D&D 5E Running Gates of Firestorm Peak in OotA

[Werebat]

After escaping the Underdark, my PCs were level 6 (even after the fight with Ilvara).

The next section of the adventure (Gauntlgrymm) requires the PCs to be level 8. There is a suggestion to run the PCs through some random encounters if needed, or just bump them up to level 8 and say they leveled up along the journey to Gauntlgrymm.

I thought it would be more fun to run them through the Gates of Firestorm Peak, which takes PCs from levels 6-8.

You can buy a 5E conversion of the classic Bruce Cordell module at DM's Guild:

http://www.dmsguild.com/product/182231/Classic-Modules-Today-The-Gates-of-Firestorm-Peak

I thought it was pretty good, for the buck or two I had to pay for it.

So far it's been a fun run. One of my players ran through it with me as DM way back when it was first published (like 17 years ago?), and even he is enjoying it as he had forgotten most of the details (as had I). He is playing a warlock with the Great Old One patron, in this case Araumycos, and I had him do the Fetid Wedding section privately on his own at one point (with NPC help), after which his patron urged him to check out what was going on under Firestorm Peak (where Araumycos told him it's "original spores" drifted IN through long ago). It said that the demon lords needed to be dealt with, but it also knew that something was brewing under Firestorm Peak that even the demon lords would be worried about if they knew of it (too true).

They even ran into Hemeth in the Duergar market early on, who gave them some information about the outpost's major players. That was a fun surprise (he's a weapons smuggler, and he was there to buy nephilium weapons from the outpost).

They'll be fighting the Deep Spawn tonight!

Edit: Of interest is that the last time I ran this adventure, the PCs ended up fighting EVERYTHING -- the entire duergar outpost, etc. THIS time, they have done amazingly well with diplomacy, with the PC assassin (Sarith) brokering a deal with Naentoth almost immediately, and with the party stumbling onto the myconids in the twisted caverns due to a random encounter and the warlock who serves Araumycos managing to impress them with his fungal knowledge such that he earned an audience with their king (who has no name in the module, so I called him King Bolete) offered them sanctuary and aid. I don't think this is due to player knowledge -- the assassin's player is young enough that he was in diapers when the module first came out, and the warlock was just taking advantage of the presence of myconids and his own goodwill towards them as they have a connection to his patron. It worked nicely, though -- they finessed right through both finessable sections of the module.

 

[Ancalagon]

Interesting... I was pondering doing something similar. How good is the conversion?

 

[Werebat]

It's pretty good. I am a little concerned that this encounter (Deep Spawn) will break the party, but I was worried about that happening in the main cavern against the gibberling swarms, and that combat turned out to be a cakewalk for them.

 

[CapnZapp]

Thank you.

 

[Werebat]

PCs survived the Deep Spawn, did some scouting, fought the giant gibbering mouther (where the warlock demonstrated the OP potential of Repelling Blast), and just stirred up a mutant troll nest.

The drow paladin of Eilistraee, who goes around naked with a ring of warmth, was injured and mutated to gain an extra heart (+1 Con) and a score of alien eyes and mouths on her torso (one for every spot where the mouther bit her). I have been using the 3E 3rd party Chaositech book to draw mutation tables from -- as per Gates of Firestorm Peak, half of the mutations are incidental only. For example, the party Druid now gives off a strong scent of lavender. His sister, the deep scout ranger, now has purple hair and ten extra hit points. So far no one has rolled a defect yet... Unless you count the paladin.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

I love that module! The mutations were awesome. When we played it the cleric grew a vestigial arm, the halfling grew scales on his face and a third eye, the elf grew a puppy dog tail, and the gnome grew glands that could let him spit poison (sometimes intentionally but often it happened accidentally). About four years ago I made a beastmaster ranger with a spider companion based on the dwarf who tended the spider stables (or something like that).

 

[Werebat]

I love that module! The mutations were awesome. When we played it the cleric grew a vestigial arm, the halfling grew scales on his face and a third eye, the elf grew a puppy dog tail, and the gnome grew glands that could let him spit poison (sometimes intentionally but often it happened accidentally). About four years ago I made a beastmaster ranger with a spider companion based on the dwarf who tended the spider stables (or something like that).

Ah yes... "The Keeper" or some such. Lovely picture of him in the module.

My players went very diplomatic this go around and didn't have to fight him, but he DID meet them on their way out of the outpost and spoke very fondly (and creepily) to the drow paladin, even gifting her one of his little spiders, which he placed on her nude body. He liked drow, you see, because they also like spiders.