toward the city wall. The eagle and hawk are locked in a momentary aerial dogfight. The barbarian rushes right up to chemb and claret calling for them to stop. The ranger sees this from the street, and proceeds toward them in the plaza. The rogue/sorcerer continues his interrogation of the innocent bystanders, but eventually convinces them to follow him into the plaza as well.

Resseka casts sanctuary on herself and then makes a beeline toward Harcourt's body. The fighter/wizard is just a short ways behind her and he follows her. As she reaches Harcourt and grabs the holy symbol, the fighter/wizard attempts to attack, but fails his save vs. sanctuary. He shouts out that "The Girl is over here." Only the barbarian heard it (listen check DC15) over the other noises in the plaza.

The ranger kills the hawk with a well-placed arrow. The eagle lands next to Claret and Chemb and changes back into druid-form. The barbarian runs toward Resseka. Claret attempts to cast Darkness, but the druid makes a successful attack of opportunity, and Claret fails her concentration check, losing the spell.

Meanwhile, Resseka is running into busy streets trying to lose her pursuers in the crowds. Each turn is a DC 20 spot to keep her in sight. Both the fighter/wizard and barbarian make their rolls. With the faster movement, the barbarian gets in an attack opportunity, but fails his save against Sanctuary.

Back in the plaza, the ranger unleashes a flurry of arrows at the gnome taking Claret down to just a few hit points with a critical hit. The rogue/sorcerer abandons his bystanders and moves into position for a flanked sneak attack. He hits and kills Claret with the attack. Her next spell was going to be invisibility, but she doesn't survive to cast it. Filled with rage, Chemb manages a successful hit on the druid for 12.

The barbarian and fighter/wizard successfully continue their pursuit an finally the barbarian gets in an attack for 10. Resseka dives into a crowd of people and ends her change self. I rule it's a DC 25 spot to follow her and they both are again successful - apparently the blood from the last attack is still visible. The fighter/wizard attacks and rolls a critical hit. Resseka takes 12 damage and falls.

In the plaza, the Ranger, rogue and druid combine to kill Chemb in the next round of hits. One thing that should be noted here is that his AC is listed as 12, but it also states he has +1 leather, which should make his AC 13. It's not a huge difference, but one of the hits would have missed AC 13, and I didn't notice this problem until after the game was over. FYI, I think Chemb needs better options here. Perhaps giving him +1 studded leather to beef his armor class to 14. He can't really provide much of a threat at AC 12.

As the plaza fight ended, several guards showed up - the innocent bystanders that the rogue/sorcerer was harrassing had fetched them. The guards ordered them away from the bodies of Claret and Chemb, so the party only got a 1 round search, and was only able to grab obvious stuff (purses and items in hand). The guards were going to take them into custody, until the druid mentioned that they had stolen his holy symbol. The guard replied, "Another holy symbol stolen? That's the fifth report today!" After some more questions, the guards eventually let them go, but put them "on report", and told them "They'd better keep their noses out of trouble or they're gonna get taken in next time." While all of that was going on, the barbarian and fighter/wizard went about looting Resseka's and Harcourt's bodies.

So the adventure did not go anywhere near how I expected it There are a couple critical factors that wound up allowing Harcourt and the other Tricksters to be killed. First of all, the fail on the ranged Sanctuary was probably the biggest. One way to fix this could be to have the sanctuary come from an item in his possession. That's really the intent here. The 2nd biggest problem was the druid shapechange into an eagle allowing for close pursuit of Harcourt. Not sure of an easy way to change to adventure to solve that. However, solving the 1st problem, likely makes this 2nd one less of an issue. Also, Resseka was more of a liability for the tricksters than a distraction. My party doesn't tend to fall for stuff like this. If she was laying in the street bleeding or was just playing a streetside fortune-teller, she probably would have provided a much better distraction for this group. If only Harcourt is seen as an "enemy" it will allow the other tricksters to move undetected and assist from afar. Putting Resseka into the heat of the action as this adventure suggests seems like too obvious of a set-up, and a wary party is going to be suspicious.

Of course, the players were rolling insanely well too. There were 3 natural 20's rolled on spot checks, and their attack rolls were seeing a lot of 17 to 20 range numbers as well. On the flip side, the NPC's were rolling horribly, including at least 3 1's that I rolled during the session. So maybe it was just really bad luck. The tricksters never really got a chance to submit either. Their deaths came swiftly. Chemb had the best shot at surrender, but elected to fight on.

[drnuncheon]

I was pondering tying this adventure in with the Church of the Living God from Arcana: Societies of Magic. Anyone else try something like that?

Big ol' spoilers follow

Here are my ideas. Some involve greater departures from the given plot than others, of course...

1) The easy one is, of course, to have somethng necessary for the Colossus be stolen. Eyvindur Boman might ask the PCs to recover the item for him, so that Rannva Taale doesn't find out. What happens if they find out that Taale engineered the theft?

2) Alternately, the thieves are working for Boman - perhaps they are gathering materials for him, or perhaps the faith golem is a 'trial run' for the Colossus. Boman could replace Korzaks Tarm in this case.

3) The thieves could be working on a competing project. Maybe they found out about the Colossus and want a golem to rival it. Which leads to...

4) The faith golem is part of the biggest trick ever...the clerics plan to steal a god. As Boman completes the colossus, they will divert the deific energy into their own creation, where the combined power of items sanctified to other gods will trap it inside the golem. Why? Perhaps the Trickster God owes the Shadow Lord a bad deed - or maybe the God of Secrets knows something that the Trickster needs.

[anoxos]

I had thought about making the faith golem the colossus, as I almost had to continue past part 2 before part 3 was out yet.

Now I'm considering it as having been a sort of trial run. I'm not running HiF, so I've pretty much pitched the standard plotline.

[Kalendraf]

I recently obtained a copy of Freeport: City of Adventure, and was hoping that it would have a bit more info regarding the old and new churches of the God of Retribution. Instead, it contains merely a rather small entry about how the church is now barely scraping by in Scurvytown. This seemed to fly directly in the face of the information presented at the beginning of Part 2 of Deus Ex Machina.

After some debate, I came up with the following solution and rough order of events which seems to handle this:

1. As mentioned in Deus Ex Machina, Part 2, the Church of Retribution gets a large donation and decides to rebuild a new temple.

2. It procures a large section in the area of town known as Scurytown. Perhaps it was less of a bad section at that time, or perhaps the priests figured they could help renovate the area. Construction of the new building is begun in the location noted on the map as indicated in Freeport: City of Adventure³.

3. At various points in its construction, various items from the previous temple are brought to the new temple to assist in consecration ceremonies and then put into storage until the final dedication is ready.

4. The events listed in Deus Ex Machina, Part 2, regarding the Trickster god clerics occurs. The old temple is concidered cursed and/or haunted and declared off-limits. With so much effort now being spent on the construction of the new temple, such events are not investigated thoroughly by the Retribution priests.

5. The events listed in Freeport: City of Adventure regarding the demise of many of the Retribution priests occurs (lost at sea or something similar). The temple is left desperatly short-handed, and postpones further work on the new temple. Instead, they attempt to make do with what they have completed.

6. After years of neglect, the new temple of Retribution has decayed to a point of now fully blending in with the rest of Scurvytown.


I wound up using this last night. Seemed strange to have a temple way over in scurvytown. The party found and rescued Brother Knoxton, and then accompanied him clear across town at his urging to help verify his and their story. Had the new temple been located in the temple district, it wouldn't have been that far of a detour, but going clear across town took some serious convincing.

Of course the party had to do some serious convincing prior to that to prove to Brother Knoxton that they weren't in some plane of hell. This was definitely a fun character to roleplay.

[Kalendraf]

I'm trying to figure out where the front door of the temple is located. Given the layout of the temple, I assume it is likely in the middle of the south wall underneath room #23. However, this isn't indicated on the map at all.

According to the boxed item on page 6, the Priests of Retribution will begin using their Ram on this door during the fight, and I may work that into the adventure when the party reaches the final encounter.

[Kalendraf]

Faith Golem vs. Collapsing Ceiling

The path the Faith Golem takes to exit the temple will lead it thru room 24 with the collapsing ceiling traps. Given the size and relative lack of grace of such a huge creature (Large construct), I assume that as it passes thru this room, it has a very good chance of knocking out support beams on its way and causing a number of collapses. Given that the reflex save vs. the falling ceiling is DC23 and the Faith Golem only has a +3 on its reflex saves, it seems likely that the golem will suffer some damage from the falling tiles in spite of its Damage Reduction (15/+1).

My guess is that the contstruct will simply elect to break thru the few temporary walls between the stairs to the doorway east of this (3 walls), and each time it does this, it causes a collapse. That won't be enough to kill the golem unless it suffered a lot in a previous battle down below. But it is likely to wear it down a little.

The bigger threat will be to the party if they are pursuing the golem at this point.

[Kalendraf]

My group finished this last night. It wound up taking us approximately 1 session per segment, so the natural breaks in the 3 parts served largely as our time breaks as well.

To begin, the group finished off the upper level. The Girallon hit with 2 claws (one with a critical hit) and a subsequent rend for a total of 51 damage on the initial hit. This dropped the lead character, the barbarian/rogue/ranger, who only has 50 hit points in the 1st round. It certainly woke up the group! They proceeded to hit it with almost every major offensive method they could muster and managed to drop it in 3 rounds before it could kill anyone. The druid cured up the barbarian before he bled to death.

From there, they proceeded to take a very methodical approach, hitting every trapped room on the way. I kept asking them if they really wanted to spend a minute searching here or there. They'd search an empty room to no avail, then decide to forego the next search only to walk into a trap. It was rather humorous. Most of the traps were avoided or did little besides alert those below.

On the main level, they narrowly avoided the chute traps. Feather fall and the new slippers of spider climbing allowed characters to avoid the fall. The room with the bubbling cauldron almost led to an interesting seen where the players were trying to decide if they should drink the mixture or not. The room with the maps saw 2 players narrowly make their saves to avoid the effects of the confounding script.

Eventually, they climbed up to room #23 with the arcane locked door. The wizard had 1 knock memorized and used it to gain entry. They searched in there for several minutes and figured out the magical items via a detect magic. The elected to take the decanter but left the wheel since it was rather bulky. The left after being there for 9 minutes, just narrowly escaping before the door lock reset.

They went into the maze from the temple door, and then followed the left corridor eventually reaching the pit. At this point, I had the rogue near that door place a wall across their path to prevent retreat. The rogue w/ spiderclimb slippers elected to climb on the wall over the pit, only to be attacked by the crossbowman below. The barbarian tried to climb down, but fell, and wound up landing on top of the crossbowman at the bottom. After a few more attacks he was dead. He missed the secret door down there.

The rest of the group near the real stairs heard the chanting, and the barbarian decided to just bust thru the wall, triggering a collapse. He suffered some more damage, but had succeeded in revealing the path down.

They headed downward with the barbarian in the lead. Unfortunately, with all the noise and previous alarms, the 2 spellcasters below had put up all their defensive spells. The party began to descend.

The 2 animated practice dummies engaged them. They didn't hit (lead characters have AC22), but they did slow down their approach. The gnome elected to fire a pair of magic missiles with his wand and the cleric cast a sonic burst. I ruled that the practice dummies were made of wood and had damage reduction of 5. This made them much more challenging to bring down.

As the fight continued, the barbarian used tumble to dive past the dummies, and moved to position himself next to the gnome with the wand. One of the dummies followed him, while the other moved up the steps toward the next character, the ranger.

As this as happening, the rogue spiderclimbed onto the ceiling and entered the room from that route. And the druid shapechanged into an eagle. Only the figher/wizard was left behind with little opportunity to act.

The gnome cast hold person on the barbarian and he failed his saving throw. The cleric cast his hold person at the spiderclimbing rogue, but the rogue made his save. The ranger and fighter/wizard combined to knock-out the other dummy.

From there, the fight seemed to swing back toward the party. The druid cast creeping cold on the gnome and the gnome failed his saving throw. And the fighter/wizard moved to attack the cleric. The rogue/sorcerer cast an acid spell at the cleric, but his entropic shield roll was a 14 meaning that it deflected this attack.

The practice dummy kept attacking the now held Barbarian. I ruled hits were automatic, but just had to roll the damage. The gnome fired off his web spell, and nailed the fighter/wizard, rogue/sorcerer and shapechanged druid. Suddenly, it was looking tough for the party. The cleric managed to dodge it and moved into a safe area near the gnome in the wide hallway between the 2 rooms. It was suddenly looking quite grim for the party.

The ranger moved into position and unleashed an arrow at the gnome, rollin a 20. He backed it up. The total damage was 21 which was enough to kill the gnome in a single hit. Right thru the heart!

The fighter/cleric managed to move enough to set the webs on fire and free his companions. Seeing the gnome die, the cleric cast invisibility and moved 5' to wait things out. Finally, the other characters concentrated on the lone practice dummy and took it down.

At this point, the chanting stopped, and the golem arose. The druid flew to investigate. The sorcerer in that room just brushed off his minor attack in eagle form and watched his creation lumber toward the other room.

The party moved to attack it, but rolled badly. They also watched in horror as their spells seemed to have no effect whatsoever. The druid landed and shapechanged back into driud form. He tried to attack the sorcerer, but missed. The sorcerer could have been nasty at this point, but elected to just back away and then teleport out. The fireball would have filled the entire chamber hitting him as well, which didn't seem prudent at this point.

The invisible cleric used this opportunity to flee as well. His footsteps were drowned out by the lumbering golem as well as the banging of the ram used by the retribution priests upstairs.

Finally, one of the characters connected with a magic weapon, but only dealt 4 damage. But it was clear that it had broken a few of the pieces of the monster. It kept walking toward the steps, shrugging off this damage. All of the characters are faithful followers of their various gods, so it was trying to find other targets.

But the next wave of attacks hit it very solidly. A combined 20 some damage happened from various attacks. That got its attention. It turned and hit 2 of the nearest characters, dealing out some major damage. Another round of attacks nearly dropped it. Again it attacked and hit twice in response, nearly killing one of the PC's. On the next round, they dropped it.

It was a very climactic battle. The traps and the spellcasters at the end were very effective at wearing them down. By the end, most of the spellcasters had cast their primary spells, and everyone had some major damage. It also had great pace which the players and I enjoyed.

I think the golem could have been a bit tougher, but it would then risk possibly killing one of the PC's, so I probably wouldn't change that. Still, moving it to 60 or even 70 hit points probably would be wise if you have a group that is strong in combat. My group tends to excel in combat, but is much more poor in spellcasting situations, so the golem played right into their strengths.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Kalendraf on 2002-05-22 15:02 ]</font>

[timemrick]

I've been working on errata notes for this one, and should be able to post them early next week. (Would have sooner, but I was wrapping up MiF, digesting FCoA, and revising & expanding my notes on serpent people [see separate post].)

Many thanks to Kalendraf and Jeff Quick for finding and solving many of the problems before I could get around to looking at them! Half my web page for this one will consist of just citing you two...

Tim

[timemrick]

Thanks again to Kalendraf and author Jeff Quick for posting questions and errata for this adventure long before I could. Your work has greatly simplified my own! (The version of these notes on my own site [see sig for URL] will incorporate those comments, with due credit.)

GENERAL NOTES: DEUS EX MACHINA

Freeport: City of Adventure (FCoA) has no information on the Gods of Trickery (all three parts), Magic, the Sun, Dwarves or Smiths (Part Three). For each god except Trickery, the DM has three options: 1) the god has a minor temple in the Temple District (or elsewhere in the city), 2) no public shrine exists, but one or more clerics reside in town, or 3) Freeport has no temple or cleric for that god. The identity of each god will need to be determined by the DM as appropriate to the campaign, as with all other gods mentioned in this series.

The Trickster God and clerics: Either Chemb's Chaos domain (Part One) or Khorbon's NE alignment (Part Three) must be changed; only if the god's alignment were CE would these both be possible, but then Claret (Part One) could not be AL N. The best solution seems to be making the god CN and Khorbon CE. Domains include Chaos, Luck, and Trickery (and perhaps others, depending on which god the DM chooses). However, if the god is N, give Chemb Luck in place of Chaos, and leave Khorbon as given; however, this does not seem as appropriate for a Trickster God as CN.

FOCUS ON FREEPORT #11: DEUS EX MACHINA, PART ONE: NOTHING IS SACRED

p. 1, Encounter 1: The Heist: See posts by Kalendraf (5/6/2002) and Jeff Quick (5/7/2002) about the Sanctuary error. Another possible solution might be giving Harcourt a potion of Sanctuary, brewed by Claret. However, drinking a potion requires a standard action, and speed is of the essence here.

p. 2, Buildings 1, 2, 3 and 5: See posts by Kalendraf (5/6/2002) and Jeff Quick (5/7/2002).

p. 2, Building 2: The map on p. 3 does not show the weak areas. Distribute several "danger squares" on the map as you see fit.

p. 2, Building 6; Through the Wall: According to FCoA, there is no wall between Drac's End and the Temple District. The Old City's walls are too tall and well-guarded to be appropriate. Either 1) add a wall in the appropriate location, or 2) assume the "wall" is a heavily-built-up part of The Cluster (FCoA, Location 13, p. 51).

Note that the new Temple of Retribution is located across town in Scurvytown (FCoA, Location 45, p. 90). See also the notes for Part Two, below, about the Church's history.

p. 4, Harcourt: He is 6th level, so should have a third feat. Run would an obvious choice!

FOCUS ON FREEPORT #13: DEUS EX MACHINA, PART TWO: FORSAKEN PLACES

p. 1, Encounter 2: The Abandoned Temple: See post by Kalendraf (5/15/2002) about the history of the Church of Retribution. See Hell in Freeport, p. 6, about the Great Raid, and the subsequent decline of the Church.

The Glyphs of Warding on the second-floor windows are not detailed; see PHB, pp. 209-210, for details of that spell. Of the clerics appearing in this adventure, only Claret (Part One) is high enough level to cast this spell so use her caster level (5th). If the DM wants to use the spell option rather than the bast option, possibilities include: 1st--cause fear; 2nd--hold person; 3rd--bestow curse, blindness/deafness, contagion, inflict serious wounds, searing light, summon monster III.

p. 1, What if They Decide It's Not Worth It?: The Godshop (FCoA, Location 49, p. 95) would be ideally suited to this sidetrack.

p. 3, Collapsible Room: See Part Three, Room 24, about the space into which victims will fall.

p. 3, Girallon Room: The girallon would have required Hold Monster to "hold," but that spell is a Law 6 spell and thus doubly unavailable to the Trickster clerics! (And Korzaks Tarm, in Part Three, has no hold spells.) Assume they found some other means to trap the creature in this room.

FOCUS ON FREEPORT #14: DEUS EX MACHINA, PART THREE: THE FACE OF THE TRICKSTER

p. 1, Room Behind the Stairs: The Gnome Illusion Caster can be treated as a CR 1/2 magical trap for XP purposes, if the DM wishes.

pp. 1-2, Planning Room: Note that dispelling Illusory Script also makes the secret message disappear.

p. 2, The Pantries [sidebar]: Familiars do not have a CR; they are considered a class feature of their master (DMG, p. 166).

p. 2, Kitchen: Create Food and Water is Clr3, so only Claret (Part One) can cast it. Heat Metal is Clr2, so a few of the other clerics can also cast it. However, all of the Trickster clerics have better uses for their higher-level spell slots than to create and cook their food.

pp. 2-3, Pantries: Penalties for Clunk's death depend on Whillispur's current XP and his saving throw (see PHB, p. 50). He will only lose a level if his XP is below 10,500 (saved) or 11,000 (failed). If he loses a level, change his stat block (p. 5) as follows: Ill4; HD 4d4+12; hp 16; Fort +2; drop Alchemy, both Knowledge, Concentrate and Spellcraft skills by 1 each; delete one feat [Spell Mastery?]; loses all 3rd-levels spells. His familiar (and related benefits) were part of his original CR, so the party should get full CR 5 experience for him.

p. 3, Worship Chamber: In the first paragraph, it is unclear what kind of "activities" were condemned. The map (p. 2) shows no exterior door; this is probably in the middle of the south exterior wall, below Room 23.

p. 3, Dressing Rooms: The map (p. 2) is missing the door to the western room's chamber pot room.

p. 4, Korzaks' Quarters: See the second floor map (Part Two) for the floor plan of this area; however, only the door at the top of the stairs is marked, and no others.

p. 4, Maze: Note that this room is larger than the second-floor room above it (Part Two, Room 3). Orpen and Druf are beneath Room 3, but far enough away from the doors of that room to avoid the spaces the PCs are likely to collapse first. Regel and the stairs down are below solid ceiling; this means that if the golem (Room 26) is finished and breaks free of the temple, the shortest route to the outside of the temple avoids the cave-in trap. The secret door between the pit and Room 25 (see pp. 5-6) is not mentioned here. Orpen, Regel and Druf should still have complete stat blocks even though they try to avoid close combat. I have worked out the following based on their listed stats:

Orpen and Regel: male and female human Clr3: CR 3; medium-sized humanoid; HD 3d8+6; hp 23, 23; Init -1 (Dex); Spd 20'; AC 14 (-1 Dex, +5 chainmail) (touch 9, flatfooted 14); Atk +4 (1d8+1, masterwork morningstar) or +1 ranged (1d8, light crossbow, 80'); SQ turn undead; AL [N or CN]; SV Fort +5, Ref +0, Will +5; Str 12, Dex 8, Con 14, Int [?], Wis 14, Cha [?].

Skills and Feats: [18 skill points, plus 6x Int modifier; 3 feats, probably including Scribe Scroll and Brew Potion].

Spells Prepared (4/4/3; base DC = 12 + spell level): [choose spells, or use Khorbon's list (p. 5)].

Possessions: masterwork morningstar, light crossbow, 10 bolts, chainmail, wooden holy symbol, 3 Cure Light Wounds scrolls, Blur potion, Levitate potion; (for Orpen, also add bag of marbles).

Druf: male human Rog3: CR 3; medium-sized humanoid; HD 3d6+3; hp 16; Init +6 (+2 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative); Spd 30'; AC 16 (+2 Dex, +4 chain shirt) (touch 12, flatfooted 14); Atk* +3 melee (1d6, masterwork rapier) or +6 ranged (1d6+1, masterwork composite shortbow, 70'); SA sneak attack +2d6; SQ evasion, uncanny dodge (Dex bonus to AC); AL [N or CN]; SV Fort +2, Ref +5, Will +1; Str 10*, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha [?].

(* Melee Atk is +2 base, +1 masterwork weapon; if Str 12-13, add +1 to both Atk and Dmg. Ranged Atk is +2 base, +2 Dex, +1 masterwork weapon, +1 Point Blank Shot; damage is +1 for Point Blank Shot.)

Skills and Feats: Disable Device +10, Hide +6*, Listen +6, Move Silently +6*, Search +8, Spot +8 [plus 18 skill points in others skills (these six are at maximum ranks); * Includes -2 armor check penalty]; Improved Initiative, Point Blank Shot, Skill Focus (Disable Device).

Possessions: masterwork rapier, masterwork composite short bow, 20 arrows, chain shirt, 4 Cure Light Wounds potions, Darkvision potion, Neutralize Poison potion.

p. 5, Khorbon: See "General Notes" above about his alignment. He is a 3rd level human, so should have another feat.

p. 5, Whillispur: His "Description" entry breaks off mid-sentence.

p. 6, Casting Room; Wrap Up: See "General Notes" above about the gods mentioned here.