The most fun I have DMing Age of Worms is adding other modules to the already-fantastic canvas. I was wondering who uses other modules in their Age of Worms campaign. I posted this on another thread, but I thought I'd re-post this as as its own thread, since my post was largely off-topic. Perhaps it will inspire someone. Perhaps it will stimulate conversation.
I've added the following modules to my Age of Worms campaign:
-Dymrak Dread: I ran this first, even before "The Whispering Cairn." It was the Diamond Hawks' first official "adventure" as a group. Had nothing to do with the Age of Worms, Kyuss, or anything like that. Goblins were making raids on farms near Diamond Lake, so the PCs answered the call. It established them in a variety of ways.
-Sons of Gruumsh: I ran this after "Encounter at Blackwall Keep." Some Blackwall Keep prisoners were spirited north and handed off to orcs in exchange for food, weapons, poisons, etc. PCs tracked this, met up with soldiers from Daggerford, organized a raid on the stronghold, and attacked. In the victorious aftermath, the heroes were attacked by Illthane the black. She made one pass with her breath, blackened the courtyard, dropped a Kyuss worm egg splattering most with Kyuss worms, and flew off in frustration. It was later discovered that the stronghold held casks of ale and water contaminated with Kyuss slow worms, most-likely slipped in by doppelgangers under the direction of Loris Raknian and the mind-flayer Zyrxog. Somehow, Illthane was involved.
-"The Menagerie" from Dungeon #126: On the very day that the Diamond Hawks first entered Waterdeep, I threw this module at them. A buddy of ours from past games was in town, he rolled up a PC, and I tossed this short module into the mix. It worked out great showing how their first day in Waterdeep would only foreshadow more excitement to come.
-"Blood of Malar" from Dungeon #126: Prior to their participation in the Champion's Belt games, the PCs were asked by their mentor in Waterdeep (a retired epic swashbuckler who is a former PC) to watch over the corrupt Lord Orlpar, who had repented his evil ways and feared assassination. When Dhusarra's Wolf Pack struck, the party werewolf Kragg struck, revealing himself to dozens of Grinning Lion patrons (he would later reveal himself to thousands of arena spectators) and one vampire cleric of Malar. Dhusarra selected Kragg as her new object of fixation, deeming him to be the next favored of Malar. I ran the module as it was written. Dhusarra escaped.
-Dragons of Despair (DL1): I dusted off this classic Dragonlance module to act as Illthane's lair. We ran through this after "Champion's Belt," replacing "Gathering of Winds." I turned the draconians into black draconic lizardfolk, and I turned the gully dwarves into black draconic kobolds. I added shamans, three adult male cohorts, an entire brood of black draconic servants for Illthane. Illthane could use her corrupt water ability to make Kyuss worms, so she was an important piece to be removed as she was attempting to raise an army of Kyuss spawn through her manipulations and direct action. Originally, I just saw Onyx and Raistlin and thought of Illthane and Allustan, and the inspiration took hold. Take a look:
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q69/jmichaelames/Onyx.jpg
-"City of Broken Idols" from Dungeon #145: I thought "Spire of Long Shadows" could use something extra, so I put Kuluth-Mar in the middle of Taboo Island, which was found on Lake Luo in Faerun's Chult jungle. The group had to start in Mezro and make it to Lake Luo, so the druid used tree stride to "hike" there. He was scried, and the rest of the group teleported to the druid's position. They had to boat across Lake Luo (and were attacked by the massive croc pictured on #145's cover--couldn't resist that), fight through Taboo Temple and the skinwalkers (created by the Harbinger himself), and once they made it into the center of the island, they could ascend and explore Kuluth-Mar.
-"Dungeon of the Crypt" from Dungeon #127: After returning from Chult, the famous Diamond Hawks started attracting a bit of attention. A fledgling adventuring group, the Dawn Blades, tracked a vampire into Deepwinter Vault and discovered a passage leading down into what they believed to be Undermountain. Wanting no part of it, and knowing that the famous Diamond Hawks had already explored parts of Undermountain with none-other than Durnan himself (see below), they asked the PCs to investigate. Thinking this might lead them to Dhusarra, they delved into Deepwinter Vault. I ran the module as it was written.
-"The Fireplace Level" from Dungeon #128: The PCs immediately followed "Artor" up the chimney and into the Fireplace Level. With no rogue with them, they quickly fell victim to a teleportation trap, which took them to Undermountain's 3rd level, the chamber housing the blue dragon Aragauthos and her throne of skulls. That led to a lengthy stay in Undermountain (see below). Once the group made it back out of Undermountain, they called in Mac Stump, former PC who had reached 21st level and was an exemplar in disable device. The module was run as written. Dhusarra, Artor, and the vampire medusa all escaped to strike again, apparently having fled Waterdeep.
*I couldn't pass on Vampires of Waterdeep. Awesome modules.
-Ruins of Undermountain: Since their arrival in Waterdeep, I took the PCs into Undermountain on a number of occasions. They toured parts of level 1 with Durnan before the "Champion's Belt" where he asked them to join his Red Sashes (they respectfully declined). They wound up in level 3 after tripping a trap in the Fireplace Level, floated down the Sargauth, saw Skullport, the slave market... they actually freed the dragon Aragauthos (see above) and stealthed their way past Skullport while the dragon raged and flew out of the Southern Sea Caves, startling half of Waterdeep.
*Though famous now, with their mayhem and meddling, the Diamond Hawks were becoming a problem to the authority figures of Waterdeep. Freeing a blue dragon from Undermountain was the last straw.
-Expedition to Castle Ravenloft: The Diamond Hawks were sent (though some might say banished) to the Savage Frontier to see an elven sorceress named Lashonna about a missing wizard named Balakarde who had already been looking into the Age of Worms. For this I combined Expedition with "Prince of Redhand." The zombie infestation from Expedition was changed to a Kyuss spawn infestation. The banquet was sort of an insane Masque of the Red Death-style scenario where everyone is hiding from the infestation outside and no one realizing (or admitting they suspect) that Lashonna is behind it all. Strahd was (and still is) a ghost haunting the castle. Long story short: the PCs showed up, we had the banquet, PCs ultimately kicked butt, old enemies like Dhusarra resurfaced, and Prospero and Lashonna escaped. The PCs now run the village and live in the haunted castle. ;-)
*And yes, one of the PCs has been tainted by the castle. The sorceress Marzena (from “Encounter at Blackwall Keep”) unfortunately resembles Strahd’s lost Tatyanna, and so Strahd has taken a serious interest in her. This influence has led to Marzena taking her first level in blood magus. ;-)
-Vanrakdoom (Champions of Ruin Web Enhancement): I took the group to Undermountain a third time when Halaster, angry about what the PCs did with his dragon and curious about the PCs' power level, sent his apprentices to seek out the PCs one by one, sucking each of them into a portal that dumped them into Vanrakdoom. Halaster himself (an illusion of him, but still him ultimately) tasked them with clearing out Vanrakdoom, which they did. I used this module to help push along a PC's story (the human shade rogue/invisible blade, specifically). Great download.
Future modules I plan on adding:
-“The Storm Lord’s Keep” from Dungeon #93: The Storm Lord is angry about the Diamond Hawks’ unprovoked attack upon The Citadel of Weeping Dragons. The connection between this mysterious being and the giants of Kongen-Thulnir is anyone’s guess.
-“The Dragon Peak of Palanthus” from World of Krynn: This will serve as Brazzemal’s lair, found amongst the Dragon Aeries at Wormcrawl Fissure. *I thought about using “Dargaard Keep” from World of Krynn as Thessalar’s stronghold, but I ultimately deemed that to be too much extra. ;-)
I've also used some of the other resources in Dungeon. For example, I used the "Sewer Stronghold Map" at the back of #128 as my Shadow Thieves hideout beneath the streets of Waterdeep. I used Girddrez, the "Critical Threat" article also from #128, as a unique foe/NPC, a higher-up in the ranks of the Blue Elk Tribe in Waterdeep's Dock Ward. For one last example, I used the "To the Games" article at the back of issue #132 to spice up the "Champion's Belt" experience.
I replaced GoW with the revised Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. Both are 11th level modules, and there were very few storyline elements in GoW that couldn't be shoehorned into another adventure. Lost Caverns was always one of my favorites, so it was fun to revisit. IMC, I presented the players two hooks: return to Diamond Lake and follow up on the AoW, or take a detour to the legendary Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. They chose the latter.
Hey, Dennis. I definitely plan on throwing Mishka at the PCs at some point. One way or another, they'll get their hands on all seven Rod pieces. I can't say much about that, as some of my gamers check these boards. ;-)
Crust, how long have you been DMing your campaign?
Thanks for asking! We started Age of Worms with the old-school Dymrak Dread module in April of '06. We only play Sunday afternoons from 12-5 PM, and sometimes we go two or three weeks without playing. We also have days when it's five hours of book-keeping, role-playing, and updating gear, character sheets, etc. without rolling initiative once. I suspect they'll have Kyuss destroyed before 2010, but I can't be sure.
But I must admit that our combats always take much more time than expected.
My battles last a long time. I can't give you any figures other than this: in the summer of '07, it took us about four hours to get through two gladiator battles during the Champion's Belt games.
How do you deal with all the extra XP from these extra modules? I guess this is the only problem I would face with the addition of extra modules between adventures.
One thing I did was remove "A Gathering of Winds" by having Allustan explore and clear it out himself. Granted, as written, the module is too much for Allustan, but the gamers don't know that. I also just sort of let them have their XP. They're all about one level or so higher than expected, so I beef up encounters, add bosses, give all creatures more HP, etc.
And looks like our campaigns have more in common than just the prospect of players becoming the rulers. My group also "adopted" one of the NPCs from the Age of Worms. In our case it was Filge, from The Whispering Cairn(a Dread Necromancer/Warlock in my campaign).
Filge! HA! He was shot in the face by the party scout in my campaign. He appeared later as a zombie when the group faced off against Theldrick. I forget his fate. Probably chopped in half by the half-orc ranger's double-axe.
Marzena wasn't the only AoW NPC to join the Diamond Hawks. I gave Loris Raknian a son, Liam, and added him to the list of Blackwall Keep soldiers captured by lizardfolk. Liam was taken to Xul Jarak, so he wasn't added to the roster until after Sons of Gruumsh. Liam was eventually forced to fight against the Diamond Hawks as a member of Auric's Warband in the final match of the Champion's Belt. Liam survived, and in the aftermath, had a falling-out with the group that hasn't been resolved. ;-)
I began DMing my campaign before the first AoW issues came out, so we wound up playing through several adventures before they PC's made their way to Diamond Lake for the Whispering Cairn. Needless to say, I am well sick of using those Scaling the Adventure Sidebars!
Here are the 'extras' I've run the players through:
Mad God's Key (Dungeon #114)
- The missing pages from the recovered library book turned out to be Raknian/Zahol's copy of the Apostolic Scrolls in Champion's Belt
- They had another run-in with Iron Tusk (now a Slaughter Wight (LM))and some of his new undead pals on top of the city walls in the aftermath of Champion's Belt
- Iquander the librarian became friends with the party's pyromanic fire-worshipping cleric, who had been trying to do research to learn more about the source of his mysterious divine visions and powers (he had used Kossuth, a FR deity, as a basis for building his PC. I worked with him a bit on the concept and ruled that there was no such deity known in the campaign world - he was happy to be questing to discover the god that had already discovered him). Iquander was last seen getting mobbed by wights along with the rest of the spectators in the arena, just after the last match in the Champion's Games, though he wasn't seen by the PC's. The party got into a battle with some slaughter wights & advanced elite wights when they tried to make their was to the library to rescue Iquander after the Champion's Games went all wrong...
Unfamiliar Ground (Dungeon #119)
- killed off my DMPC, Chuck, the halfling knife-thrower (a Swashbuckler/Fighter working up to Master Thrower IIRC) - death by getting strangled by a really big snake - in this one. Reaper's 2705: Skeletal Dragon made for a suitably impressive (to my players, who are used to seeing factory-painted DDM figs on the table) Snapper mini. (while I'm at it, here's my version of Zyrxog, if anyone's interested. That encounter took 3 whole sessions to complete! I also scratch-built a Madtooth the Hungry model using a rubber toy, some wire, and 'green stuff' putty, but I never got done painting him in time for that encounter. Now, sadly, I have no motivation to do so anytime soon, so who knows If I'll ever complete that one... I've got an old Grenadier mini I'm using for Ilthane to finish painting before I worry about anything else!)
Final Resting Place (Dungeon #122)
- I had been bugging my players to send me backstories for their PC's, so of course most of them never bothered. So I decided to give one of them a history of my own devising. The party rogue, Olidon, suddenly gained the last name of Rifter. Hrodel (the hook) was his cousin. I also gave them an Aunt, Hrofanna (AKA naggin' Aunt Fanny, when she's out of earshot), who had raised Olidon in the Great City (AKA Greyhawk, AKA the Free City) so as to keep him away from Galehaven and the Rifter Family Curse that allegedly been responsible for the violent and young deaths of the Rifter males for generations (though the fact that adventuring is the family business couldn't have helped...) There might be some truth to the existence of the curse - Olidon has suffered more PC deaths than any other PC in the campaign so far... Aunt Fanny has continually made appearances throughout the campaign ever since, usually flipping out on the party for endangering his life again and scolding him for disappearing for months at a time without remembering to tell her he's leaving town after all she's done for him over the years and why doesn't he appreciate the fact that she's given up her youth and her home and her whole life for him not that he seems to appreciate her sacrifices... They finally got rid of her in the Champion's Belt aftermath - They went to rescue her from the wights who were taking over the city, only to find she'd become a particularly nasty one herself - gave her 4 extra HD and the elite array, plus the evolved undead template. She kept her back turned as they came into her house while she chopped meat for the evening stew, until they had barred the door behind them. Then she turned around, revealing her transformation (plus the fact that the stewing meat was baby - gross, I know, but I was going for a horror vibe that night) just before dropping a cloudkill on the party and calling her advanced elite wight buddies down from upstairs to attack... Cloudkill in an enclosed space no bigger than the spell's area is quite fun when you have no Con score and can reroll %miss chance dice, I must say!
- I also had Uncle Kai's former adventuring party's cleric (named him Jarsop - can you guess his faith?) show up to preside over his funeral. Now long since retired from adventuring, he has since risen high in the ranks of his priesthood and has become a bishop in the Free City (most recently seen getting mobbed by wights along with the rest of the spectators in the arena towards the end of the Champion's Belt chapter of the AP, though not seen by the PC's). After the funeral, he was most likely involved somehow in the fact that the whole town began calling Olidon's party the Last Men Standing, which was what he and Kai used to call their own band. The name has followed them around ever since, and the PC's eventually finally accepted it as their own and used it as their team name for the Champion's Games. Turned out to be truer than they could ever have imagined...
Dusanu (AKA Rot Fiends) and a Death's Head Tree (Dragon #339)
- While resting up in Galehaven after the Rifter funeral, the party heard stories about some colourful halfling merchants who'd been through the area recently. While en-route back to Greyhawk from Galehaven, despite having been warned not to stray from the path, they heard some moaning cries from the woods. They went to investigate. On the way to the Death's Head Tree that was making the luring sounds, they found a cart built for small people hidden in the trees not far off the path. Soon after that, they found the halfling merchants... only by this time, they had become rot fiends. Between the forest path and a Death's Head Tree is a great place for Dusanu mold to flourish, as the tree will call in new hosts for them quite regularly wherever brave adventurers (or foolhardy half-pint merchants) travel! Once they destroyed the rot fiends, they continued after the voices and got whomped by the tree. They prevailed in the end, but all of them had been affected by both the rot fiends and the seeds from the tree's head-fruit.
The Beasts of Aulbesmil (Dungeon #131)
- I only used part of this one. The part needed some Remove Disease or Remove Curse spells cast on them, so I gave them a place to find them. No wererats came into play - they met up with the town ranger to report the plant creatures that had attacked them in the woods & to inquire about divine healing to get rid of the lingering effects of the rot fiends and death's head tree seeds. In exchange, she wanted help with one of 2 missions: rescue a visiting noble's young relative from some nasty orcs, or take on a particularly large and nasty owlbear that had been seen in the area. Lucky for them, they chose the orcs - I rebuilt that owlbear to have a good chance to kill several of them. They succeeded, so the ranger got her druid friend to make an appearance to cure the PC's.
Gendinon, Furnace Master (Wormfood, Dragon #343?)
OK, not really external to the AP, but I included this guy in 3 Faces of Evil. The party lost badly in the Hextorite Battle Temple; the cleric was killed and the rest were knocked out and locked in a cell for later sacrifice in the ritual intended to awake the Ebon Aspect. I had the dead cleric's soul show up in Gendinom's furnace room, where it had been intercepted en-route to his afterlife by this powerful agent of the cleric's unknown deity. Gendinom told him his Master still had plans for him, that he'd send him back to the land of the living (for a price - some unique creature or magic item to be thrown into the G's magic furnace), and not to be so stupid next time and get himself killed when there was still their God's work to be done. He gave the cleric instructions as to how his payment may be delivered - a ritual costing the same as a raise dead spell, involving walking on coals and opening a portal at the ring of standing strones at the Bronzewood Lodge. The cleric made a solo trek out to Bronzewood with the body of the Ebon Aspect not long after they completed the adventure & made it out of the mines.
Post-Champion's Belt:
- When it hit the fan after the Apostle Ate Auric & all hell broke loose, I had to wing it for a few sessions. I basically just designed a bunch of encounters with gangs of wights and advanced wights and variations on wights. The players had a few things they wanted to try to do in the city before booking it back to Diamond Lake, and I just threw one of 2 of these encounters their way on each of the missions they chose to go on until they were ready to get the heck out. I've given some details about a few of these already above. In the end, they found nobody powerful enough to help them - anyone who matters was at the games - and weren't able to rescue any of their friends or family members, who were already turned into wights whether the party managed to track them down or not.
We'll be starting up the next adventure after CB in a few weeks after we finish the 4e playtest (ie. the quickstart adventure from WoTC's site) that my friend is running for us; not sure what extras might get thrown in now and then from this point on - that depends on what kind of curveballs my players may throw my way, I suppose.
Kang
Thanks for contributing, Kang. Your post made me go back and take a look at some of those modules you used. Two of them seem to work well as campaign-starters.
I also appreciate your need to create character background. In fact, I take full responsibility of that as DM. Certainly I want my players to take charge of their PC's past, and a couple of them do, but in an effort to bring the party together (combined with the full knowledge of the campaign, future characters, etc.) I feel it's up to me to lay the foundation. For example (to make some long stories very short), I made the party rogue the illegitimate son of Loris Raknian. The party elf scout is the youngest son of the mine merchant Ellival (whose last name I renamed Graycloak), whose six other sons patrol Diamond Lake and its surrounding region as the Brothers Graycloak. The party half-orc ranger is the foster son of Ragnolin Dourstone. Lastly, the party lizardfolk druid was at one time the exiled heir to the throne of the Twisted Branch tribe... he is now their king. ;-)
It's also interesting to see how you've taken other characters from the modules and made them your own, gave them the spotlight where they might have been ignored in another campaign, etc. Some of the Age of Worms characters that I've used beyond the scope of the modules include Babalar Smenk, Ellival Moonmedow, Loris Raknian, Vulkas Dun, Marzena, Zeech, Lashonna, Allustan, Illthane, and Darl Quethos and his accompanying goons.
We started off with ‘Mad God’s Key’ (# 114), in which the PCs recover part of ‘The Book of Kyuss’. This book, written on ivory pages, uncovers some background on Kyuss and the Triad. Over the course of the following adventures the PCs find more of these pages to get a more complete story.
Then ‘The Whispering Cairn’.
Next I planned ‘Box of Flumph (#118), where Smenk hired the main protagonist to sabotage one of his competitors (Tilgast) in Diamond Lake.
Next ‘The Three Faces of Evil’, at the end of which Ragnolin Dourstone has fled Diamond Lake. One of the PCs lost his life in this episode and the party appealed to his mother (widow of the former ruler of Diamond Lake, now impoverished nobility) for money for a true resurrection. She borrowed the money from Smenk in exchange for her daughter’s hand in marriage, giving the mine manager the opportunity to make his way into the elite circles of nobles.
‘Encounter of Blackwall Keep’, in which I seriously boosted the lizardfolk attackers because the boards rightly suggested that the adversaries in the adventures as written are a bit underpowered. At the end I replaced the kobolds by a son of Ilthane, the black dragon.
I also inserted the very nice intermezzo I found on these boards: the players are each given a Blackwall soldier who witnesses the outbreak of the undead.
Next session saw the marriage between Smenk and the PC’s sister.
In ‘The Forsaken Arch’ (# 120) the PCs tracked down Dourstone to the lair of Kenku high’sea’men. The human priest leader of the robbing birdmen escapes.
Upon arriving in the Free City, the party is dragged into a murder mystery in ‘Murder in Oakbridge’ (#129), tying into the carnival and Circus background of one of the PCs. After this adventure the bard PC is replaced by a doppelganger.
Next we played through ‘The Weavers’ (#138), an urban-based adventure I used to give the doppelganger replacement (brilliantly played by the player without the others realizing it) some time to infiltrate into the party.
In ‘The Hall of Harsh Reflection’ I reworked the adversaries to make them more powerful. When the PCs get to the Sudden Hold, they are betrayed by the doppelganger and walk into an ambush. The PCs end up captured. In their prison they are visited by a cloaked creature (Zahol), who recognizes the paladin NPC companion of the PCs Mélinde (from Diamond Lake backdrop) as a righteous soul and takes her with him.
The PCs escape and invade the doppelganger lair, but when they attack Telakin, we had a ¾ party kill. The only surviving PC, a rogue, is enlisted by Telakin’s guild. The other PCs have a homebrew sidetrek in the afterlife, where things are going wrong and the manage to make their way back to the prime material plane.
The turncoat rogue PC is instructed to go to Diamond Lake and kill Allustan, but he warns his companions and with their help he can kill his fellow hitmen, after which the PCs complete the rest of the adventure.
In ‘The Champion’s Belt’ I started off with 16 teams (all of whom I fleshed out a bit to make the adventure’s interaction more lively) who went through a natural knock out selection. They find the dead and unresurrectable body of Mélinde and Apostolic Scrolls (the text of which I wrote out in my mother tongue Dutch). The PCs manage to prevent disaster for the Free City.
Upon returning to Diamond Lake the PCs are dragged into ‘And Madness Followed’ (#134), in which a powerful bard theater writer has composed a play which opens a portal to the time of Kyuss’ attempt to become a god, fueling the wanna-be god with more energy by offering him the souls of the audience. One of the PCs’ mother is killed in the theater.
At the start of ‘A Gathering of Winds’ one of the PCs is kidnapped by Ilthane the black dragon, who wants revenge for his killed son.
After this I didn’t insert any more adventures, because the campaign speeds up, making extra adventures harder to integrate.
Mr. Vergee, what an interesting post. It really seems like your campaign gives a bit more respect to the bard. Very interesting, especially in terms of how you used those extra modules. Nicely done. I wonder how you'll incorporate Zulshyn in later modules.
The way you incorporated Smenk into your campaign is masterful. He's connected to the PCs in a very intimate way, and that makes him potentially an even more dangerous adversary.
I like that Bozal shows up early. It's always a classic moment when the imposing evil boss makes an appearance, throws his/her weight around, and creates that aura of menace. It makes that next (and perhaps final) encounter all the more rewarding.
I like that one of the PCs becomes a doppleganger. I thought about doing this in my AoW campaign, but I decided against it. I had already done this, replace a PC with a monster, twice in previous campaigns. The first time was with a malaugrym (FR shape-shifter) back in 2E. The second time was with a drow assassin in the early 3E days. I thought a third time would be a bit too repetitive.
It's also interesting how you give your group bigger and more frightening hints at Kyuss' return. I often wish that I had created a number of lesser aspects of Kyuss to give the group the impression that he's coming, and all these lesser ones are just the screw ups or mistakes as he tries to force his way into the Prime.
Lastly, I think it's fascinating how you handled so many PC deaths. A romp in the outer planes after a TPK is just a great idea. Such a surprise takes that unforgettable dread we feel during a TPK and turns it into hope. Nicely done.
Thanks for contributing, Kang...
...Lastly, the party lizardfolk druid was at one time the exiled heir to the throne of the Twisted Branch tribe... he is now their king....
My pleasure! Heck, nobody at home wants to hear me ramble on about my D&D game...
Funny enough, one of my players ran a lizardfolk wilder right from the start of the campaign, and that PC left the party at the end of the Blackwall Keep adventure too, and for the same reason - to be the new king of the (3 or so surviving) Twinsted Branch 'folk. I gave him Leadership as a bonus feat and what's-her-face the hermaphro-druid from the adventure as a cohort, but only for so long as he stayed in the swamp to rule the tribe, unless he wanted to update the character enough to burn a feat to make it permanent, should he ever again make an appearance in the campaign. Which may actually happen in time for the party's upcoming return to Diamond Lake and the battle with Ilthane they're not expecting, since his replacement PC (a human crit-optimized falchion-fighter with an accent like Pepé le Pew) seems to be thinking about leaving the party after nearly getting killed by wights. Normally I'd be sort of glad to be rid of the silly accent, but he always made his lizardfolk character sound sort of like JarJar so... meh. I'll count myself lucky if I can just prevent him from playing the twin gay incestuous paladin brothers he's always going on about rolling up. I am 50% sure he's only kidding about that...
We didn't know we'd be turning the campaign in to this AP then (it didn't yet exist, as I mentioned above) so I didn't have a chance to bring any Twisted Branch lore in ahead of time like you did; that's a very nice touch.
Kang
Thanks, Kang. We were in the midst of another campaign when I first decided to use Age of Worms, and by the time I got my hands on issue #126, I knew I wanted a lizardfolk in the party so I could work the "exiled prince" angle. I coerced one of my gamers to run a lizardfolk (he chose druid), and it's been great. He (Kal-drac is his name) is still with the party, though his lizardfolk subjects migrated with him to the PCs' new kingdom (the Savage Frontier in Faerun, their castle/village was taken from Expedition to Castle Ravenloft as I mentioned in my OP). The Twisted Branch now lair in the Ivlis Marsh, which is on the western edge of the Lonely Moor. Hishka is Kal-drac's cohort, along with a number of other rangers and druids in the tribe (most are basic lizardfolk).
In fact, at their new home (a facsimile of the Twisted Branch lair), Kal-drac and his lizardfolk have made contact with a native race of poisondusk lizardfolk lairing in the Lonely Moor. They appeared hostile at first (I made them somewhat more barbaric than the Twisted Branch), but a couple spells and a wildshape later (only to intimidate), they were sufficiently cowed and now serve Kal-drac. ;-)
I did a lot more with Illthane too, having the dragon send her own black draconic lizardfolk to assault the Twisted Branch. They poisoned the Twisted Branch's water with slow worms, and those who fled the nightmare were rounded up and captured. I had the PCs assault Illthane's lair (the Dragons of Despair module I mentioned in my OP), rescue the surviving Twisted Branch prisoners, and now Kal-drac is in charge of those black draconic lizardfolk too. He tree-strides there when he can to make sure everyone is behaving. ;-) He's got quite a kingdom now, having saved his own people and swelled the ranks of his tribe by bringing two other tribes into the fold. Plenty of drama there.
Starting just before HoHR, I intertwined the next few AoW adventures with segments from Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk. Finding Loris in the ruins right after he escapes at the end of "Champions Belt" was priceless -- everyone thought I'd put him there myself.
We started off with ‘Mad God’s Key’...
In ‘The Forsaken Arch’...
Good adventures, those. I'm intertwining both of these into the Legacy of Fire AP (the former as the PCs arrive on the continent at the start, the latter when they arrive in Katapesh City during "The Jackal's Price"), along with "The Distraction," "The Obsidian Eye," and "Entombed with the Pharaohs."
Very creative, some of the ideas you guys are exploring here. I'm planning on using Age of Worms elements in my campaign and this is very inspiring ideas of how to blend in other material.
I recently decided to insert a 3.5 update of Isle of the Ape, replacing Tilagos Island in The Library of Last Resort. The PCs met with Lashonna and found their way to the island, navigated the Maze of Menhirs and are at the Pedestal Of Storms which will take them into Last Resort. Once they pass through the portal is where the Isle of the Ape will begin, and I've come up with an alternate history of the isle to fit in with the AoW campaign:
When the Order of the Storm elders created the Fountain of Dreams to secure all their knowledge, they sacrificed themselves in a potent rite. On Tilagos Island in the Lake of Unknown Depths, they set the island's interior to the demiplane of Last Resort and invested their remaining energy into the island - thus becoming part of the island itself. This triggered a genesis effect and the isle erupted with wild, untamed life. A morass of steaming jungles, fetid swamp, and churning volcanoes smothered the landscape, populated with ferocious beasts and primitive savages. The druids poured the last of their power into the island's guardian: an immense and fearsome simian known simply as "Oonga" to the indigenous natives. This, along with numerous hostile predators and the oppresive atmosphere, has kept the Fountain of Dreams protected and well-hidden from the outside world for centuries. Somewhere on this foresaken rock lies The Library of Last Resort - and the key to preventing the Age of Worms.
Since there are no trials, I have removed the wild watchers entirely from the adventure. Instead, the Fountain is in the pool of the Dormant King. To activate the fountain, the PCs must retrieve four elemantal totems (similar to the wild watchers' standards)which are scattered around the isle (two with the various tribes, one with Darl Quethos and company, one in Oonga's lair). Once brought to the fountain, the party must do battle with the Dormant King to proceed. This will bring the party to the Descent into Dream "vision" portion of LoLR, where it will conclude.
As much as I like LoLR, I'm a softy for old classic modules like Isle of the Ape and couldn't pass on this chance to play it again with newer rules. There is an excellent full 3E (not 3.5) conversion of this module here:
http://www.superdan.net/download/WG6.pdf
It is very well done, although I did have to beef up Oonga's stats for my group. Definately worth checking out.
Hiya.
We started the AoW with a "Multi-system outlook"; we would play a module or two using one system, then switch to another with "converted" characters, rinse/repeat.
For Whispering Cairn, we acutlly used Marvel Super-Heroes Advanced. Worked pretty well...but the 2nd adventure (Three Faces of Evil) was going to be rather awkward to use MSHA with. So we switched to Star Frontiers. That worked quite well, actually. Definitly different. Next on the list was Powers & Perils for part of TTFE (players were getting distracted in Star Frontiers...wanting to go off-world and such). Worked well again, but was a *bit* too deadly...with a single battle or two forcing the PC's to recover for up to a week after (too much combat for P&P).
And that leads to...Basic D&D (BECMI/RulesCyclopedia) now. However, at the request of the players, they wanted to start at level 1. So, rather than run them through the same adventures (WC and TTFE), I told them I'd use different adventures and simply place the 'important items/info' into those. Anyway, in place of The Whispering Cairn I used an adventure from Dragonsfoot called "The Haunted Tower" (modified for larger party). Now, they are moving onto a replacement for TTFE, another Dragonsfoot adventure called "The Haunted Keep" (an extention of the old Erol Otis cover Basic D&D adventure from the main rules; 1979?). After that, I'm proceeding to the Encounter at Blackwall Keep, but I'm going to rework it to make use of the War-Machine/Siege-Machine rules of BECMI. :) Should be a LOT of fun!
I do plan on 'adding in' some side quests to play some classic D&D modules (Palace of the Silver Princess, Isle of Dread and The Lost City...with a chance of a trek to the Keep on the Boarderlands later on).
I ran most of the AP as written, though converted to Forgotten Realms/Maztica (as said in other posts).
They never personally met Smenk but he has turned into their most hated adversary, pulling strings from behind his iron curtain in the Free City (having fled there) and sending assassins after the PCs.
Now if you're one of my players, please don't read the following (yes, you Hans ;-)
Since we're playing about 1/1-2 months I can't afford to introduce too many side treks. We've been playing almost 3 years now and only reached the beginning ofn HoHR (not even in the city yet!). So apart from those little side-treks and conversions I'll run AoW as it is... Might even end with Dragotha or before that (players averting the AoW before big bad Kyuss comes through) to stray away from the obligated big baddie.
Good timing on this thread popping up. I'm going to have to go over the various adventures people are inserting as its become clear that 4Es advancement is significantly slower then that which was achieved in this AP. I've seen the XP chart for my players until the end of 3FoE and they will just barely squeak into 5th level. I figure they are currently going up at about 2/3rds the rate that 3.5 characters would have advanced. This is even more problematic since I want to get them into at least mid epic for the fight against Kyuss - 26th level at a minimium. Hence I really need to expand out on the Age of Worms. I'll peruse the ideas presented - well those I can figure out the source of anyway, and set about adding in some extra adventures.
I don't know how I missed this thread. I will be coming back here for ideas.
I intend to drop the Champion's Belt and Gathering of Winds from my current campaign. I don't like that the real plot does not beging before The Spire of Long Shadows (stuff that happens before happens to be only tangentially related to the main quest). A few opening adventures where you mostly deal with irrelevant stuff and only catch glimpses of the true evil is fine, but devoting half of the campaign to them is too much. While it is possible to rework them as a part of my overall changes to the plot, the adventures themselves do not inspire me enough to bother. The fighting championship is something my PCs will be able to attend between adventures if they want to unwind and to kick some ass, not something worth a whole subplot. And revisiting the same dungeon is not particularly awesome.
In place of Champion's Belt I want to use The End of Eternity from Lecacy of Fire AP, which covers the same level range. The pocket dimension will be Balakarde's creation (thus tying him to the campaign earlier and reducing the probability that the players start asking, why no one ever seems to do anything about the Age of Worms). PCs will go there in search of the information he gathered on their opponents, after discovering that all the havoc the Ebon Triad and Ilthane's puppets tried to wreak in earlier adventures, by unleashing Kyusspawn plagues and new monsters, like the Ebon Aspect, was ultimately meant to be a distraction for the Free City's bigshots, allowing Balakarde's legacy to be stolen. And of course no one entered Balakarde's private resort before, because he was the only one who knew necessary keys and password, before his spirit was magically compelled to reveal them to Kyuss' servants.
I still don't know what to use instead of Gathering of Winds. Logically, at this point in AP PCs should confront the bait and switch BBEGs, namely Ilthane and the real Faceless One (Faceless One that got wasted in the second installment was a simulacrum in my game), kick their asses and learn the true scope of the threat. I'm not sure what adventure will serve these needs best.
I intend to drop... Gathering of Winds... revisiting the same dungeon is not particularly awesome.
Just in case you only skimmed over AGoW, it's really only the entryway to the Whispering cairn that gets revisited - after battling Ilthane, the adventurers go into the freshly excavated wing just inside the entrance to the Whispering Cairn & are teleported (likely unknowingly) to another Wind Duke tomb they've never been to before. They might think they are in the same dungeon as in the first AP installment even though they are miles and miles away from it, but at worst it should seem to be a large section of it that they couldn't get to before.
Not saying AGoW doesn't have a few wonky parts though; that's undeniable (see this thread where the adventure's author, Wolfgang Baur himself, suggest dropping the portal-ghoul-thing altogether and downgrading the oculus demon's eyebolts from free to swift actions), and it sounds like you are having lots of fun customizing the AP to suit your game... I would never try to tell someone they shouldn't drop an adventure that doesn't appeal to them; just saying that if you are dropping it, don't do so because the PC's've been through its dungeon before - that's simply not the case.
Kang
I intend to drop the Champion's Belt and Gathering of Winds from my current campaign. I don't like that the real plot does not beging before The Spire of Long Shadows (stuff that happens before happens to be only tangentially related to the main quest)...
I rather have to agree with Kang. AGoW (with the changes suggested in the old thread) has actually been extremely interesting for character development and story arc for our group. A useful coming of age story. The Spire of Long Shadows, which is a grizzly horror-show-of-Kyuss, is a fairly routine dungeon crawl, and has been a bit of a pain to 'convince' the players they want to stick around and get their hides handed to them over and over again. The motiviation for them sticking around is pretty weak. Champions' Belt had the great reveal in the Shrine of Kyuss, which has played as a very memorable hook that you might want to draw on.
Just some thoughts from someone who started playing when the modules were published and is still slowing working through it with the original group (4 year campaign and counting...)
I know that AGoW takes place in a new dungeon section. The problem is, "Another Wind Duke Tomb, like one we crawled 10 levels ago, except with way tougher monsters, courtesy of the rubber band world" is still a sucky adventure seed. Fighting a bunch of random monsters with no connections to the main plot just shouldn't happen this far in an AP. And the monsters aren't even cool enough to give them such connection.
The same applies to Champion's Belt, to a lesser extent. And I don't want to spend my efforts to demonstrate that the competing teams actually are superheroic and important badasses, instead of minor thugs they are presented as, because the whole idea of the gladiator games doesn't inspire me enough. Champion's Belt also needs its plot reworked entirely, to explain why PCs should move in the center of attention of the man who just tried to have them killed, instead of simply sneaking around. (Knowing my party, and considering lack of security in the adventure as described, infiltration will be both a piece of cake for them and the first option they will think of. They will also likely go straight for Raknian. As written, Raknian will not even realize what hit him, before being forced to answer their questions, one way or another.) Shrine of Kyuss in the middle of the Free City (which, while toned down level-wise, is still a domain of a 14th-level wizard in my game) also stretches suspension of disbelief. Carriers of contagious undeath alone should instantly show up on NPC divination radars, due to their immense danger.* Never mind other horrors. Zyrxog and his slaves already play the theme of hidden evil beneath the city to the limits of its believability. I might use the shrine in some other place, though.
In addition, I would like not to reveal Kyuss as the true evil behind the plot until the party confronts Ilthane. At the moment, I'm presenting Ebon Triad-equivalent as the BBEGs, with Kyuss being of secondary importance next to the Foretold Overgod. PCs even were given information, that Ilthane stole a batch of Kyuss' worms from people unrelated to Kyuss, who hid some away as a potential weapon after Kyuss' last bid for ascendancy. This is done partially to insure, that I can, if necessary, gracefully end the campaign at low double-digit levels, if the weight of mechanics starts dragging the game down again; and partially to provide for a more epic reveal.
*Most undead in my world cannot easily create spawn, as to avoid Shadopocalypse scenario. Spawn of Kyuss, though, can.
Meanwhile, I just realized that I need to install another adventure before Hall of Harsh Reflections. For various plot and out-of-game reasons, PCs bypassed many parts of the first three adventures. They are doing well in the third one, because it is way easy, even with modified opponents, but they will be only 5th-6th level before HoHR, which features a massive difficulty spike and is quite a bit too harsh for 7th level. Just letting them to level up faster will be too noticeable compared to what I give out usually. I always was fond of Zenith's Trajectory from Shackled City, which roughly fits in the level spot, but, unfortunately, it is quite hard as well and might need tweaking to not murder the party with the initial encounters. Or maybe I'll just use some mini-quests related to PC personally. If I decide on running some of the published adventures after all, I'll post here about this later.
I agree with many of FatR's points. Instead of eliminating these adventures though I did some work to tie them into the rest of the AP.
...and your going to tell us about it right? I mean I have to convert these as well and learning what other DMs did helps...though I can usually get away with 'as written' in a pinch, side benefit of running newbs. They have so far failed to realize that they can leave the railroad tracks.
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Champion's Belt also needs its plot reworked entirely, to explain why PCs should move in the center of attention of the man who just tried to have them killed, instead of simply sneaking around.
From what I understood entering the games was the easiest way to get below the arena, but sneaking in was also an option. My players all purchased hats of disguise so nobody knew who they were. I did not like the idea of Raknian or whatever his name is just flying off. I had him changed to a deathknight who's allegiance was to Kyuss after his change. I planned to have him show up later, but the game never got that far.
ally and a mentor to the characters so they would naturally want to discuss what they learned from Eligos with him.
Thanks for the notes. Might be something I can ferret out for use there.
However the above particularly struck me as, so far as the module is concerned, Eligos really has no information. What did you do for that?