The Blackguard's Revenge - am I missing something?

[guslandt]

SPOILERS AHEAD!



OK, I put my players into The Blackguard's Revenge this evening. They are a group of four 10th/11th level characters. They easily destroyed all the wights in the guard tower with clerical turning. Same with the wights in the yard. The 11th level cleric (with improved turning) just turned em all to dust.
They then went in through the smaller side door into the cloister. Headed straight into the library, and turned the wights above into dust. They broke into the upper hallway, and convinced Master Chief they were there to help. So far we've been playing for about 20 minutes, and they're already there with Master Chief.

Two fireballs later, and pretty much all the bad guys on the other side of the hall were dead.
So, the module is now mostly done. The Barbarian and the rogue haven't had to do anything. The cleric killed all the wights outside and in the library with turning, and the wizard killed nearly all the bad guys upstairs with a pair of fireballs. And we just started about 30 minutes ago.

I now have to run them through what little remains in the adventure, and I have to do it while controlling 2 dozen paladins...
How the heck am I gonna run the battle in the basement with 2 dozen paladins running around?!? Especially since I know what my players will do. They will Stone Shape the basement doors closed, then rest up for the night. With everyone at full strength, the final battle should last all of 3 rounds.

I've studied this module for 2 weeks now, and I can't understand how it wouldn't be a total cake walk for any group of 10th level characters. Granted my characters somehow made a B-line directly to the hallway on the second floor on the good guys side, but still, any 10th level wizard is gonna wipe out that whole cluster of dudes in the hallway with a single fireball spell.

[Argamae]

(...) So far we've been playing for about 20 minutes, and they're already there with Master Chief.

20 Minutes?? Through the guard house and across the grounds, then up to the library balcony? But you did take time out for describing the scenes and environs, did you?

No, honestly, I can't imagine how you managed to do that. Did you just line up all the battle encounters? The wights all have terrific Move Silently scores so they should have been able to set up an ambush or something. I mean, if this would prove to be a breeze for my player characters (and I haven't had the chance to test them with this module) I would arrange for something to make it more interesting or challenging. Apart from that, this is one DCC module that is more into mood and roleplaying.

Nevertheless, you might have a point there. Maybe it IS too easy.

[guslandt]

(...) So far we've been playing for about 20 minutes, and they're already there with Master Chief.

20 Minutes?? Through the guard house and across the grounds, then up to the library balcony? But you did take time out for describing the scenes and environs, did you?

On the way to the cloister from Ambroshea Trades, they encountered the nearly dead Kamrae Arstione. The healed her up and she told them to hurry to the cloister to help the paladins. With that in mind, the players new there was no time for dilly-dallying. They had to get in quick and find whoever was still left alive.

Well, they made awesome spot checks when approaching the gatehouses, so they saw the wights through the arrow slits. A 12th level cleric (11th plus Improved Turning) is gonna turn wights to dust with some decent rolling (which she did). They climbed over the rubble of the front gates, and started walking right towards the cloister (ignoring the insides of the gatehouses, the fountain and the well - they were here to help survivors as quickly as possible). They heard the next group of wights stacking bodies in the courtyard, and again the cleric turned those to dust.

Sneaking in the little side door and turning immediately into the library, they heard the wights digging through the books above. The Cleric ran out into the library getting the wights' attention, and turns em all to dust in 2 rounds of turning.

Once they were into the hallway and managed to convince Master Chief they were there to help (explaining how they healed Kamrae went a long way towards that), they did this:

1) Offered to Fireball the crap outta the far end of the hall
2) Master Chief slaps them and says "you said you were here to help, not set fire to my home" (this was my attempt at making the combat last longer than 2 rounds)
3) The rogue gets Hide from Undead, Invisibility (can't be too sure), and Spider Climb cast on him, and crawls along the ceiling to the far end to scope things out.
4) He sees that the rooms are pretty trashed, and comes back to tell Master Chief his home is a wreck anyway, so a few scorch marks aren't gonna hurt.
5) The wizard drops a pair of Empowered fireballs on the far end of the hallway, one in each doorway on either side of the hall, killing ALL the wights in 2-22, 2-23, & 2-24.
6) When one of the Mohrgs peaks it's head out to see WTF, it gets a searing light to the face, killing it.
7) The 4 PCs and a dozen paladins clear out the blockades and charge the far end of the hall, making short work of the 4 wights in 2-25, and the last Morhg in 2-23.

And that is how, in 30 minutes, the main part of the adventure is over.

I still can't figure out how, on page 3 of this adventure, it is stated "the PCs will stumble into the midst of a battle in progress that they probably cannot sway single-handedly"

A group of 4-6 PCs of 9th-11th level is gonna clear through 2 Mohrgs, 16 Heretics, and 12 Wights in less than 10 rounds no matter how you play it. All mass damage spells are gonna wipe em out like crazy, and a fully buffed 10th level barbarian is gonna be making tons of use with Improved Cleave since the bad guys only have ~30 hit points each. Heck, you could probably toss him over the barricade by himself and he'd kill em all. (and I do mean fully buffed - Bulls Strength, Death Ward, Shield Other, Speed, etc)

[GnomeBoy]

A group of 4-6 PCs of 9th-11th level is gonna clear through 2 Mohrgs, 16 Heretics, and 12 Wights in less than 10 rounds no matter how you play it.

I haven't played through it nor run it, but I have read the module -- I think it is assumed that at least some of the party will be affected by the drain effects, which would level the field to a lesser or greater degree.

It also sounds like your group is playing as a unit, as opposed to the 'average' disorganized group.

Have you implemented the 'Stronger Parties' options from the Scaling info? Sounds like your group more than qualifies.... Adding 8 heretics or wights to any given encounter may mean some survive the turning and burning, meaning chances for draining....

[Warduke]

at this point i'd use a little technique i like to call cheating.

have the paladins escort the party down to the final encounter. at some point the blackguard gets close enough to "activate" the diamond artifact.

all the paladins and their buddies, and rise the next round as class lvl wights with superior turn resistance thanx to the diamond.

[Warduke]

it also looks like revenge was written for 3.0 ............. i don't track the differences much, but i wonder if there was a sufficient power-up to make it less than dcc-deadly in 3.5???