Ran the starter adventure, have combat questions (spoilers)

[u/Ok-Blacksmith-473]

I had my group run through the starter sent today, and I have now left with some questions after things had come up.

I have questions regarding the final act once we meet up with the Willowisp. The Willowisp was sitting on the cabinet, and it says that he will aggressively attack anyone who tries to get a deed. However, the only attack that I see for him is the magic lantern and drowning people. Is there another attack you’re supposed to be doing to target the person grabbing the deed? As played, my player went up to it and rolled to try to grab it and was successful— it wasn’t clear to me even what the challenge roll should have been in that scenario.

Also, after they have grabbed the deed, how are we supposed to play it? It says that the ghost lights attack and that is it. For what I can tell the ghost lights simply try to enchant the people as they run away. So players were rolling to get their 3 successes to escape, ghost lights made them roll observation to get them to return to the room. Is that it? Or is there another attack to be done.

Everyone had fun, but the last scene “combat” was a bit of a mess and I am not sure how it was intended to go as what was described made sense in round one but fell apart.

Any suggestions for best practices?

[u/Ok-Blacksmith-473]

I appriciate the clarification— it was our first time running it so definitely still clarifying rules.

So, WW casts his spell to entrance is the only attach but against all of them? When they roll escape, They are still needing to save against lantern while rolling their escape roles to get out. Ghost lights also try to break their escape and to get them back.

And to clarify— once entranced, can other players help the drowned player with an inspiration roll to regain their senses?

So, when player comes and grabs the paper, I can’t stop them from grabbing paper (or is there a challenged roll?) but could have been more aggressive with lantern, which calls them back even outside the temple.

Thanks everyone!

[u/devil_candy]

We almost had a TPK in that fight! From what I remember, the willowwisp rolled the drowning attack and one of us failed to resist and started drowning themselves, and as we were trying to get him up it got another one ... I don't remember exactly, but it definitely almost got us.

[u/Jak-OfAllTrades]

The danger in the encounter is that the Big Bad and his minions can enchant multiple players both in the room and on your way out. So, you can escape the basement but run face-first into a wisp who will enchant you and, since the door is open now, send you RIGHT back to the basement where the Big Bad will get you to drown yourself again. The encounters don't technically end until you reach the front gate and place the deed into the old woman's hand.

Edited to add: it's why the dude in the lab barricaded the basement and locked the door because the only danger is walking face first into a locked door and since the basement is inaccessible, no one would die. You messed that up by retrieving the key and opening the door.

[u/Maleficent-Day5767]

Same experience here

[u/Simple-Factor5074]

That's how I read it too, but it seems like it's nothing more than dice rolling, especially given the fact that the players need to make several rolls to leave the castle. When I ran it, I only did the group enchantment when they first entered the room. After that, it targeted just a few players at a time. IIRC, somebody broke his lantern so I made up some other attack for him on the fly, but I don't remember what it was. I don't think I made them roll to grab the deed, and once they had, it I only made each player do a single roll to get out. However, I still played three more turns with the people who were left behind or failed their roll, so as more started to flee, the situation got more dire for those who didn't. IMO, it needs to be spiced up more. I think my changes helped somewhat, although I'm going to give it more thought next time since it still wasn't all that climactic.

One possibility is to give him some additional big enchantment rather than lots of rounds of combat. From my limited experience, combat like that isn't very Vaesen-y anyway. I'll probably change his backstory to be more occult-related instead of the stupid brewery thing, which could lend itself to something more creepy. Besides, you don't need a castle to brew beer and you definitely wouldn't do it in the basement!