Goodman Games

DCC 55 Isle of the Sea Drake

C-7c Dead City: Major Plaza

I'm a little concerned with the traps in this encounter...

Filth Spewers once activated make 6 attacks/turn (for 10 turns) each at +6 vs AC for 2d8+3 Necro damage each- Range 5. Anything to stop two or more of the attacks are against the same PC.

On its own that's pretty deadly.

Add the Rot Spikes, which I really don't understand- Close Burst 3 +8 vs AC to hit for 1d8+3 damage.

Is that Close Burst 3 from the fountain? The Pool of water? The trigger squares? Just on the trigger squares?

If it's the first one then what's to stop the spears hitting Imocotzi?

Do the spears shoot out of the ground? Fire out of the fountain?

I'm lost.

My PCs are going to be approx Level 2 by the time they get here- with a few Minions thrown in and Imocotzi (with Healing Words) then if the PCs get too close then it's going to go very badly for them.

I'm asking because we had multiple deaths in Sellswords of Punjar- the PCs ended up fighting the Human Toughs, the Rogue, Irocar and his guys and the Otyugh (and the Grubs) in one encounter, don't get me wrong- memorable, but very deadly- they blew every Daily/Action Point they had just to stay alive, and still lost two PCs.

In the Forge of the Mountain King all of the PCs were either killed or captured (reduced to 0 HP), this after blowing every Action Point and Daily they had, when they battered the Dwarf & Ogre gate guards, had to push the door open into the massively trapped (water world) corridor. They only escaped this by pulling up the portcullis and mixing it with the creatures from the three (yes count them- three) sets of enemies beyond- the Dwarves working the trap, the Orc Berserkers, and when the PCs fled up the stairs- as the water rushed by in the corridor behind them (no way back) they ran straight into the Goblins at the top of the stairs.

These are the only two Goodman Games scenarios that we've played so far, my players fear to play another, both have been deadly, the Forge basically ended up with five encounters in one.

Okay I could have 'disappeared' some of the bad guys but we're trying to play scenarios as written.

PS I love Goodman Games scenarios and plan to play through as many as I can with my PCs however I don't want to TPK them again, please someone tell me how the above traps work.

Goonalan

Isle of the Sea Drake suffered a bit from "early-4E-itis," a disease that I've since thankfully been able to cure.

Here's how you could change it to an appropriate EL 3 encounter:

Imocotzi = unchanged
Skeletal braves = add 2 more, for 6 total
2 rot spike traps
1 filth spewer trap
This configuration gets you exactly the right amount of threat for 5 PCs of 2nd level. If you have more or fewer PCs, you'll need to change it accordingly.

Unfortunately, you're not done yet.
The traps are just plain screwy, and I would substitute stock DMG traps (again, early-4E-itis).

Rot spike traps = Spear gauntlet traps
All the "1"s on the map refer to Rot Spike Trap #1, and all the "2"s on the map refer to Rot Spike Trap #2. They are the trigger plate locations, also the squares where the spears jut up from the floor. There are 10 total spear locations, which is correct.

Filth spewer trap = magic crossbow turrets trap
Also, spigot = turret.
Remember that a single filth spewer/magic crossbow turret trap gets the GM two firing spigots/turrets.
Pick two squares of the fountain you like and make them the spigots/turrets. Each round on its initiative each spigot/turret fires once (meaning the trap as a whole fires twice...MUCH BETTER than 6 attacks as written).

I hope this helps, and I truly regret the confusion.

Don't regret a thing- years of fantastic D&D adventures (various editions) have made Goodman Games a firm favourite in my house. I could have fixed the traps myself but I wanted a chance to ask the experts.

Your suggestion sounds like it will do the trick.

Again, thanks a bundle for all the great adventures.

And if you think I'm kidding in the last edition I put my players through-

Dungeon Crawl Classics #0 Legends are Made, not Born.
Dungeon Crawl Classics #2 The Lost Vault of Tsathzar Rho.
Dungeon Crawl Classics #11 The Dragonfiend Pact
Dungeon Crawl Classics #14 Dungeon Interludes Chapter 1: The Eye of the Night
Dungeon Crawl Classics #29 Scenario 2 Old Feodol’s Basement
Dungeon Crawl Classics #24 Legend of the Ripper*
Dungeon Crawl Classics #3 The Mysterious Tower
Dungeon Crawl Classics #29 Scenario 4 The Golden Auroch
Dungeon Crawl Classics #14 Dungeon Interludes Part 2: The Defiled Sanctuary
Dungeon Crawl Classics #29 Scenario 1 Tower of the Black Pearl
Dungeon Crawl Classics #28 Into the Wilds
Dungeon Crawl Classics #17 Legacy of the Dragon Kings
Dungeon Crawl Classics #26 The Scaly God

We called ourselves the Goodman Gang, story hour here-

http://www.enworld.org/forum/story-hour ... tower.html

So, again, thank you.

Wow! Cool. That's a lot of "Goodman Gaming"!

Good, man! Gaming!

Much GG gaming indeed. Glad you've had a good run there.

So I must ask goonalan, how did your group fare with Scaly God (written 5+ years ago but still close to my heart)?
What was their death rate? Did they reach "Big Blue"?

We didn't, alas only one (I think) session in the group sorta imploded, as they do. I'm fairly certain that was the case, I'll have to chase down my notes to be sure.

At present we're running some mad experiment whereby we catalogue every PC action in-game. Basically a significant other, or child slave labourer has control of the laptop as we play and catalogues everything that happens turn by turn. It was a simple idea I had in March of this year to see if I could spot the grind in 4e combat, there's a thread here-

http://www.enworld.org/forum/story-hour ... -cave.html

Anyway, we've played through DCC53 Sellswords of Punjar and DCC54 Forges of the Mountain King in this manner, next up is DCC55 Isle of the Sea Drake, which we should start on Monday...

A madness drives us on.

One significant thing of note, compared to Wizards et al scenarios Goodman Games are way more deadly- DCC53 I think had three PC deaths, and DCC54 two. Actually DCC54 should have been a TPK but this kindly GM ruled that with four PCs unconscious and one dead then the PCs were captured, and revived, to be sacrificed at one/day- the players rolled up new characters straight away and went back in looking for revenge, and their friends.

Goodman Games rock.

Oh and we'll be playing through the entire Punjar series, I'm fairly certain.

Goonalan.

The Punjar series is the best chronological set of adventures out there for 4E. We lament the fact that it ended, and wished there was a Paragon Punjar series, but we loved the ride.

Our group has been through The Mists of Madness, the Punjar series, Citadel of the Corruptor, Isle of the Sea Drake and currently delving through The Forgotten Portal. Goodman Games 4E stuff kicks major butt!

I'd have to agree, I DMed my old group through the Punjar series, I'm going to do the same with my new group.

I ran what I thought to be a one-off with my new group with the Forges of the Mountain King, all Dwarf PCs, that was excellent- they want more of course.

At present I'm running my new group's kids (and a few adults) through Isle of the Sea Drake, its funny but the adults managed to kill three PCs in Sellswords and two in the Forge, the kids are breezing through Isle of the Sea Drake (although having much fun)- they're just about to face off against Imocotzi and his traps, not far to go, and without loss so far.

More Goodman Games scenarios please.

And I checked out 'Fourth Level Fighter', primal- it spoke to me deep down, I've forwarded it on to a few friends- reminds me of early Springstein.

Cheers

Many thanks! It's getting around the cons this summer and we've had a lot of people letting us know how it seemed to be a reflection of their early gaming memories, which is precisely what it was for us!

Thanks for spreading the love! For those just coming to this thread, check out the song in my sig. It's a free download!

goonalan, you have a PM headed your way (as soon as I can figure out how to do it) regarding your experiences with a couple of these modules....