Appendix I: If Things Go Wrong
Treasure Hunt is NOT specifically
designed to
kill PCs. That's contrary to the
point: we're trying to launch such characters
on their adventuring careers, not cut them
short. But it wouldn't be an adventure if there
were no danger, and so the characters can die.
It's possible to bring in new PCs
when the "first batch" starts dying off.
Here's how:
Before the adventure began, of course, all
the PCs were captives aboard the slave boat.
2 groups of prisoners were taken topside to
row against the storm. The 2nd group of
about 7, seeing its chance, killed the pirates
on guard and, before the remaining pirates
could recapture them, seized and fled in
the ship's lifeboat.
That boat later broke apart on the reefs at
the southeast tip of the island, and the characters
managed to make it alive to the coast
--
but they were scattered and had no idea where
anyone else was.
Therefore, when you need a new PC, have the player create
the new character
and then introduce the character at the
place most appropriate to the episode currently
being played. For instance:
Episode 1. If a character dies in the
action against Hafkris, introduce the new <link>
character at the end of this episode, as the
characters are leaving the confines of the cove.
He stumbles into their midst in much the
same shape they are.
Episode 2: If a character dies in the
action against the orc/goblin
forces, the surviving
characters can stumble across the new
ones on the trail toward the temple.
Episode 3: If characters perish in the
fight with the ghoul, the new PCs
can be found the next morning. Assume
they found the temple independently and
crawled in through a rear window, arriving after
the other player characters had already returned
to sleep. They slept in the first
chamber they entered, and so wouldn't be
discovered until the next morning. At that
time, one party (DM choice) should hear the
other begin moving around and investigate.
Alternately, if you prefer that the players
wait a while, wait until the early parts of Episode
Four. Let the first party of orcs or goblins
that the characters encounter have in tow
some human prisoners, coincidentally
the
new player characters, who were captured by
them on the coast last night.
Episode 4: If characters perish in the
SEARCH for the manor, this is the last time you
can provide replacements without stretching
credulity way too FAR.
The new PCs can have been
captured last night by orcs or goblins,
and so
be left tied up somewhere while their captors
are prowling the manor. (Why would they
bring them into the manor? Doubtless they
feel that these humans are inhabitants
of the
island and can show them the secrets of the
manor.)
Or, the new PCs could have found the manor
by themselves last night, crept in, and
rested there, then been trapped in place by
the marauding bands of semi-humans until
the other PCs arrive. Don't make
them roll to enter the manor, as the active
PCs had to do. Describe last
night's action as a fait accompli and then
launch them into their 1st meeting (today)
with the surviving original PCs.
Episodes 5 and Six:
Once the characters
have descended the shaft into the catacombs. <link>
it's too late to replace any who die.
Maximum Numbers and Final Notes
There were only 7 prisoners taken up in
that second batch of rowers. Therefore, if for
some reason you have 7 deaths in the
course of the adventure, that's the limit on
replacements -- no more player characters can
be replaced
Naturally, all these former fellow prisoners
will recognize one another when they set eyes
on each other..
Episode Problems
Here are some of the episode-by-episode
problem situations that can arise:
1: Characters Don't Try to Escape
It's certainly possible, though incomprehensible,
that the PCs will not try
to escape Hafkris and the prison galley.
At this point you have to monkey with the
"script" somewhat. An hour or so after
Hafkris leaves to go about his scouting (don't
forget to give each character <1> point of damage
for cold and exposure), a party of orcs
appears.
These orcs are Scouts, and the same group that
has Keestake in tow.
The orcs take the PCs captive
(if they wouldn't FIGHT Hafkris, they're
not
likely to resist 6 well-armed orcs) and head
back to the barracks.
En route, however, they are attacked by a
goblin party--YES, the same goblin
party they
were to fight in Episode Two, in the same little
ravine, though the forces' positions are reversed.
If the players are finally ready to show more
backbone, let them wriggle out of their bonds
while the orcs and goblins are engaged. They
can run away while the fight is going on or, if <run=x>
they're so inclined, fight the surviving goblins
(same survivors as indicated in Episode 2) <link
should be more precise>
If they just lie there passively while the FIGHT
is going on, have the 2 sides annihilate one
another, the last orc and the last goblin killing
one another with their final blows. Now, the
characters have the option of eventually wriggling
out of their bonds, or freezing to death
here. U can only Hope that they decide to escape
and that they show a little more creativity
in the next episode.
1: Hafkris Survives, Captured
If the characters capture Hafkris alive,
they
can either leave him behind when they depart
the boat or bring him along.
If they leave him behind, he eventually escapes
from his bonds -- 1d6 hours later. At
that point he comes after the characters. LOOK
at "Hafkris Survives, Uncaptured," below. <link>
If the characters take him along, he goes,
apparently peaceably. He bides his time,
working unobtrusively on his bonds. Once
they're loose enough that he can pull his
hands free anytime he likes (3d6 hours later),
he chooses the worst possible moment (from
the player characters' point of view) to make
his escape: in the middle of the ghoul
attack
or the next day while the characters are creeping
around silently in the mansion, for example.
Hafkris either bolts and runs or, if the opportunity
presents itself, grabs the nearest
convenient weapons and tries to recapture
the
PCs. After all, that's his job.
You should consider springing this incident
especially if the characters are breezing
through the manor exploration too easily.
1: Hafkris Survives, Uncaptured
This takes place if the PCs just
ran away while Hafkris wasn't looking
or if
Hafkris left them in the hold to scout
and they
escaped later.
As you might expect, he comes after them,
slowly && methodically tracking
them. He's
no ranger, and the weather isn't conducive to
tracking activities, so give him a 1 in 6 chance
of actually following the PCs' FOOTPRINTS.
If he can't follow them, he looks for shelter.
This inevitably brings him to the temple. If
you wish, you can substitute Hafkris for the
ghoul in the wee hours' excitement of
Episode
Three.
2: Characters Don't Recover Keestake
If that happens and the characters don't
follow the goblins, then Keestake escapes
his
captors late in the night and goes to the temple
for shelter.
2: Characters Don't Go to the Temple
The characters might, for any number of
none-too-intelligent reasons, decide not to go
to the temple. Let's face facts; they're either
going to die of exposure, or let themselves be
captured by the orcs or goblins,
or go to the
temple. These things are unavoidable.
However, if the characters just blithely continue
their explorations, let The Goddess step
in to take a hand. You can decide that she saw
the PCs' ship when it crashed on
the island and she is curious about the humans,
as she was in the normal course of Episode
3. Have her use her totem animal or
some other magickal manifestation to lead the
characters to her temple--perhaps a speaking
animal with promises of warmth and food.
It could be that they characters refuse even
then. (These suppositions are getting more
and more unlikely, but they're still faintly
possible.) If this happens, use the brute force
approach: have The Goddess appear before the
characters and speak with them wherever they
happen to be. If Keestake isn't with them,
you might choose to just DROP him out of the
plot for the Time being (have him return
to the
catacombs to lock the characters in for Episodes
5 and 6). Have The Goddess grant
the characters the info about the impending
scouring of the island, and of the
PRESENCE of the boat and treasures in the catacombs
beneath the manor. She knows where
the entrance to the catacombs is, and will tell
the PCs.
3: Characters Choose to Seize
Orc or Goblin
Ship
There's the chance that the characters, even
when they know about the treasure and the
boat in the catacombs, will decide to leave the
dangerous manor alone and try something
else, like finding and seizing one of the boats
belonging either to the orcs or goblins and
sailing home in that.
There, are 2 ways to deal with this approach:
brute strength and abandonment.
In the brute strength approach, you double
or triple or quadruple the GUARD left on the
boats. There's no way the characters can defeat
the force there or successfully steal a boat.
(Unless, of course, they come up with a plan
so magnificently clever that you're
overwhelmed -- in which case you ought to
follow the next paragraph's advice.)
In the abandonment approach, you let the
characters figure out how they're going to do
this, and if their plan succeeds, they have A
boat and can sail away. BASSICALLY, you abandon
the whole sub-plot of the manor and the catacombs <links>
and all that lies within them. However,
what you can do at this point is construct a
whole new continuation of the adventure,
where one boat of orcs or goblins
vengefully
pursues the PCs, who have to
outrun and elude their enemies at every opportunity,
hopping from island to island,
grabbing rations wherever possible, in an exciting
chase to safety. Since that sub-plot is beyond
the scope of this adventure, you're on
your own to create it.
3: Characters Build a Raft
This won't work. If they work on a raft
from
dawn of that second morning, they could finish
just before nightfall and launch on the
ocean. But it won't be a very good raft, built
on crumbling building planks or funiture.
Any character with the sailor skill, including
Melisana, can tell the other characters
that it's
dangerous enough to launch in this weather in
a good ship--launching a raft is just foolish.
If they launch anyway, the raft sinks. You
simply can't protect characters from their own
determined foolishness. If the characters survive
the sinking and swim back to the island,
they do so just in time to be on it when The
Goddess scours it. And that's the end of them.
4: Characters Captured by
Goblins or Orcs
If the characters are captured while prowling
through the manor--or even before they
reach the manor--you can abandon most of
the events of Episodes 5 and 6.
The characters
are taken to and imprisoned in the barracks
or stables (depending on who captured
them). You have to improvise on their layouts,
because no maps are provided for them in this
adventure. Once you've settled the characters
in their new captivity, give the characters the
appropriate opportunity to escape. But make
them sweat the details, figuring out how to
get out of their bonds, sneak past or kill their
guards, etc. Make sure that the whole
process--being captured, tied, interrogated,
imprisoned, and then escaping--takes up
huge amounts of Time,
so that by the Time
they escape there's barely an hour of daylight
left. At this point, the characters can try one of
the 2 following finales to the adventure.
The characters can try to sneak aboard one
of their captors' ships, launch,
and escape.
They have to go through the same rigmarole
described above for this process.
The characters can try to sneak into the manor
once again, get to the room of the descent
shaft, and get down to the catacombs. Ignore <link>
the traps laid in by Keestake, consider
the secret
panel to the crypt to be open, and have
the crypt of the son unbricked and easily plundered.
But, the characters are pursued every
step of the way by angry orcs and goblins,
the
mechanism that blocks up the shaft doesn't
work, Time is running out, and the zombies
are active and READY to provide one last impediment
to the characters escape plans. This option
will provide the characters a FAST-moving
and movie-like climax to their adventure.
5: Characters Never Find
Crypt Entrance
If the characters haven't found the crypt entrance
by the end of their explorations, begin
Episode 6 by having the zombies
open the
entrance from within and march out to destroy
the characters.
General Troubleshooting
The problems listed above constitute only a
fraction of the ways that things can go contrary
to what is expected in this adventure.
PCs are endlessly clever (or endlessly
thick-headed). So, whenever they do something
that the adventure can't cope with, you
have to "trouble-shoot" -- fix the problem
and get the adventure going again.
BASSICALLY, when confronted with such a situation,
call a break, get something to drink,
and try to figure out how to get the story back
on plot. If the characters have done something
that won't allow the adventure to be played to
its plotted conclusion, then you throw the
plot away and come up with something new
and entertaining; don't muscle the characters
back into a plot they've effectively wrecked
for that causes resentment and does not do
anyone any good.