Let's talk The Crossings of Celduin and beyond

[Heilemann]

So our campaign is about to come to the The Crossings of Celduin, and I'm starting to smell a massacre, and so I'm looking to hear how other groups have fared and what notes they might have for us.

What worries me first and foremost, is that not only will the group be facing the onslaught at the Crossings, but they're likely to be poisoned when they do it, meaning that they're essentially fighting as wounded (this is a company of three, by the way). They almost got their asses kicked by even a small band of orcs, and now they're fighting wounded against an army.

If they survive, they now haul their butts north, with no fellowship phase, to the climax, a journey which is in itself perilous (and I'm not sure if there's even room in here for them to recover fatigue?)

I don't mind killing a player here and there, but this sounds a bit brutal to me. How'd your groups fare?

[zedturtle]

So our campaign is about to come to the The Crossings of Celduin, and I'm starting to smell a massacre, and so I'm looking to hear how other groups have fared and what notes they might have for us.

What worries me first and foremost, is that not only will the group be facing the onslaught at the Crossings, but they're likely to be poisoned when they do it, meaning that they're essentially fighting as wounded (this is a company of three, by the way). They almost got their asses kicked by even a small band of orcs, and now they're fighting wounded against an army.

If they survive, they now haul their butts north, with no fellowship phase, to the climax, a journey which is in itself perilous (and I'm not sure if there's even room in here for them to recover fatigue?)

I don't mind killing a player here and there, but this sounds a bit brutal to me. How'd your groups fare?

We are currently in the midst of Crossings right now. The fact that one of my players was pushing for a more investigative approach meant they had more warning about what Lockmand was up to. Unfortunately we shed a couple of players (and gained one) halfway through, so they're about to face the army with only seven characters (a fitting number) but a goodly number of bonus dice (they did really well with all of the preliminary prep work). I'm still a bit worried about how it will turn out, but I am going to allow them to spend AP/XP before the final adventure (but not let them do any undertakings, i.e. they will keep the Shadow they presently have).

Bear in mind that I'm a lightweight when it comes to challenges... I want everyone to have fun and feel like they have a real challenge on their hands but I try really hard to scale things to the number of players that I have and never (okay, rarely) throw things at them just to see if they can take it.

[Heilemann]

I'd love to hear more about it as you go along.

For context, I actually told my players before the last session (Darkness in the Marshes) that from here on out I wasn't going pull too many punches. In that very same session, a single player decided to crawl up the back of the Dimmerhorn, promptly rolled an eye on his Athletics (which the book equals to death, unless someone can catch him, but since he was alone...).

That's a pretty shitty way to go, so I decided to override it (after a laughing fit), and have him wounded and unconscious. I want to think up a more permanent cost to that fall, but haven't found any yet.

Either way, at that rate, I guess they'll be prepped for the Cthulhu campaign I'm running next...

[Arkat]

I just wanted to point out that The Watch on the heath explicitly states that the characters are healed before the scenario starts (something about healers sent by Radagast, I think).

So if they manage to survuve the Crossings, they should at least start the next scenario at full strength.

[Heilemann]

Right you are; that's something. Still a slight dent in the helmet that the company doesn't get to spend their XP and AP, but okay.

[Majestic]

Thanks for all the info in this thread, as the Crossings will be coming up before too long for my group (next session will be Kinstrife). Right now our party is often 4 (sometimes 5), and they barely survived The Thing in the Well (I 'cheated' a tiny bit at the end of the fight when they were almost all dead by making the adversary behave as Weary).

[Valarian]

When my group got to the Crossings, they forted up with archers on the gatehouse raining arrows down. The melee types sat on the bridge with the NPC fighters drafted from the village. We lost one character, a dwarf who fell in the last of the enemy waves. The biggest danger to the characters is weariness setting in as the waves of enemies hit. Once they're weary, the chances of dying become that much greater as the endurance is worn down and the chances of penetrating hits actually doing wounds grows. Our dwarf casualty was wearing chain (3d) armour but was wounded at the same time as he dropped below zero endurance. The heroic death holding the line made it more meaningful somehow. The character fell defending the village, was remembered by them (they returned to Celduin Crossing a while later and there was a memorial to the fallen) and the other dwarf character kept a token to remember his colleague.

[Majestic]

You know, Valarian, if you have to lose a PC, you couldn't ask for something more valiant than that!

[Arkat]

If and when we finish The Crossing, I'm going to let them spend their xp and advancement points. They won't have any time for undertakings, but I see no reason to punish them after a hard scenario by denying them the possibility to increase skills.

[zedturtle]

If and when we finish The Crossing, I'm going to let them spend their xp and advancement points. They won't have any time for undertakings, but I see no reason to punish them after a hard scenario by denying them the possibility to increase skills.

Yep, that's entirely my approach as well.

Plus, I'm aiming for a "regeneration" scene with the elf as he Wakes Up... {mysterious smile}