Revenge of the Rat King

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Rath
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Revenge of the Rat King

Post by Rath »

I was wondering if you could use Revenge of the Rat King as a stand alone module?

I know its sort of a sequel to DCC#1 Idyss of the Rat King but can it be run easily on its own? Has anyone ever tried it?
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Ogrepuppy
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Post by Ogrepuppy »

I don't have the adventure right in front of me at the moment, but I'm 99.99% sure that I recall it gives some exposition to run it independently from Idylls.
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Post by Harley Stroh »

Rath,

Ogre is right. When this adventure was conceived it was crucial that it be playable with or without having played Idylls first. Pretty much all you need is a diabolic, crazed villain.

There are hooks provided, but if they come up short, let me know and we’ll work something up.

//H
The lucky guy who got to write some Dungeon Crawl Classics.

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Losloris8
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Re: Revenge of the Rat King

Post by Losloris8 »

We ran this as a stand alone, no problem. Ran it as a solo adventure for a thief (hmm, 7th I think).

I made a few modifications, such as not having a guaranteed capture, and, creating a choice to left to section 2 or right for section 3. It played very well, particularly the section where we first got to the water. The monstrous spider was well set up and well played.

Frankly. I was drawn to using it strictly based upon the artwork of the Troll Rat. My player thought that was fun art, too.

LG
losloris
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Re: Revenge of the Rat King

Post by losloris »

Now that we have completed the Duergar mash up and headed back to town I have thought to use this module again but from a different perspective. First time thru was with Khalil as a solo adventure that worked real well. Here it will be with three or five characters of lower level. In looking through the early section I remain vexed by most every situation where you are in affect ambushed by the bad guys, which happens in this case very early on, and, by the general way the first few rooms are laid out. I feel the need to make those first few rooms bigger, more populated, and, more open to free and easy movement - and this for the bad guys. I find it hard to believe that all of the traffic into the meat and potatoes of the module has to initially pass thru a really crappy secret door to get around the crumbled passage. This falls into the same logic as to why all doors in most every module are closed. So, I will add on.

Also, in seeing how these guys play I have to come up with a good hook to get them into it. The module provides a couple of good possibilities. I am thinking that (and this will be a first for me) a real good hook would be to have my character kidnapped from our lodgings at Wolf's Bane. I play Brey the half elf magic-user. Never done that and so am anxious to try.

Losloris
losloris
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Re: Revenge of the Rat King

Post by losloris »

We didn't get far as the players are newbies and having fun while learning the ropes.

I did decide to have Bryn kidnapped and gave good clues on where to look. They looked and found the stairs going down into the undercity. Jupiter, our new Cleric, is very happy to be trying out spells and commanded the front door guy. Once inside we did a litlle skulking about. As mentioned, I was not thrilled with the whole walk in the front door trap part, nor, the initial rooms designed. In the front door I made the space more like an area that is lived in, and, have well made double doors lead into the temple. The players rolled played well when two bad guys were walking by, and, got one of them to open the door. For this bad guy went in one of the living space doors and came out through the double door with a finger to his mouth indicating the need to be quiet.

The party entered to see a tiki man going through an elaborate incantation with a few spare humanoids clambering around a fire. As the air became sulfuric the party realised something bad was going down and jumped into action. A decent battle ensued - that room went down very well. This was followed by a battle at the slave room, tho the party was dismayed to be 'here' and see no sign of Bryn. I think she will be the one hanging upside down at the end of section 1.

Currently, the party is beyond the front entry hassles and now ready to adventure.

This is totally different from what happened when I used this module a few months ago as a sole adventure for an 8th level thief. Very cool

Losloris
losloris
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Re: Revenge of the Rat King

Post by losloris »

So, the other guy bailed and my character had been taken captive, making yesterday's session a solo adventure.

Gotta say, DCC does a wonderful job packaging these modules together, making it easy for me to parse out what is needed for a fun adventure. I scaled this way back. Instead of the rat king per say, I had the bad guy be Azrod the bad guy from room 6. Azrod it was at room 15, with Bryn, my PC, hanging in chains. The picture in the module was perfect eye candy. Also, I moved the two halflings to be watching the sciffs at the water. I think the passage to 10 should be in much better condition than is described just in terms of the bad guys who live there and have to get from point a to b. So, two sciffs with oars. The PCs had to roll agAinst their abilities to see if they were skilled in handling a small boat. Jupiter rolled a 1, making him a master rower. This allowed them to avoid the trap at 10.

Into the final battle against Azrod, who had blurred and mirrored, Roarn rolled a 20 and then 97 on the critical chart. Thus, Bryn was saved and a fun time had by all.

Fun adventure

Losloris
losloris
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Re: Revenge of the Rat King

Post by losloris »

As a final commentary on this module, I think this is another excellent adventure that needs only a few tweaks to create a realistic feel.

Having moved a bunch of times I keep thinking how do you get a couch up those stairs. With that in mind I look at how people/beings/monsters are suppose to travel in a reasonable way from one section to another. Getting past the water section of the module needs to be better addressed than what is provided. Or, other exits need to be considered. In one case of running this adventure I mad for a walkway along the water, much like you would see a walkway along the underground metro. IN the second running of this adventure I made it two skiffs.

That notwithstanding, I ran both as what turned out to be solo adventures that demanded a bit of scaling down but still provided lots of good adventuring,

Losloris
losloris
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Re: Revenge of the Rat King

Post by losloris »

About to run this one again. Kendo (martial artist) and Courage Kettleboom (mage), both 6th level, want a little side adventure.

They will visit a town, Homlett, knowing something is worthy of an adventure, get in a scrap and wake up in their cell next to the torture room. The adventure is light which will work well. By light I mean few combats. I would like to add in another puzzle somewhere, like the final doorway; the relevance of the Rat King's son is zero. Also, removing the bugbear encounter which feels like it came from left field, and, replacing the grey ooze with water spiders.

losloris
losloris
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Re: Revenge of the Rat King

Post by losloris »

We had a delightful side adventure with parts 2 & 3 of this serving as the main course.

It was fun to see how bad rolls worked out well, the party used sufficient skills, and then good rolls returned.

To get the party to the torture chamber I created a little encounter where they individually failed saving throws for sleep, and were rewarded by waking up in just their skivvies, a collar around their necks, with a chain attached to a central ring. There was also an extra spare body. The room beyond offered bright light that shone through the door cracks, and, the unmistakable agonising sound of a torture chamber. They burst in and offered good battle with the broken chains but then rolled horribly for a check about. The only thing they managed to find in a room full of torture tools was the door. Really, I decided they were so disgusted by what they saw they could not see those tools in any other purpose and so they were left.

From there it was a nice run, a few good decisions (riding the door like a surfboard certainly made avoiding the whirlpool a synch). By the time they made it to the rat King they were in good shape, blasted him in the first round and the other rats scattered.

A super night's entertainment.

Thanks DCC

Losloris
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