Darkness in the Marshes (spoiler alert!)

[Ferretz]

I'm running Darkness in the Marshes tomorrow with a small group (3 players), and even though I've run it once years ago, I thought I'd as about ideas and experiences from other LMs, as the chances for a "total party wipe" are quite large in places.

Do you run it "by-the-book", or do you change it? And of course, a wise man once said that no plan survives contact with the enemy. How did it play out? Any drastic changes from the way it is written?

I'm also looking for ideas on how to change it a bit, as I ran it by the book with quite a large group once before.

Experiences? Thoughts?

-E.

[zedturtle]

I put in extra slaves to be rescued, which works well. Also gives you some narrative "ablative armour" in order to show the Orc pursuit. My heroes were super cautious and thus didn't get to see the big stuff. In that case, the slaves can tell the heroes about the temple and the bad guys' plans.

[Majestic]

I thought it was a great adventure, though there is definitely a chance for a TPK. One of my players tried to willingly sacrifice himself (falling back and allowing the Orcs to catch him), but the others wouldn't allow him to.

I think the only thing I'd change - if I was running this right after Those Who Tarry especially - would be to lessen the deus ex machina element (in this case, the Eagles), perhaps simply setting that up so it feels like less of a bail-out.

[Corvo]

One issue I had -back at the time- is that the Heroes have not many good reasons to explore the dark temple on the Dwimmerhorn. Once they know from the escaped slave that the old fortress is occupied, the wisest thing is to turn back and warn the Woodmen. My players are the sort guys that say "we aren't gambling just our lives here: a lot of people depend on us. Put aside your pride and do the wise thing: time for heroism will come".

To solve the issue, I changed the premise:
Radagast already knows that the Dwimmerhorn is occupied. He's asking the Heroes to discover who is leading these Orcs: he feels a foul presence. The question is: is it a Wraith? Or maybe it's the Necromancer itself, hiding not far from his old adobe? The problem is that the Necromancer will surely feel the Wizard's approach: he need someone more "inconspicuous"...

This way, the Heroes had to spy the temple. And Radagast looked wise.

[bluejay]

Got to agree with Corvo here. My first group that played it did exactly that. They heard the information from the slave and felt that going to the place was suicide.

My second group recently went through that and they are a Fellowship of just 2: a Beorning and a Woodman. They played right through it and had a great time. It was definitely tough and they used the Eagles during the chase back but yeah it worked as written.

[Ferretz]

Yes, I remember, running it years ago, this was my problem too. The group just didn't want to infiltrate Dwimmerhorn. So this is a very good idea to have Radagast tell them specifically to explore the fortress.

E.

[bluejay]

Another thing I've found regarding the ruleset is that smaller groups can often succeed where larger groups fail. The nature of Advancement Points largely means that smaller groups have to make more checks and as such gain more APs and advance more quickly. They also tend to become good all-rounders with reliable athletics and stealth checks; all useful in an adventure such as this.

Conversely characters in larger groups often specialise more and so have weak links that let the whole team down in adventures like this one.