[Official] Poison

[tamsyn]

My apologies for not posting this when it happened and thus my memory of events is a bit hazy! I was reminded to post what happened with Poison since I start running Red Fall tonight! This account will cover the two sessions that concluded Poison.

The first thing they wanted to do after listening to all the rumours about town was go to the mill. This was a big mistake and I would suggest to other gms not to drop the mill hint until later. They travelled there and after some amusing conversations with the Goater family (a bit redneck of the hills) then investigated. After finding the residue on the water wheel they concluded that it was something being added to the water further upstream and wanted to go there, thus avoiding all the other conversations and fact finding in town. Yes it was great they wanted to go straight on but I wanted them to talk to everyone else first! I brought in another storm so they retreated back to Melwan.

At the inn they spoke at length with the bard Neala about the residents of the town and what could be happening. That night one of the players suffered the snake nightmare which I decided to use as the continuing theme. The next day they were summoned to the Mac Lyrs where they learned of Talacien and were asked to prove his innocence. Lady Mac Lyr offered them a reward to sort out the mess. They also visited Egregor and I had fun with the mutated vegetables. The Adept cleansed his food which was nice of him. They also witnessed Naelan's gruesome condition - many mental resistance rolls. this made them sure it was something being added to the river and determined to visit the next day.

They travelled upstream and are used the atmosphere pointers to add flavour. The player affected by the Nimheil kept hearing strange noises and words in the wind due to hi hallucinations. They met the mercenaries and saw the machine in the river. The mercenaries gave them some lip and their players immediately attacked. They killed them and the assistant ran off terrified with his machine. However they had a chance to examine it and concluded the machine was not the source of the poison. The magientist wanted to get his hands on the machine to mine pure flux that but they had ruined any chance with their quick action. They returned to the village but did not go looking for Octar despite knowing about him.

The next day they once again went upstream this time looking for where something was entering the river. It took them all day to find the pickaxe and the mine because they did not talk to the miner. Eventually they found the cave as it was getting dark and predictably one of them fell down the hole. The player who had the nightmare found the lizard skins and started to worry. They found the nimheil leak and mused on where it was from and what it did. During their discussion Talacien showed up to kill them all. Herven pleaded with him and the group, letting the characters know he was not usually like that. Talacien ordered the mercenaries to kill the players and Herven. After the fight only Talacien remained and as they were marching him out a giant lizard jumped down from the roof and ate his head. Thus started another fight with the mutated monsters. They eventually won but the druid's staff broke due to a critical fumble. He was very upset.

While returning to Melwan they heard the bells tolling for danger. Upon arrival they saw villager attacking villager as the madness had spread. They helped take down the infected and even had to kill Neala, who had helped them so much. After the fight they found Naelan's body with the silvery eyes and mused on the purpose of Nimheil. World juice? The elders thanked them for their efforts but asked them to leave due to what they had to do to the infected. The Demorthian said they would give them a letter to give to the Demorthian in Dearg, giving them shelter and work.

Thus setting them up to start Red Fall....

[Iris]

Wouah ! Loch Varn, Poison et soon Red Fall ? ... in a so short periode ? Have you already planed what you will play after that ?

And how are the Players ?

[tamsyn]

Our group takes turn to run a campaign so this one is mine. After Red Fall we while switch gm and system until it is my turn again. Hopefully by then more scenarios will be released!

The players are a little depressed in character but otherwise fine

[Iris]

If all goes well, you should have some more scenarios with Travel


Happy that the Players are in better moral form than their characters

[Clovis]

Wow, it really seems like your Players are the violent type! Maybe it's snarky of me, but somehow, I expected they would very quickly choose to fight with the mercenaries and Herven instead of trying to reason with them and try to learn more things pacifically.

At any rate, it seems like once more, you managed to do a good job, in spite of the odd complication (with the group going straight for Goater's mill instead of investigating the village first... gotta take note of that for when I run Poison), which you managed to react to intelligently, it seems.

Do you have other pieces of advice to provide to prospective Game Leaders? Personally, I would be interested in knowing how you decided to set the atmosphere for this scenario, and which tricks you used to do so.

As always, thank you for sharing your experience with us, Tamsyn!

[tamsyn]

For atmosphere I usually use music and descriptions that involve all the senses - very much was what described in the scenario.

Specifically for this game I tried to being echos of what happened in Loch Varn into the action - so recurrng nightmares, imaginery foes, mutated creatures etc. Also I played with their emotions, for example Neala being very friendly and helpful and me knowing that she would try and kill them at the end. A council out of their depth and desperately needing their help while still blaming them for what happened.

Adding subplots for each character is something I would fully recommend for gms - just small hooks based on backgrounds so even if the main plot is something they are not as involved in they have a motivation.

Something else - if it doesn't break your plot, then let your players do it!

(Just finished Red Fall - that was interesting! Well write it up soon).

[Clovis]

Hmm... is there a particular OST that you use? Otherwise, what is your primary source for atmosphere music?

Very good idea to bring back elements from the previous scenarios. This way, the Players really feel like their Characters have achieved something, and that they are not just going from scenario to scenario without rhyme or reason.

And yep, not restricting the PCs is also a good rule to keep in mind. Actually, to really stress the realism, I tend to take this rule to the max. If one or several of the Players want to kill a key NPC, then why not? After all, they are free to do so. Of course, if it is a stupid idea, I tend to give my Players a warning: "Well, you could murder him, but you know that all of Taol-Kaer would consider you as a heinous criminal for it."

Looking forward to Red Fall!

[Wesker]

Hello everyone

Im the "Leader" of a Esteren Group first formed last Sunday. We have 5 players - they chose: Yldiane, Ean, Arven, Urvan and Eoghan as Characters. 5 Players is a challenge, but I guess it was a good Sunday. We played starting 14:00 until 23:00.
NOT FINISHED YET.

I must confess I dont follow all guidelines like Yldiane had the illness before, because she was at place A and B. All those special backgrounds are mumbo-jumbo to me. Im happy to find out myself after several hours that we have the year 907, there were an oath with three brothers and what a dukedom means.

Hint from me:
Add a chapter "Esteren - before Book 0" - Esteren Quickstart for Dummies. Or maybe it was just me who had some difficulties and luckily a forum to ask.

As you can see im not only handing out compliments.

But to Poison - basically I have a difficult thing here to cover. Something im surely not blame on Esteren, but still almost never experienced it like this.

So.. many of those folks playing with me, are really veterans. They are all grateful I took my several hours and KICKSTARTER money to get the information to start.
(btw - dont worry - they already bought the printed books 0 and 1 as soon as they realized what we are playing - I only have PDF).

POISON:
Even they are experienced, all of them took fighters. Which made the fight with the bear and some fights with wolfes (I thought myself of as introducution) pretty easily. One heavy wound. Then the riddles or problems.

So.... - I almost barely described what happens.

Leader (L): "..dead animals at the well.."
Player (P): "..ah - it must be the water. Is a river running through here? Has the McLyr a different well we can check? We can use snow.. where is the alcohol..."
(..im not kidding here..)

L: The Hermit lives...
P: Ah - not interesting.. Red Herring...

L: There were miners..
P: Ah yes.. poisoned the water there...

L: *Shows the the picture of the filter machine."
P: *gazing at the picture* "Thats a filter - not the source!!!"

...and I can REALLY say they DO NOT cheat. They are too old for this and they wont risk that I loose my bit enthusiasm I have here. They looked also pretty buffled the picture of the Apprentice Magientist first time.

So... I have a group here which can really fight - in an adventure which is good for starters, but maybe not for experienced players, with almost no skill checks challenging them outside of the fight.

Well... I can will and change that in the last evening, but I really understimated that.
I though myself of some nice nightmares myself they have to handle. That brought a good atmosphere.

So - thats my Feedback - MY QUESTION:
In my scenario Talacien fled (bad me - changing story quickly) and they will eventually catch up with him in Melwan. He had gone crazy.

So.. I really like the idea of the somehow-zombie folks all around.

Since I have so many fighters. How can I make the fight between toxicated Melwans and my 5-People-Army a bit more interesting?

Thank you!
Wesker

[Iris]

Hello !

9 hours ?... Ouah ?!! ... and the story is not finished yet ?!!... I think it's not bad ... I'll try now to give some answers to yours questions...

MY QUESTION:
In my scenario Talacien fled (bad me - changing story quickly) and they will eventually catch up with him in Melwan. He had gone crazy.

So.. I really like the idea of the somehow-zombie folks all around.

Since I have so many fighters. How can I make the fight between toxicated Melwans and my 5-People-Army a bit more interesting?

I think there could be an easy solution : you explain to the Player that the intoxicated people in the village can be cured, they're innocent and by killing them, the character would comit a crime. So you add a complication : they have to win but not by killing they adversaries..

Another solution is to force them to be divided in two groups : one runnind after Talacien, another one controlling mad / zombies / ... people of Melwan...

You could also add poisoned weapon...

Or traps, if the characters are awaited...


... ? ...

[Clovis]

It's true Poison is kinda a run-of-the-mill scenario: nothing particularly original or extravagant, but the idea was precisely to stick to something simple to make for a good introduction to the univers, making it easy for the Leader to present the universe in a setting that will not confuse the Players.

Now, as for your combat problem, you could use the following elements:

- Don't hesitate to stress environmental conditions such as cold or humidity, which can be very taxing on people, especially when they have been traveling to and fro in the mountains, as your PCs have done in their investigations for the source of the poison.

- One or several of the PCs may have contracted a disease because of the contact (or proximity) with fossil Flux, which may not only weaken them, but also fuddle them and alter their thoughts.

- Finally, remember that even though Melwan is far from being a major city, it is still a village, and if all of its population turn against the PCs, having to deal with the maddened villagers can become a very hard - or even impossible - ordeal: how are you supposed to deal with a crowd of frenzied people?


Basically, remember - and make your Players remember - that the PCs are human beings: no matter how skilled, strong, and clever they are, they are still flesh and bone, and are vulnerable to disease, exhaustion, panic, etc. This, combined with the psychological horror of seeing friendly people turned into ravenous beasts, which Iris mentioned, should do the trick.