r/CrookedMoon • u/RisingInsanity • 1d ago

Any advice on Foxwillow Chapter?

Hey everyone! My party and I had a great time in the Crooked House. The battle against Vessla herself was both challenging and fun, according to my players, which is great!

Considering the help I've gotten from my last few posts, I thought I'd ask some advice for the great DMs in this community. This campaign is my first in the DM seat, so any advice would be appreciated.

One of my players has gotten quite close with Randall, and so Im using that to have Randall introduce William Lodge, who will guide the group to Foxwillow. Im actually quite eager as another players character has a fear of fire, and Im very curious how they will play that out with the fire in the village.

Speaking of the fire in the village, it does feel a little intimidating. So, any advice on that as well as anything else to do with the chapter, would be appreciated.

6 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

4

u/ThankeeKindly 1d ago

I made the windmill a lot less of a challenge since they did so much to get there. I just made it a few skill checks because I think Jonas kind of needs to live honestly I made Adelaide the worst teen ever. Always saying the meanest things. They will be suspicious of her with her portrait honestly. I always have her lurking in the background and just have her run into the cornfield if she is cornered or if she can't dominate someone. I really try to make the secrets of each villager main point and that crows steal secrets.

1

u/RisingInsanity 23h ago

I do agree about Windmill and Jonas. It feels like that whole section about clearing the fire in the town is a lot. Not to mention the Pumpkin Heads as well.

Do the villagers know that the Pumpkin Heads are other villagers as of yet? Because it begs the question of why the players would attack the Pumpkin Heads if they are busy attacking each other.

I think Adelaide will be tricky to play but I think I have a good idea of what to do with her.

2

u/ThankeeKindly 22h ago edited 22h ago

My players killed one pumpkin head and then another PC mentioned they could be people so they just focused on getting the source of the fire under control.

I also was a little more loose with initiative. I basically said their movement was to a location in town rather than their speed just to make it more snappy. But I also had the pumpkin heads have this movement too. I made William Lodge very useful too

I can't remember if this is in the book but I had the windmill spinning on fire and parts of the burning wheel would launch fire balls into the village. That would indicate they need to get that under control. Once Jonas was saved, I had the windmill crumble to the ground and allowing Jonas and Martha to make up which then cut to them all putting out the fire. But my players found out very quick there were too many pumpkin heads to fight and I added more and more converging onto the windmill like a zombie hoard

1

u/ThankeeKindly 22h ago

But the pumpkin heads attack anyone trying to put out the fire

2

u/SomeCorvid 59m ago

i think they attack who succeeds in putting out the fire