Funny, the encounter you describe went completely the opposite way (as you’ll see today) for our group.

@Ron: The second part is up!

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I’ll be done in a few sessions, then it’s all homebrewed stuff for a while.

I think I better stop reading these posts, but I can’t draw myself away!

Thanks for posting this type of stuff ChattyDM. It’s nice to read what other DM’s are doing with this adventure. My group just started the Well of Demons last Saturday and I can already tell it’s going to be fun. However, I’m going to need to increase the difficulty level of the dungeon since my group is now (surprisingly) level 9 after a rather lengthy (almost 8 sessions) detour from the main storyline: After the party finished the Horned Hold, I sent the group back up to the surface to hunt down some of Paldemar’s contacts which ended up being a huge section of the overall storyline. As of last session, the group managed to free Terlan Darkseeker from his curse by journeying down to the House of Silence and solving a riddle. In return, Darkseeker provided them with a map to Well of Demons.

I was surprised to find that the first encounter of the WoD (the room with the ropers, ghouls, and the squid monster thing in the well) actually turned out to be a difficult fight for the group and one of the most tactically strong battles for the monsters since I actually used the monster’s abilities to their advantage. For example, the ropers that were hanging from the ceiling managed to continually grab the Fighter and prevent him from tanking (he couldn’t attack them either since they’re only able to be hit with ranged attacks), while the phalagar (I think it was called) tied up the Warlord keeping him from getting close enough to his allies to use some of his better abilities, and the ghoul immobilized the wizard which prevented him from escaping to a safe distance for a good part of the fight. Overall it was a fun battle for me, and a frusteratingly fun battle for the players.

I’m definitely going to have to redesign the dungeon to cater to their high level though, and I also think I’ll pull out a few of the encounters. My group gets bored quick if there is nothing but room after room of combat, so I’m going to try to limit the number of enemy occupied side rooms to one or two at the most.

Anyway, just thought I’d share. Probably left too big of a comment though.

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I’m just now realizing that the modules as written are frameworks for stories, the combat encounters merely plot elements – but most of the plot (as opposed to the story) is left up to the DM. I’ve been too quick to see the modules as a litany of combats – they just look that way.

I’m beginning to suspect that the D&D dev team expected most people to assume that was the intent of all adventures published so far… sadly even I missed that lesson while I was reading Keep on the Shadowfell.

Hacking published adventures is fun as hell, and often necessary to fit the story/flow to your group’s tastes.

Your doppelganger edit to the module is smart – the ambush was a nice little combat encounter, giving everyone something interesting to do, but it felt disconnected from the main thrust of the adventure, and you’re right that it’s a weirdly risky bottleneck as written. I know I’m relatively new to this stuff but I’m just now realizing that the modules as written are frameworks for stories, the combat encounters merely plot elements – but most of the plot (as opposed to the story) is left up to the DM. I’ve been too quick to see the modules as a litany of combats – they just look that way. Huh, I’m learning a new way of reading! Awesome. What remains of the story, meanwhile, is up to the players…

(BTW We’ve been using NeonKnight’s H2 battle maps from cartographersguild.com (along with the poster map of course), and the bright colours and giant statues of the blood pool room helped make for a memorable setting.)

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