Hacks for D&D Module B9 Part 3: Rescue of Princess Sylvia

[@slashdash846]

Very interesting to watch this series. Waiting for new videos and adventures :)

[@TheGrandfathersCave]

Thank you! If you have something particular in mind make sure to let me know 😉

[@anarionelendili8961]

Oh, as for the Grand Escape, that was obviously Iron Ring slavers. I used it as a 'failed outcome' as the PCs (my wife's and my brother's) lost against Elwyn in the Sanctuary adventure. I ended up redoing that map too, instead making it more of a stockade with a wooden tower keep, with the PCs locked in the basement. They managed to sneak out easily enough, as they noped straight out of going to the upper levels, after subduing some of the lower level guards to get out. Obviously, I put that fort near Luln, where they went to warn the townsfolk of the imminent attack, having gleaned that intel during their escape.

[@TheGrandfathersCave]

I want to keep the great escape in reserve. It is a good idea to have a backup when the players inevitably make a very bad decision. But I might try to redesign it in a way anyone can use it at any time during a campaign! 😉

[@anarionelendili8961]

@@TheGrandfathersCave Yep. It gave me a way to spare the PCs' lives, and just play out an escape adventure next.

[@anarionelendili8961]

As for other connections, I am in the habit of making the Chaotic Cleric in Castle Caldwell into Elwyn. In one campaign, she needed the PCs help to talk to that statue, which I made into a more oracular one. She needed to know where the Sanctuary was, and after swearing the PCs to silence in return for healing them, she had them ask the statue about that. Clunky, I know, but it was a quick kitchen-table game with my wife and my brother. Using a modified KAP system, too, instead of BECMI. :P In the other, she played a big role in the Skarda's mansion, and her motivations were... complicated. In this ongoing campaign, she is a follower of Loki (or whatever Loki is called in Hule), corrupted from Petra's worship, having stolen the Bell of Petra from her monastery at the outskirts of Krakatos. She also corrupted some novices to escape with her. These novices will play the role of the evil clerics in the other B modules, while I am still trying to decide if I will put the Sanctuary somewhere in Karameikos, or if I will tie it to the the X modules going after the Master of Hule. Depends which way my players wish to head out, I guess.

[@TheGrandfathersCave]

Those are solid ideas. I might be tempted to do the same with the cleric, who in my campaign is a cleric of Crom. But I also have an alternative. I am making the doppelganger a recuring character by now, and she too may play a part in the theft of the Bell/macguffin 😊

[@anarionelendili8961]

@@TheGrandfathersCave Looking forward to seeing what you do with that adventure. :)

[@AnalystPrime]

Unlike some of the other maps in this and other modules I have seen this fortress is quite well designed. Sure, your improvements make it look even better, but nothing in the original design screams out "this is a stupid design, why would anyone do that?" like Castle Caldwell and its basement. Even the lizardmen could be handwaved by assuming they were charmed into working with the goblins. The place could be originally a temple or even a palace that Oliver took over, the huge hall is clearly made to fit a large number of people and the layout actually looks nice, just add an altar or a throne and cover the walls with carvings or hanging curtains picturing the glory of the deity/lord in charge. Though a temple seems more likely, most rulers would want more grandiose bedroom and more rooms for servants... And it doesn't even have to be some evil secret cult that gathers here, it could be a dwarven god, or maybe the area just was not suitable for building a large temple above ground like at Petra. If a kidnapped princess and easily found villain seem too silly for an adventure hook, it would be easy to rebrand this adventure something like "clear squatters out of an old temple". Or populate it with priests and acolytes and run a heist adventure where thief PCs try to rob the place. Oliver and his backers might have also built it themselves, clearly the fantasy world has some way to easily build big underground structures even though player characters are banned from getting their hands on those spells, and an illusionist who actually kidnaps a princess is clearly into grandiose type of villainy... As a fort the place is woefully lacking in proper gates, and the one tiny secret tunnel is not much of a secondary exit/entrance, but yeah, maybe the gates haven't arrived for installation yet and you could use that tunnel to sally troops to attack invaders from behind. There is a cistern so the place is not going to run out of water quickly, and there is plenty of space to house and train a few companies of troops in secret. Even if the players slaughter Oliver so he won't be returning, they could find some letters in his room hinting that his bosses are planning raids or even an invasion of the area leading to further adventures. And they might end up coming back here later to find that the hall is now occupied by a necromancer who not only brought his own skeleton army but reanimated all the guys the players had to kill last time, including the owlbear, and has been kidnapping people and digging up bodies from the local graveyards to further swell the numbers. Oh, and Oliver owed the necromancer money so he is extra pissed off at the PCs... The adventure itself is very simplistic with "rando mage just walzed off with a royal and the king can only send some equally rando low level adventurers to save her" and "everyone just knows where the enemy lair is yet the guards still are not on alert and expecting you" plot handwaving most of the roleplaying, but parts like Oliver having a plan how to use his lair and spells suggest the writer was more focused on making a proper villain and let GMs handle the details. Like, yes, the princess is rather important character for this scenario, but she may well end up being one of the forgotten NPCs that only appear for a few minutes so there is no point wasting pages on her personality when most GMs would likely do as you did and insert a character who is relevant to their own campaign if she is supposed to do anything. Random thought: I wonder if anyone rewrote this scenario so the princess does not actually want to marry so either she is working with the kidnapper or tries to run away from the PCs before they bring her back home...

[@TheGrandfathersCave]

Those are also all excellent ideas 😊 While Oliver is a relatively low level magic-user one could make allowances (such as the owlbear was) for him to decorate the complex with illusions. Maybe even creating more hidden areas and concealing hazards. I suspect that you overrate the intentions of the modules designer. As far as I understand from other reviews B9 was rushed and originally made for small children. It is a mishmash of monsters in random dungeons and was not about story but about introducing neophite players to the wonders of fantasy role-playing ☺️ You bring up a lot of very good points, that underscore that there are a lot of posibilities for working out the kinks in this adventure not only making it more fun, but tying it in to an actual campaign 😉👍🏻

[@AnalystPrime]

@@TheGrandfathersCave Mishmash indeed, but it seems like this scenario is better written. In Castle Caldwell you have rooms and NPCs with little to no description or purpose for existing strewn randomly around. Okay scenario for new GM and players, but not logical or realistic if you think about it. And thinking about it, given this is supposed to be a role playing game instead of a FPS and the players do not have HUDs identifying someone as hostile, it is rather glaring omission that no thought seem to have been given to possibility of simply telling the intelligent squatters to leave the premises. In this fortress the monsters seem to be equally randomly selected and only few of them have any dialogue, but the inhabitants clearly actually live there and move around even when the PCs are not around to trigger their programming.

[@TheGrandfathersCave]

@@AnalystPrime Yes the lizardman in area 1 has a line before it attacks. However, the goblin servants are willing to talk, which is a nice change of pace.

[@anarionelendili8961]

(I missed this yesterday and hence I am late in commenting. Subscribed and notifications on so that it won't happen again!) Very nice again. Some comments: 1.) Hobgoblins: I would not increase the normal HD of the hobgoblins. Instead, I'd increase the numbers a bit (3 lizard men -> 4 hobgoblins, type of thing), as well as make the Hobgoblin leader into a mini-boss (maybe HD 3 or 4 and +1 or even +2 to damage), while his bodyguards would have max hp (so 9 each). Of course, depends a bit what level the characters are, if they have already done Castle Caldwell. I'd also boost the goblin leader a bit. 2.) How to find the lair: Another commenter brought this up. Easy enough to write that a local huntsman saw the kidnappers from a distance, and noted in which cave/cliffside they went, and is there to guide the players up to the cavemouth thanks to the reward Caldwell is paying him. 3.) Balcony: I am a bit less enamored with this, since why bother making it a secret room when it is so blindingly obvious? Not to mention most PCs would just climb the balcony anyway. If assuming that this would be some lost temple, I would be tempted to change it into a big statue with a secret room in the head, accessible from the backroom, but let the players see a flash of light in the statue's eyes as Oliver opens the door from the head to the lit backroom as he leaves, before closing the door behind him. Alternatively, I'd keep the balcony but change the bedroom secret door into a normal door. I mean, why bother hiding it at that point? 4.) Hidden passage between goblin quarters and entrance: This passage makes little sense given the layout. However, if you block the lower entrances out of the hall, now it would be a way to both reinforce the entrance quickly, as well as to outflank the enemies in the hall, blocking their escape. I might make this secret door easier to find, the lazy goblins have been using it to get to their guardpost rather than going around the hall, and there might be some dirt/mud/scratchmarks...

[@TheGrandfathersCave]

In the original Module the bodyguards have Max hp and the leaders have an extra HD as far as I recall. Increasingly the numbers for hobgoblins is a good alternative. I understand what you are saying about the balcony. I view it more like a strategic feature than a secret room. But I really like you statue idea. I had a simular thought about the passage. When I ram it, the door was not propperly closed and the PCs found it by chance rather than searching for it. But I removed the green slime - it would have eaten half of the goblins 😆

[@anarionelendili8961]

@@TheGrandfathersCave Fully agreed on the removal of the green slime. That is one of the reasons I hate putting aggressive wild monsters mixed in with humanoids: the former would try to eat the latter, so the latter would already have killed the former. Or at least blocked them away somehow. As for the balcony, that is kinda my point... Since it is not intended as a secret, might as well make at least the bedroom secret passage into a normal one. I could see the kitchen one being a secret 'escape passage', though.

[@NegatveSpace]

It seems weird to me that at least two of the maps so far in this adventure are almost completely symmetrical.

[@TheGrandfathersCave]

I guess it halves the time you need to make the maps 🤷🏻‍♂️ The maps for the two other mini-adventures are not symetrical, though one of them is also linear and relatively simple.

[@AnalystPrime]

I have seen that in a lot of old adventures. At least it works for some fancy manor or castle to have symmetrical outer appearance, but inside it would not make sense if the West Large Ballroom is the same size as the kitchen or a library with only dozen books. And when digging a dungeon the people in it cannot see a top down map so why would they try to design it like that? However, this is one of the cases when it works: the hall being symmetric makes it look good which was likely a goal when it was built, but the rest of the map uses symmetry only as a guideline instead of a goal in itself.

[@timothygutierrez]

I enjoyed hearing about your improvements to the dungeon. Looking forward to how you will connect the remaining two dungeons. Nice bullwhip hanging on the wall. What’s it for?

[@TheGrandfathersCave]

Thank you! If you are interested in that I might give it a “crack” so to say 😄 The whip was a gift from my father many years ago after a visit to Mexico.

[@timothygutierrez]

@@TheGrandfathersCave That’s Awesome. My Spanish teacher showed me his walking stick and machete he brought back with him on one of his visits back there. That looks like a great souvenir.

[@TheGrandfathersCave]

@@timothygutierrez That is kind of funny my father collected Walking sticks… and I also have a pair of machetes from the Spanish-American war hanging on my wall ☺️

[@timothygutierrez]

Very nice. Since you are a first hand expert, do you think the damage from a machete and whip are accurate in the version of D&D you are using? @@TheGrandfathersCave

[@TheGrandfathersCave]

@@timothygutierrez First, I am no expert. Also, that requires a comparative analysis of more weapons. I.e. how do they compare with other weapons? I think the whip is well represented in D&D3.5/Pathfinder rules; it is difficult to handle as a weapon and is thus an exotic weapon, it is inefective against any armor, and the damage potential is limited. A machete is like most other single edged swords. It can vary a lot in length and width and while it is mainly a choping weapon it can used effectively for thrusting as well. I would give a machete stats as a short sword that can do piercing and slashing damage. Two things worth considering are hand protection, which often is limited for a machete (since it is not a dedicated weapon), and maintenance, as a machete blade can become relatively dull (as it is commonly used as a tool). That not withstanding, you can find machetes with a small hand guard and can keep them as sharp as any blade, and this a machete can be as good as most other swords. But it is not a fencing blade as a rapier or a historic longsword, and thus has more limited reach. It is also a one-handed weapon you cannot put two hands on the handle in any meaningful way (as is the case for a falchion, which is actually a one-handed weapon). I think the closest parallel to a machete is the langes messer, which I use the same stats for as a scimitar. I think there are many considerations to be made when translating real world weapons into RPG stats. I plan on doing a video about that soon, where I showcase weapon and armor stats in the Avrn Fantasy RPG 😊