Tales of the Wild Coast Discussion Thread

One of the great things about ToEE as a PnP milieu was the great amount of factions and interests that happened to converge in the area. Interest in Homlett involves Celene, Kron Hill gnomes and Verbobonc, who want to see trade and traffic continue, unhampered. So they tolerate Nulb, piracy and low intensity banditry -- which all happens to occur on the High Road --, precisely because there is a longer, but safer Low Road linking Verbobonc, Celene and the Kron Hills to Greyhawk. All three 'good' factions would also resent a resurgence of the temple, but that is not the case, at this time. They set a group of High level NPCs to keep an eye on the situation and to reinforce defenses (Burne, Rufus and Calmert in Homlett; Otis and Y'dey in Nulb). That's quite a commitment already.

Evil faction include Iuz (who wants the temple, but doesn't want Zuggtmoy to be freed), Lolth (that wants to increase her influence through her tool, but is still weak), and the different temple factions themselves (who compete, murderously, but wouldn't like to wipe out the [greater] Temple per se... they all vie for supremacy, and an eventual liberation of Zuggtmoy, but they hope to be the ones to do it). Also note that in the PnP version, no one knows where Zuggtmoy is, and Falrinth has no idea of the uses of the Orb. His loyalty, by the way, is something of a mystery to me.


In between factions would be the druids (who have their agent in the temple, to keep tabs on things), the Gnarley Forest Rangers (who have other concerns, but also keep an eye on evil activity within their domain) and the Circle of Eight (who according to the CRPG stopped the temple once, and believe their spells of binding will keep Zuggtmoy at bay).

Given this situation, overall I agree with Gaear and other who think that Verbobonc would react strongly to a serious threat to Homlett, all the while tolerating a supine -- but latently dangerous -- Temple. They already keep tabs on the region, and have sunk considerable resources in making the area safer. They trust the temple will continue infighting and will remain 'dormant'until adventurers go there and ruin it, or they send an expedition to clean out the area. One of the unspoken issues in the crpg version is that Iuz had been imprisoned for a long while and had just recently recovered his freedom... he's busy elsewhere rebu9ilding real armies that will -- in GH cannon -- overrun the whole northern world. The ToEE, within this context, is a relatively small nuisance, and perhaps most available high-level do-gooders are already elsewhere, busy spying and thwarting Iuz...

Indeed. Homlett is within Verbobonc, and Nulb is at the frontier with the 'domain of greyhawk', but in an informal no-man's land'.

It does, hence, the Keep, Burne, Rufus, and the Badgers.

My thoughts exactly.

I agree. Moreover, I think other regional actors would have an interest in a stable, prosperous Homlett: Celene and the Kron Hill gnomes, certainly, and to a lesser degree, Greyhawk itself. That means that in case things go bad and an intervention is required, one could expect all three factions to respond, in a coordinated way: elf, gnome and man bountyhunters, or warparties would be dispatched, if something serious enough to threaten Homlett appeared. Elves particularly if Tillahi and her consort (IIRC) were killed, gnomes more generally.

This is without speaking of churches: if Calmert was simply murdered, St. Cuthbert's church -- very strong in Verbobonc and neighboring Veluna -- would certainly respond with strength.

So, in the end, a serious response would be matched to the level of threat.

Occasional banditry close to Homlett has already produced one reaction: a general call for adventurers to come to Homlett and explore the environs (which is one of the adventure hooks for starting a neutral or good campaign in PnP).

So if an evil party starts messing things up, this is what I think would happen:

1) Ordinary militia soldiery would stick to towns and road patrols: they are obviously outmatched by thugs who killed important NPCs;
2) mid-level parties would start hunting them, for glory, or for material compensation from any of the local factions; if that fails,
3) warparties from one or more of the factions would be dispatched, with mid- to high-level NPCs, supported by soldiers; and if this fails,
4) Direct intervention with high-level NPCs, combining all good factions, plus churches.

Notice that except for 3) most of these would be relatively costless for the Viscount: adventurers would be interested in hunting down the trouble-makers for their glory, xp, and loot. If the Viscount adds a prize, it'd be even better. But it wouldn't be required.

And none of this would happen to the ToEE, for the simple reason that things (as they now stand) don't suggest the temple is as dangerous as the rampaging party of evil adventurers that now pillages the region.

 

I'll have to check it out once it comes out and look at the game that comes as close to the original as it should have all these years.

Sitra's eh? I'm gonna see that too ^_^ yay

 

In TotWC, will we be able to start with a saved party from the modpack that we already level to 20 with? Because that would be super awesome to start the game fighting Vecna and other assorted demigods.

 

There's no cheating involved. I just rest where the Hedrak fight takes place after I finish the game but before I kill Zuggtomoy for the 200,000th time, again. There is zero mystery for me in playing the game vanilla for the last 4+ years or so. Gotta do something to make it interesting. Perhaps migrate it over to be a 1st person shooter?

 

It's easy; unless you call using less players cheating. 1 PC defently, 3 will be pushing it.l

 

Another way of getting huge amounts of experience would be to raise all the high level villians after the nulb house ambush and kill them all repeatedly. The two main guys are like 13th level. Just have an 7th level druid w/ reincarnation and scribe and you got yourself a party!

Yet another way would be to prolong the balor fight to let him keep gating in demons to kill.

 

No cheating is necessary! I reached level 16. All you have to do is keep resting in the temple and fight whatever pops up. It is a boring way of gaining experience. Using this method to get to level 20 would be mind numbing.

 

I usually just do the resting thing at Hedrak's temple place but I'm going to do the reincarnating of the evil npc's a bunch and see how that turns out. I mean, either way is a little tedious but then again, the game itself is tedious after 5 years. I just prefer trying out spells and feat combos not normally accessible by playing the "according to hoyle" way.

In spending my time at the higher levels that no one ever goes to, I will be light years ahead when they finally make a mod for when the bloodstone wars spills over into Greyhawk and a permanent mile-wide hellgate is opened that lets in squillions and squillions of devils and demons. :evil_laug

 

That is quite correct. However, it is not cheating. It is within the boundries of the game. Cheating, such as it is, is consoling stuff to get a predetermined outcome other than what would normally happen in the course of events. There is a difference, like a bunch of people playing paintball. This person may have a single shot paintball pistol with a co2 cartridge but someone takes the field with an automatic paintball machine gun that uses real gunpowder in the caps and fires paint pellets at 1200 fps with an over and under grenade launcher. This is not cheating.

I just like to be accurate, no worries.