Question about text in The Bride of the Black Manse

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Edgewise
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Question about text in The Bride of the Black Manse

Post by Edgewise »

On page four, under "Ten Bells," the second paragraph begins:
The bell tower (area A-5) rebuilds at 10 bells. Spectral courtesans begin to flood the manor-house.
Should it read "spectral courtiers" instead of "spectral courtesans"? From context, it sounds like you mean to be talking about aristocratic guests, not prostitutes. But what do I know, this is Appendix N, right? :wink:
Edgewise
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Re: Question about text in The Bride of the Black Manse

Post by Edgewise »

OK, I have a follow-up question that actually needs an answer.

On page 22, the text refers to how PCs can deal with Mammon's marriage proposal. It says:
Mammon turns to the PCs, demanding that his bride accept the blazing ring. Any character accepting the hellfire ring is surely doomed...
This seems to suggest that any character can accept the ring, and their soul will be taken. But what happens to the rest of the party?

One might assume that they are allowed to be on their way. But two paragraphs later, the text suggests this way to solve the problem:
If the PCs can correctly guess the originator of the slaughter, Ilse, and that associated PC willing goes into the arms of the archdevil, the remainder of the party is free to escape.
This seems to suggest that there is some benefit to the PC associated with Ilse giving herself up. So if that's the case, what happens when a PC who isn't associated with Ilse accepts the ring? Does Mammon get pissed and attack? If so, what happens to the character who offered himself?

Please respond...I'm going to be running this adventure at Gen Con for you guys! I've had a few practice runs with it and this hasn't come up, which is fortunate because I wouldn't know what to do.
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GnomeBoy
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Re: Question about text in The Bride of the Black Manse

Post by GnomeBoy »

Bride of the Black Manse is one I don't have, otherwise I'd be more than willing to help...!

But also, if you're looking for answers direct from Goodman Games, that's a long shot... the forums are mostly populated by us fans.

But there are also DCC fan Facebook and G+ groups, so if you're on those at all, maybe you can ask there and get an answer...
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Edgewise
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Re: Question about text in The Bride of the Black Manse

Post by Edgewise »

Thanks for the advice, GnomeBoy. For what it's worth, I'll take anyone's answer for my second post if they can justify it.

I finished GMing this adventure for the second time last night, and in the process, I think I identified another part that isn't very well explained. I'm going to keep looking in case I missed it. But so far, although the text refers multiple times to the fact that a character can "master" the soul stone, I can't find any explanation of they can do that, or how the PCs would even know that this was an option.
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GnomeBoy
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Re: Question about text in The Bride of the Black Manse

Post by GnomeBoy »

I ported the questions over to G+ -- we'll see what musings occur.... :wink:
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Playing RPGs since '77 • Quasi-occasional member of the Legion of 8th-Level Fighters.

Link: Here Be 100+ DCC Monsters

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GnomeBoy
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Re: Question about text in The Bride of the Black Manse

Post by GnomeBoy »

First couple of comments....

Colin Brodd
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtesan



SHPOILERS! SHPOILERS EVERYWHERE...!


Julian Bernick
Up to the Judge. Depending on your level of generosity and one-shot-ness of your campaign, there are at least two options:

1) Mammon laughs and says, "NOT YOU!!!"
2) Mammon takes the character, puts him in Hell, takes the ring off, comes back and says... "Try again, mortals...!"

In my experience, the end is pretty challenging because it's hard for the PCs to explore the Manse enough to piece together in 4 hours. No group I have run for has ever got the Hand or the Soul Stone.

The second time I ran it, I had ad libbed Mammon more and dropped some hints about the ring and so on, and the characters figured it out.

The first time I ran it, they had no idea what was going.. didn't have the ring either... and they had an epic battle with Mammon and all the devils, which ended with massive, massive spellburns and they actually defeated the arch-devil. Probably my mistake, but I wasn't really fully anticipating the all-out nuclear option.
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Gnome Boy • DCC playtester @ DDC 35 Feb '11. • Beta DL 2111, 7AM PT, 8 June 11.
Playing RPGs since '77 • Quasi-occasional member of the Legion of 8th-Level Fighters.

Link: Here Be 100+ DCC Monsters

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Edgewise
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Re: Question about text in The Bride of the Black Manse

Post by Edgewise »

Thanks GB, you're awesome, I should just head over there myself. I'm still really curious about the whole soul stone thing.
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GnomeBoy
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Re: Question about text in The Bride of the Black Manse

Post by GnomeBoy »

~tips hat~
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Gnome Boy • DCC playtester @ DDC 35 Feb '11. • Beta DL 2111, 7AM PT, 8 June 11.
Playing RPGs since '77 • Quasi-occasional member of the Legion of 8th-Level Fighters.

Link: Here Be 100+ DCC Monsters

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