The Wyrmwraith

I've been running the Hell's Rebels adventure path for over a year now, and we're right at the final section now. I always feel especially good when we get to this point in a published adventure. Not many groups make it all the way to the end!

It's kind of funny... all of the coolest stuff is at the very end of these books, and yet most people won't get to experience it. That's why I think the fist chapter of an adventure is the most important - if it's boring or uninspired, there's very little chance that a group is going to get the momentum they need to play all the way through. If anything, the very first encounter should be one of the best, most exciting things of the entire adventure.

That's one of the reasons I love this path. The very beginning takes place during a riot! That's something I have never seen in D&D before. This path starts off very strong and, IMO, the first 4 books are all stellar.

Last time we played, the group made a detour to the pirate islands known as the Shackles, and in this latest session we got back to the business at hand: A very cool dungeon known as the Soulbound Fane. Here's the deal with this dungeon:

• The entrance involves a magical lift. The group has to figure out how to activate it.
• There's a "wyrmwraith" - a dragon/wraith.
• A bridge over a chasm is guarded by shadow golems.
• There's a mysterious room with magical powers.
• A witchfire (undead witch/hag/thing) can give the group some info.
• The Soul Anchor - a magic device that's been causing trouble with the city.

I always opt for SPEED MODE when I convert these things. If I want the group to get through the majority of this in a 2-hour session, I need to streamline it and, most importantly, I need all of the necessary information right in front of me.

One thing I've noticed with these Pathfinder paths is that they're a bit dense and wordy. Also, information is split up into multiple sections, sometimes. It's not something I could run from the book.

I sit down and make myself cheat sheets with all of the relevant info i need and stats right on a single sheet of paper, if it fits. The timing of when I do this is very important. I'd made most of these sheets months ago, but I need to read them over and adjust them either the night before, or, if possible, the day of the game. Otherwise I can't remember anything and it's a bit of a fiasco.

On this particular occasion, the preparation went very smoothly. I  had decided to be real loose with the shadow golem and allow them to use clever/funny ideas to bypass the encounter. We only have two hours, and if they fight the wyrmwraith, we can't really squeeze in the golems.

I was thinking that they'll probably just push these golems off of the bridge so they plunge into the chasm below. But, as always, the players took me by surprise. They blindfolded the golems and rotated them to face a wall. That way, they wouldn't "activate" when the group passed by.

The wyrmwraith fight went fine, but I wasn't happy with my half-assed conversion of it to 5e. I wanted to sit down and read up on 5e wraiths and then apply those ideas to the 5e dragon, but I didn't quite have the time. Basically, I had an undead dragon that could cast finger of death three times per day. It was fine, but could have been much cooler with a bit more time and energy put into it.

The adventurers go to the Soul Anchor - which is a ball of energy that has special powers. Floating in it is the still-beating heart of the campaign's villain, who the group thought they had killed for good!

The anchor is protected by a nemesis devil, a Pathfinder monster which is a devil who was once worshiped as a god. The heroes were just about to handle this monster, but we were out of time.

Once this is done, we go into the final section of the whole path! It is really awesome, and has tremendous maps. Really looking forward to the these final sessions!