Not a single one of my players uses Conservative Stance by default, so the odds of any Delays being rolled to advance the Storm Tracker was next to nil. So I decided, hey, all those random Skill Checks and actions where there is no default result for a Chaos Star, I'll advance it then. Now they're not even to the Garden of Morr yet and are already on sheet 3, and that's with me having arbitrarily moved the track down a couple spaces after they successfully got out of the Oberslecht. On the one hand, it's nice to have something to do with all those unaccounted for Chaos Stars, but OTOH, at the rate they're going, the track's going to max out well before the climax of the campaign.

Necrozius said:

This is discussed somewhat in the adventure. If they attack the Holtzes and it looks like the PCs are going to win, they flee into the swamp. If the PCs follow them they run into the beastmen. If the Holtzes win they'll tie up the unconscious PCs and leave them as sacrifices, at which point Foaldeath will turn up and make them an offer.

If they don't attack the Holtzes straight away, but instead make it to the meeting with Foaldeath before attacking, Foaldeath will curse them for fools as he goes down fighting, more or less giving them the plot details anyway. It'll be up to them to decide whther or not to try to find the stone anyway.

In any case, the PCs should have some idea that the lightning stone is in the swamp. If they don't get it straight away, that's fine. They'll return to town, tell the locals about the Holtzes and Cobblepot, proceed with the trial etc, then be attacked by the undead and go straight into the next adventure. During this period they'll come across the priest of Sigmar, who will tell them about his visions (which should convince them that they need to deal with the beastmen and the stone).

They should come out of A Time to Mourn with the marble headstone, which will attract the attention of Schulmann. Between the wizard and the priest they should have enough incentive to go try and get the lightning stone, so you can run the rest of the first adventure.

EDIT: It also gives them another opportunity to encounter Bieber, the woodsman. Knowing that they are heading into the Oberslecht this time they may ask him to come along. His help will be very handy when facing the beastmen, especially if the PCs are still suffering some wounds from previous encounters.

macd21 said:

When reading the adventure this was one of the parts I had trouble figuring out how to execute. This is how (in my opinion) it should go rules-wise.

1. Holtzes understand they're losing the fight

2. The next time Holtzes have the initiative they disengage from the fight and trade their action to an extra maneuver to run into a medium range. (I must say my players find this "they run away and there's nothing you can do about it" REALLY annoying.)

3. The players use fatigue to catch up with the Holtzes and keep on hacking at them.

4. The Beastmen appear???

The main problem is that the adventure clearly states that "if they're losing, they run away" and I'd be really happy to get some ideas how to do this without my players feeling that they were screwed and there was nothing they can do about it. Do you guys use some house rule on getting the villains disengage and run away?

Have them flee in all directions, make the players pick a quarry and throw an expendable npc in front of the players to keep them busy if they chase anyone important. If the players continue pursuit explain that they are at a disadvantage as the locals know the lay of the land, ducking and hiding and generally outfoxing the players, have them take repeated perception and agility tests, maybe even set up a track.

Mordjinn said:

Why are they screwed? If they spend some fatigue they can catch up and attack. If the Holtzes want to stay ahead and not get hit they have to spend fatigue, which actually damages them. They'd eventually collapse.

I think chasing after someone should be difficult. I think there are a number of actions which make it a little easier, giving the PC a free move to engage, which makes it a lot easier. You can also use the rules for chasing the goblins in the third adventure, which I think open up some more options.

The rules make NPC's fleeing fights in "round time" very weak (as Aggression budget likely empty by now, even if using the optional rule of using Aggression for fatigue costs).

I think the GM needs to enforce that for both sides, past a certain point all "fleeing combat" is done not in a "round by round, move close/medium etc." but either in a straight "competitive check" of whatever seems most relevant skill (Toughness I think as it's ability to keep going, and armour makes checks harder which reflects the fact people in armour are bad runners) maybe with a white die for having a higher secondary ability (e.g., agility) or in a "progress tracker" such as the Escape from Obersclecht scene in Gathering Storm uses.

Rob

Got to the Garden of Morr last night, which resulted in a TPK vs. the zombie henchmen horde. First of all, in the first big fight vs. the Beastmen they tried to engage them in a stand up fight and realized almost too late that they should avoid fighting and just go for the Lightning Stone. That colored their response to this encounter. They wasted several turns trying to out maneuver the zombies in an attempt to quickly reach the mausoleum rather than engage them. Meanwhile, the zombies continued to pile up around them. It didn't help that none of them passed their earlier Observation check, meaning that the zombies always got to go before the characters until 3 delays had been rolled by me. Even though the tracker was in plain view, I finally had to point out to them that their progress towards their goal was based on the tracker and that simply burning fatigue would not let them reach their goal. Even after that, it still took a round or two before they figured out that the tracker only moved when they killed a complete group of henchmen. Once again, by the time they made this realization and switched tactics, it was already almost too late. In addition to the damage potential, the extra stress caused by the zombie's default attack resulted in characters passing out left and right. The Priest of Sigmar couldn't get them back on their feet quickly enough and also fight off the horde himself.

Once all three were down due to either Stress or Wounds, there was nothing to stop the zombies from devouring them, so I decided that the Necromancer would intervene and have them taken alive, quickly jumping to a scene of them waking up in the Crypt below. This effectively bypassed Act 2: The Ossuary, but I figured that they were banged up enough at this point that I don't feel too bad about skipping it. I even had them wake up after the equivalent of a full night's rest so that they could regain some wounds, stress, and fatigue to at least have a chance against Mourn and Stichelm. We then ended the session on that cliff hanger, so it remains to be seen if they can yet survive and prevail in Act 3, since they are still nowhere near full strength. A fresh set of fortune points should also help a bit however.

In hindsight, GM's need to be a bit more upfront in pointing out the use of the tracker and how the PCs advance. In the early rounds when there is only one group of zombie henchmen confronting them, they should have no problems taking them down and advance the tracker a couple spaces before their numbers start piling up. After that, they are better off focusing their attacks to take out individual groups rather than split their attacks between different groups. The scene is obviously supposed to play out as in an action movie with the characters fighting their way through an ever increasing horde of opponents until finally reaching safety (albeit briefly). It requires meta-gaming however to set this up, since I'm not sure how many groups will figure out the right approach in time without having it laid out for them.

This campaign is showing that there are more ways to run an encounter than just two sides facing off against one another and hitting each other until only one side is left. However, it appears to require the GM to clue the players in on the correct approach.

mac40k said:

Thanks for the insight on the Time to Mourne part of the adventure...these tips will really help my group...

My problem is being too unprepared for the session, I run my game after work on Mondays every other week. I have a wife and son who already feel like I spend too much time "gaming" and being away from them, so my weekends are pretty much off limits for prep time...I have read the entire adventure module book twice, and re-read some of the more important parts (ie before running a session), but this just doesnt seem to be enough, there are so many things to keep track of in this adventure.

A few instances where I screwed up...

1. Didnt play the Tristan scene right. The PCs successfully talked him down from stabbing Fritz...but then I read aloud the description of Marie leading him off and tying him up to be sacrificed. Which, of course made the PCs very wary of the Holtzes! I was actually surprized they let them get away with it...(I did have Tristan walk up to the farm with his bindings removed once they returned with the stone.)

2. Forgot to introduce the characters to the WHOLE Holtz family...so at the start of the second session, I sort of threw them along with the party on their way to the "tree"

3.completely forgot about the storm tracker BOTH sessions...I sort of made up for this just before the encounter at the herdstone by making everyone take a toughness check....those who failed gained the "under the weather" lasting effect card.

4. Completely forgot about Foaldeath during the herdstone encounter. So I had him approach them on their way out of the Oberslecht...the PCs are sellsword mercs, one of them a card carrying member of the merc guild. So every oportunity, they try to finagle more "reward" or "payment" from just about everyone they remotely aide. The only motivation they had to even go after the stone was that it was described as very ancient elvish, and so could be worth allot of money. As payment for helping them, the Holtzes offered their entire Hops harvest (as they are very poor) to the PCs which they took without hesitation...plus they've decided to camp in the Holtz barn for a week to heal wounds/stress/fatigue, etc. They have yet to decide what to do with the Holtz family for their crimes against humanity...will have to wait until next session.

5. The escape the Oberslecht was relatively easy for the PCs (they were all dead or nearly there) so I didnt have any beastmen pursue them...they had killed Izka after all. Not sure if I played that right, but they would have perished if they were forced into one more encounter.

6. I had Foaldeath reveal that he was in fact the shaman of the madtooth tribe and that he, in fact, had no money to pay them for their services...I had him reiterate several times that what the PCs had done had averted the wrath fo the tribe on the human population in the region. The PCs said "Meh, maybe this thing is worth some money"

A couple of things I did well (in my opinion)

1. Played a recording of a thunderstorm (hour long non-looping mp3) during the sessions to add atmosphere. (this really made a difference!)

2. Ran the Beastmen encounter with the henchmen rules (except for Izka) and the PCs BARELY made it out alive....Izka was pummeling the "brick" pc in the group, and the high elf gambler had already fallen unconcious from his wounds...When the thief PC pulled the stone from the herdstone, he rolled a chaos star...which caused a bolt of lightning to strike and throw him and the stone back a full range bracket. I made Izka take an observation check (which he passed) to notice the stone being removed....at which point he turned his back to the human sword fighter to go after it. He failed an athletics check and fell face first in the mud. The Swordsman leaped on his back and delivered a killing blow (Izka had 7 hitpoints left, but the PC rolled a crit, did 3 points of damage...and then I applied the lvl 4 crit as wounds, which finished him off). This was just in time as they were surrounded....the Gors instantly started braying and challenging each other. They took his head as proof that they had slayed him.

Captain Fluffy said:

This is really a brilliant solution to the A Time to Mourn chapter, especially if you really play up the trial portion of it and perhaps putting pressure on the pcs by trying to find this necromancer and providing proof of Keila's innocence (perfect place for a progress tracker beyond zombie waves, which I can see as getting kind of old fast for my plalyers at least) allowing your socially minded folks thier time in the sun (which for me is 2 1/2 out of 4 characters really). It would also give A Time to Mourn a feeling of urgency and added suspense without having to provide those elements with constant waves of zombies (though if the pc's doddle too long the zombie thing might work well as a motivator) at the end of act 3, instead dealing with Mourn and the fate of Keila can be the dominating moments at the end of the adventure.