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Threads
I always enjoyed the brief trips into Si-Fi that modules like Temple of the Frog, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, and a few others provided back in the old days. Additionally, I often incorporated parts of the 1st ed Gamma World modules Famine in Fargo, and Legion of Gold, (the sub-aquatic laboratory, unearthed by the looming eruption offered an alternative method of fleeing the Island of the Slave Lords)into my campaigns over the years. The beauty of the Si-fi sojourns was that the tech equipment was all powered by non rechargeable power sources and thus had charges, and thus I never felt unbalanced the game. But I never knew a player who didn't enjoy blasting an android with a Mark VII blaster from time to time. I personally would like to see the odd si-fi alien observation station/crashed space ship/rogue androids appear in the Pathfinder world. Thoughts? ASEO out
Is there a web page for the Iconic characters?
It would be nice if it included: 1) The stat blocks (the little card format from the back of the modules would be fine) for each Iconic at each level. 2) Information on how the Iconics interact with each other. I know at least one of the Iconics is evil. How does that work with the rest of them? 3) This would also be a great place for art featuring the Iconics. ASEO out
I Pre-ordered the Pathfinder H/C back in March and was billed for it at that time. I recieved that copy, but then I guess because I am a Pathfinder Chronicles subscriber, recieven and was billed for another copy. I really don't need the second copy, and if I had known that it would be included in my Pathfinder Chronicles subscription, I wouldn't have pre ordered it. What can I do? Should I ship one copy back to you for a refund? ASEO out
A lot of the suggestions I see on these boards scream 4ed. Remember the goal of the Pathfinder RPG is to keep all the existing 3.5 materials playable without spending time to retro fit them. Pathfinger RPG should be 3.75, not pre 4ed. That being said, I trust the Paizo staff to seperate the wheat from the chaff and provide us with a fantastic game that keeps 3.5 alive. ASEO out
Has there been any thought into creating an "Oriental Adventures" portion of the Pathfinder 3.75 game? I think a clash of cultures Current Pathfinder/Oriental Pathfinder where the PCs could play either side, or a mix of both would make for an interesting and innovative AP. An example as to how an adventure could be played by either side would be the recruitment of an ally by either side, or the removal of a rival/traitor from your side = removing an enemy leader if played from the other side. A dungeon delve could be played as finding the secret way into an enemy city from one side, or clearing the secret excape route from the city if played from the other side.
This would also allow Paizo to release a Oriental Adventures line if they so desired. ASEO out
How about a interactive world map with "Push-pins" marking the sites of the various Pathfinder modules and adventures. Something that you could run your mouse over and it would "highlight" Bloodcove or Clydwell Keep and annotate D3 or whatever so you could tell what adventure/module takes place there. Perhaps for something like River of Darkness, the "Highlight" would pull up the adventure route map with the name of the module and the level range. This would really make it nice for DMs who have no idea where the Worldwound is. It would also make it easier to see where the adventure locals are so as to be able to better link adventures to a rational geographic flow. ASEO out
OK, first, what is the difference between Skilled as a Human (not sure what "proficient in one extra skill" means), and Adaptability as a Half Elf? Both seem to allow a non-class skill to become a class skill. Is the extra feat a human gets worth the Low light vision, Keen senses, elven immunities, elf blood, weapon proficiency and extra language a Half Elf gets? Seems that the scales tilts to the half-elf. Thrilled about not going 4e.
I'm very impressed by the production quality of the Pathfinder book, but the angular interior artwork leaves something to be desired. I just don't care for the strande blocky illustrations. The illustration of the Goblin Warchanter was a bit cartoony bit ok, and I do like the art of the goblin mounted on the goblin dog on page 14, but the illustrations of Aldren Foxglove, Shalelu Andosans (nice "poision elves" ears...grrr) and especially Tsuto Kaijitsu are just plain bad. And I know she's going demonic and all, but what is with the 2x4s sticking out of Nualia's hips? Not as bad as the art for Wil Save, but close :-( ASEO out
I'm a little thrown off by the placement of creatures in D1 level 1.
What path did the kobolds in area 1 use to get from area 17 to area 1? The cube is blocking the route that the kids are taking. Nothing has eaten the shocker lizards yet? What do they eat? Why did the one kid backtrack on their escape route to the crypts when the halfling and girl decided to hold the fort in room 12? (Unless he realized that the cube was blocking the exit from 12 in which case room 12 is not a good position since the kobolds can get to the kid in the crypts without having to fight the girl and the halfling) How did the kids get through the area 16 (I think...don't have the map with me at the moment) where the kobold dissidents are meeting? Why haven't the Ghouls (who have a freshly killed Kobold) left their room? The way I can best figure it, maybe the slave kobolds went through room 12 to get to room 1. The cube was in 13 sensed the kobold slaves passage and started to follow them. The Kids escape and head to room 12. They are trapped from going further by the cube (which is still chasing the kobold slaves?) The girl and halfling hold 12, while the one kid heads into the crypts to try to find another way out with the girl and the halfling being a distraction rather than trying to escape as well? I can't remember where the slow kid ends up...I don't have my hard copy with me at the moment, I was planning to check out the e-copy, but can't download it yet... The kobolds emerge from the well, and go off hunting for the kids. one group heads for 12, others check the ghoul room and one gets grabbed, so the rest retreat and have their revolution meeting)...and the party enters the area... All this could easily take place in 10-20 rounds. This makes the dungeon potentially a very dynamic place. ASEO out
Playtesting the PATHFINDER Adventure that Wolfgang Baur wrote, #4 in the series I believe, I can only say that it is fantastic. The encounters are exciting and seeing just his glimpse of the campaign world made me want to start a whole new campaign. Also, as a player in Greg Vaughan game, I can attest to his creativity and writing skill and knowledge of the DM perspective (as if the previous offerings by these two great writers don't speak for themselves)...and maybe I can get a sneak peak from him too ;-) Frankly, I buy items written by these authors, and several other Paizo regulars as a matter of course since they have already proved their skills over and over. With a line up of: Jacobs, Pett, Logue, Baur, Greer and Vaughan, you can't go wrong. Throw in art by Wayne Reynolds and I’m in gamer heaven. For me, the fact that both the adventures (which were in DUNGEON, to which I subscribed) and the extra DM info (which were in DRAGON, to which I did not subscribe) are now in a single product PATHFINDER is like my dream come true. Heck even if DUNGEON and DRAGON were going to be available, I'd be subscribing to PATHFINDER if it were available. I can't imagine a better gaming resource. Stunned by the cancellation of DUNGEON and DRAGON, I'm now reveling in the coming of PATHFINDER. ASEO out
OK, the Isle of Dread was ravaged by a Savage Tide, very long ago...a couple hundred years at least...(I don't have the magazine with the exact date with me at this time). And there are still Olman huts on the beaches, "...canoes rotting in the tides"? Even a lift built by "...Olmans who recently attempted to settle along this stretch of coastline..." Are these structures from some recent attempt by the island natives to settle the region? I had thought that the Olmans were pretty much wiped out as a culture long, long, long ago. Perhaps the ruins found along the cliff path are from the current natives of the island and not Olman, unless the current natives are Olman decedents. Having lived in equatorial jungle, I can say that no structure not made out of stone is going to last much more than maybe a year or two in the best situations, and I can't see rotting canoes still bobbing in the tides, especially after the storm, unless they came from the current natives on the island. Can somebody refresh my memory? Are the current natives on the island 1) Olman? and 2) new arrivals or the decedents of the few Olman who survived the savage tide? ASEO out
Maybe remove the red floor markings that denote the locations of traps from the non labeled maps (I realize that they are not really removable like the text is, so maybe not put them on the maps as non-text color areas). I can see the play in a game where the maps are projected (as we do), or enlarged and used as tiles: Player: "Um, why are these squares on the floor red?"
ASEO out
Richard Pett asked me to post this (after my hijacking of the Styles Secquel thread). Some of the events portraied here were based on things that were not included in the published adventure, so may seen different for those familiar with the published version. These were the notes that I sent Richard to let him know how play went, as such some of it is notes on play and some is comments on things that came up during play. The Party is: Lady Varin Female Human Paladin (Heironeous) 15 we played this as a tension point, she had an invitation, but was an immediate target of B’Kruss and his gang. (this should have probably immediately called for the more advanced trailing party of “Watchers”)
The party shows up at the gate and shows their invitations to gain entrance, the Paladin boldly bearing her heraldry and mounted on her Warhorse. As they come in they witness the hanging, and ask some questions. They then go to see the hide out and discover the whole block demolished. While they are observing the rubble and getting the understanding of the excessive force used, B’Kruss and his band arrive. They immediately start to harass the Paladin about her horse and that she must think herself a good rider.
So the party goes to the stables and are presented with the Dire Bores. B’Kruss: “Hell lassy, since we picked the type of mount, you may pick which magnificent beast each of us will ride.”
Jynicks secretly casts Cats Grace on Lady Varin. And the race is on… (Maybe a bit more in the realm of modifiers could be added to this section to make it a bit more exciting. Bonuses for whipping each others boars, knocking stuff in the way which may require additional Handle animal checks, avoiding bystanders that reduce the die roll by -1, or maybe +1d4 if you find a clear path, etc…) With the 3 opposed rolls, Gugh is at +16, the Paladin is at +13(+2 for Cats Grace). Roll 1:
Roll 2:
Roll 3:
And Lady Varin wins! The Hobgoblins are in a rage, but can’t do anything. They leave growling things about “Beginner’s luck and cheating b~!!#, Lame Boar” The losing Boar is slaughtered and dragged back to the barracks. One of the Hobgoblins is assigned to take the party to their tavern. The party quickly leaves the area and moves back to their tavern/inn. The hobgoblin bursts in the foor and yells at the tavern keeper “Put thses Guests of the Prince up. They are paid for!” The Hobgoblin then leaves in a huff. Lady Varin asks the tavern keeper if he has truly been paid for their lodging. The man weakly insists that he has been, but she insists that he take a 200 gold gem from her to cover “Anything else that might come up”. The party then leaves their mundane belongings in the inn. They then swing back by the destroyed city block to gather some information. Ryn catches sight of the party’s watcher and manages to slip up on the man and cleanly knock him out. She then stays with the prisoner while the rest of the party moves on following clues and heads into the shanty area. While the party chases don the leads on Resem Gulg and Damsk, Ryn waits until the watcher regains consciousness (which actually takes a couple hours. When the Watcher awakes he finds the half-elven woman sitting on his chest pinning his arms by his side. She has a dagger at his throat.
The party returns to the Inn with the information gathered from Damsk, and early the next morning they go down to the docks get a boat, (which Jyncks casts ‘Shrink’…or maybe it was ‘Item’ on, and pockets) they then (having learned when the causeway will be available because of low tide and thus timed their departure for that time) head out to the island via the exposed causeway. As they arrive at the island they begin looking for the graves and Agrij falls in a grave and gets jumped by 6 worms. And the gas begins to leak out… (This should have a growing area off effect each round until it covers the island. What happens if the gas is exposed to flame before round four…as you will see happened with my party?) A rope is dropped for Agrij who climbs out and Lady Varin casts cure disease on him killing the worms. Then Brother Jharo uses his Flaming Sling and fires a bullet into the worm (and gas) filled grave. (I had the grave instantly ignite with a blowtorch like gout of flame like those at a refinery burning off the waste gas). The party then sees this flame slowly expanding and rush around the island looking for the graves. And then the island explodes. (20d6 for 72 points of damage) All the PCs survive the blast damage (the Wizard only because she had a Major Ring of Fire resistance, her Ref +11 and 68 Hp would have meant that she would have died), but Mellyoun, Lady Varin and Ryn fail their saves for massive damage and are killed. With the fire out, the remainder of the party finds the graves and digs up the corpses (wondering why there are corpses instead of ash as you would expect from someone who was burned at the stake) They then gather their two dead friends and pile in the unshrunk boat and try to paddle back to shore…and no one has any sailor skill, (and even if they did, a 15th level character would only have 19 ranks if they had been maxing them out, and in this campaign there is no reason for any character to have any ranks in profession sailor. So, a DC40 is impossible to make unless a character has max ranks in sailor, and some sort of synergy bonus, and rolls a 20) So they get stuck in the mud and have to wait for the next tide for the causeway to become visible again. At which point they walk back to town with the five corpses. Sneaking back into the Inn they use Agrij’s Rod of Life to resurrect Mellyoun, Lady Varin and Ryn. They then rest the night and start the next day with the questioning of the other corpses via ‘Speak with Dead’. From this they learn of The Church of Blessed Deliverance and head there post haste…followed by the improved watchers. When Lady Varin goes downstairs for breakfast, she finds the Inn keeper in ill shape, he has obviously been accosted. One eye is swollen shut, and dry blood crusts several new cuts on his face. One arm is in a sling. Lady Varin: “Good Lord man, What happened to you?”
As the watchers watch, the party moves into the church and discovers Rhorsk entombed in the wall. While working to free him they deduce that he must be undead, so as soon as there is an opening and Rhorsk holds out his hand and says “Hello I’m Rhorsk. Nice to me…” he is vaporized by Lady Varin who turns undead (roll of like 19) so Rhorsk is totally dusted…and so is any chance of the party following up on this lead. Which is something the party quickly picks up on. (Here I was generous and had them find scrawling pictures that Rhorsk had carved into the wall. I closed my eyes and drew a man wrestling lions with a well behind him…And the players laughed at my art and had no idea what it was supposed to be…So, I had one of them decioher script and with a roll of 15 they were able to make out the picture for what it was supposed to be). So with improved watchers in tow, they begin to try to find a statue of Lord Zeech fighting Lions (I’m not sure if the statue was there 10 years ago, but that was the only way I could come up with on the moment to get the party back on track). They eventually find the statue then set about searching for a well, of which there is not one in sight. This had them puzzled until they noticed the corner stone bearing a date 10 years ago on one of the buildings behind the statue. Lady Varin approached the building and knocked on its stout wooden door. A small window opened in the door and a old female inquired what business visitors had at the Leper house. Lady Varin asks to come in, but is refused, she then says. “It would be such a shame to have come all this way to make a donation to this most worthy charity and not be able to look in on all the good it is doing”. (38 Diplomacy check) Woman: “A donation you say? Well I guess it could not hurt to let a generous donor…”
The heroes enter, and Lady Varin hands over a 500gp gem to the Woman running the house. “If I like what I see, there will be more, May we have a moment alone?”
The Watchers continue to observe the building, but make no move as of yet. (I threw the players a bone, but there should be some way for them to find the particular portion of the floor that needs to be removed to access the trapdoor) Finding a trapdoor under a portion of the floor, the party uses rope and descends into an open well shaft. They emerge at the bottom of the shaft in a hemispherical room with smooth walls, and no apparent exits other than the shaft overhead. Knocking around the walls, they find an area that sounds hollow and manage to bust through that area. Beyond, the corridor leads to the broad opening of the Well – this corridor has a large amount of rope tossed around. As the party enters this area, the rope suddenly rises up and collates into a roughly humanoid shape. Surprise Round: Hangman Golem Rises Round 1: Brother Jharo Attacks and misses 3 times
Round 2: Brother Jharo Attacks with his Kammas and hits, but fails to overcome DR
Round 3: Brother Jharo Tumbles back and attacks with his Flaming Sling…and misses
Round 4: Brother Jharo Hits with a flaming sling stone from his flaming sling…for 1 point of fire damage
Round 5: Brother Jharo Hits with his fire sling ammo for 3 points
Round 6: Brother Jharo Hits with his flaming ammo for 1
Round 7: Brother Jharo Tumbles and punches the burning Golem for 2 over DR
The Party who are very beat up then finds the real well at the end of the passage and decides to spend the day healing to and regaining spells before moving to investigate it further. The Watchers outside surround the building and watch for the party to emerge…(I could have been mean and had them enter the Leper house and seal up the hole, or had the house torn down sealing the party inside, but I’m not sure if this party would have been able to get out of that in time for the party…but it sure would have been a surprise, and an even bigger surprise for the prince, if they managed to get out, when they appeared at the party) The next morning, the party began to examine the well via rope and a couple levitate spells. As they reached the bottom, they were attacked by the Demon Flesh Golem, which hit Lady Varin for 15 and Agrij for 68. The party made a quick retreat back up to the top of the well. Following another high Knowledge Arcana roll by Jyncks, she tells them that it is a Demon Flesh Golem, and that most of her spells will prove useless against it. However, a ‘Dispel Evil’ spell may vanquish the beast. Both the Agrij and Lady Varin prepare as many of these as they can, and they go back down the well. The get pretty heavily pummeled (The Golem never missed with its +22 attacks) but they eventually managed to affect the Golem with the spell and send it back to whatever plane it came from. (I’m sure someone in the party would have found the Scythe a high search check. Had they taken 20 they could have made a DC 42 search…without aiding other.) This is where we concluded the playtest game having played for 6 hours and it was getting very late. I then gave them a quick run through of the party and got their initial responses to the situations which transpire there. These (and some dice) I used to write up the following portion of the playtest Chapter 3 Learning traits – each person has a list of 3 outstanding traits for the heroes to discover over the course of the meal – to enable them more easily to discover who is friend and who is foe – each trait is discovered in the order it is written upon a successful Sense Motive or Diplomacy check (DC 25)( only the Paladin had the Diplomacy skill, with 20 ranks) – a check involves roughly an hours conversation. The outcome of learning who to trust and who not to will have a bearing on the final adventure in the Age of Worms adventure path – Dawn of a New Age. Upon arrival, heroes are asked to hand over any weapons (including wands, staves and rods) and given a warning – the Palace is protected by the Ravenous of Sorcerous Minds (Party didn’t fall for it) The Giving of Gifts The other guests begin to approach and greet the Prince, each giving him a gift. One of the rouges manages to get the gist of the value of the gifts 5,000 Gold.
Immediately after the gift giving – servants appear with chairs for each person and beg them to be seated. The Fabler appears again and blows his strange horn. ‘My masters’ he says – we beg you to enjoy our little tale – ‘tis a small thing we penned ourselves, and is a tale of menace, revenge, lust and death which we have called – The Harlequinade Mortificatio.’ The Fabler moves back, and as he does servants arrange a small stage with a backdrop of a town street at night – a wooden moon wafts over the scene, and suddenly, a host of skeletons appear – dressed as clowns – two take to the stage as the other stand by – the play of the dead begins... The play is performed in silence (apart from guests applauding) – the entire cast are bone creatures (see BoVD) – actors who offended the Prince and yet perform on after their appalling deaths. These bone creatures will make another two appearances during the day. The entire play is a curious affair, however, anyone making a perform (acting) check DC 30 (which the Bard didn’t even have) will follow the whole plot – the bone creatures are acting out their own deaths – betrayed by the prince, who watches idly on, oblivious of the plot, bored perhaps... (0 Authority Points) During the play servants flutter around with wine and lightly roasted almond biscuits of exquisite taste. At the plays end the curious actors bow and everyone applauds, the Ominous Fabler appears, now dressed as a scarecrow with a hares skull where his head should be. He leads guests across the grounds to the next event, cart-wheeling as he does so and singing a song about boiling sparrows. The Feast A huge gong sounds at the end of the Bowling game to signal the feast is ready – night falls as the group enters the palace and are led to the Great Banqueting Hall. The general layout of the palace is described under the backdrop section of this edition of Dungeon magazine. The Great Banqueting Hall When the heroes first step into the chamber read the following description: You enter a massive cylindrical chamber that rises through the centre of the palace. A huge round table of polished mahogany dominates the room, which is decked with portraits and landscapes of great quality – most of the pictures are of Zeech himself, although the enigmatic Lashonna – a white haired pale woman dominates one portrait – her eyes seem to follow you as you enter. A vast stained glass window covers the roof – depicting angels at play - closer inspection reveals them to be Erinyes. A circle of severed heads sit on iron pikes some 20’ above the chamber – they surround the room. The Appreciative Heads The heads are no mere mortal decapitants: they have been pressed back from death and into the dark service of Zeech to serve as raisers of his sprits. All seventy heads cheer and encourage everything Zeech says, in their strange and sonorous voices, which somehow call without the help of lungs. Pray be seated The Fabler will ask the guests to be seated – a dazzling array of cutlery is laid before the group – including ten sorts of spoons. Anyone making a Diplomacy check (DC 25) will know how to eat and can pass on details to their fellows – anyone who fails in this most basic courtesy will have offended the prince. This roll should be made once by each PC – they know it or they don’t. If the party can’t see Lady Varin and follower her lead the following takes place. Lady Varin makes her roll (she’s the only one with any ranks in Diplomacy)
Lady Varin is poisoned just for being a paladin of Heironeous which is sure to offend the prince. Lady Varin Fails (no ranks in Bluff), Offends the Prince and gets Poisoned (Fort: +16 Vs Poison, he fails and will take 6 Con, followed by another failure and secondary damage for 14 Con, leaving her at 6 Con) The heroes are split up around the table and seated next to various guests who they continue to learn about. As the last guest is seated there is a distant fanfare and Lashonna enters the Great Banqueting Hall. Everyone rises from their seats – she is dazzlingly beautiful – alabaster skin and long white hair set back in a tiara of black diamonds. Everyone in the rooms feels her gaze settling upon them. Lashonna will sit next to Brother Jharo (who has a since motive +14 and gathers that Lashona is plying him for more info about the partys motives. He tries to answer her questions as simply and uninformidly as possible while turning the conversation to Bucknard and his travels. Lashonna knows of the fate of Bucknard, and if the heroes discuss the matter with her she will say that she will talk to them at the end of the feast. Lashonna eats and drinks nothing throughout the meal – and merely watches, and questions… The Feast First Course – the Feast of Worms… Zeech stands, and silence falls upon the banquet hall. ‘My dear friends-’ he says and as he does, the decapitated heads in the chamber echo the word ‘friends’ in a ghoulish tone. ‘-I bid you enjoy the feast, eat and drink your fill in my humble abode.’ He claps his hands and, as he does, the Great Doors swing open and a trio of manticores move in, to the ghoulish hoorahs of the heads. You make to stand and clutch at where your weapons were before realising that these are no wild beasts - the fire is gone from their eyes – their wings have been cruelly severed, and the once proud and ferocious barbs of their long tails have been brutally removed. They each carry great platters of silver on their back, and a host of distorted servants enter behind them. Each person is given a small covered silver salver, and when all have been so served the Fabler stands and tells the group that there is a tradition in this land – once a pilgrim came to Redhand – he had not eaten for many weeks, and he fell upon the moors to die. As he did he saw a worm emerge from the ground – the worm was a gift from the gods that he should live – and he devoured it. In Redhand it has always been the tradition to start a celebration of thanks with such a feast. He will remove his own platter lid to reveal a 4” long green worm – alive – on the silver plate. Everyone eats the worms even though they are not sure what they are. Lady Barin is served a poisoned worm. Lady Varin gets Poisoned (Fort: +16 Vs Poison,she fails and will take 5 Con, followed by another failure and secondary damage for 10 Con, Killing her is she was previously poisoned or leaving her at 1 Con) Tell us a tale… After the course the Prince commands the Fabler to tell the tale of the talking severed head of the bard of Bodly Marshes – one of his favourites, and which the Appreciative Heads play a large part in. At its end ask if any others have a similar tale to tell. Mellyoun has neither Oratory or Sing, just Preform String instrument so does not join in. 0 Authority Points. Second Course – four and twenty blackbirds… This time a single Manticore enters, with an enormous pie upon its back on a silver dish of great size. Pastry beaks of birds cover the pie, and as everyone watches, the crust is opened and 24 blackbirds emerge, flying around the room in terror. The pie itself is also blackbird, but cooked within lairs of delicately sugared and almond pastry which tastes surprisingly good. As the pie is served, huge tureens of vegetables are brought in by the servants, as well as plentiful supplies of a locally produced spiced white wine called Redhand Resinwint. Lady Varin is served poisoned pie and vegetables. She can only save with a roll of a naturea 20, so it is assumed that the poison will kill her after the month incubation period. Let us hear a song, or someone who can play a merry tune… The dead players (from the earlier play) emerge with lutes and horns - the players with horns have now had leather bellows fixed in their chests and these are pumped by other bone creatures to give breath to the players. One plays a horn of vast size – which stretches some 20’ upwards and has its own scaffold to hold it up. A miserable cacophony is struck, a mournful – almost inhuman dirge that sinks the spirits. The party listens in silence. At the end the prince challenges anyone to play the 20’ Redhand Great Horn – the Fabler will try, but give way to others. Mellyoun tries but fails. Third Course – the fruits of the earth, the beasts of the lands, the fish of the sea – all things are ours to feast upon… Tojbasarrirge – a curious dish involving the cooking of a whole tojanda, stuffed with two boned basilisks, stuffed with boned arrowhawk, stuffed with boned stirge who each have a trio of olives in their mouths. A huge platter is slung between two manticores – upon it is a great turtle shell – halved, within which is a descending mass of forms of meat – a Tojbasarrige – a recipe the prince himself thought up. The meal is foul – it is tough and undercooked, however, so foul is it that bluffs are required to get away with eating the meal without gagging. Lady Varin Fails (no ranks in Bluff), Offends the Prince and gets Poisoned (and is already walking dead)
Let the Fabler bring his puppets to life… Lashonna will suggest to the prince that the Fabler go and fetch his puppets – she feels that this audience will appreciate the skill of someone pretending to be others, she will ensure that the PCs hear this and will use her sense motive to see if it gets a reaction (oppose the PCs bluff to remain calm). The Fabler will return, dressed as a large black crow and will ‘enact the boiling of Master Edwinstone Froop using my skin-shedding puppets…’. The puppeteering is gruesome, but skilful, and at its end Lashonna will rise and ask if there are any with the skill of hand to utilise the complex puppets. (No one has Preform Comedy or puppets)
Fourth Course – Purple Worm Young in aspic and honey… Huge covered tureens are brought out – and these have a curious purple jelly within. The Fabler will say that Purple Worms are common throughout Redhand, and the tribesmen of old learnt of a way of cooking them in Aspic so that the poison is boiled out – but the recipe has to be precise – miss the correct time by one second, and painful death will result. The Fabler will whisper that someone should eat the dish first – and points to Lady Varin All eyes watch the meal being eaten by Lady Varin, whose dish is poisoned, but that doesn't really matter. The meat is tough and poor but edible, and during its serving trays with peacocks in full pride are served, along with iced C’rosch – a strong local spirit The talk will be directed by Kilraven to tales of boldness and heroics – he will tell of despatching Reyhu orcs on behalf of the prince. Others will join in – B’Kruss in particular, and an impromptu bragging contest begins. Ryn (with Bluff +12 and 15th level) wins with a score of 42, By telling about how Lady Varin slew a dozen Paladins of Hextor with her arms tied behind her back. +2 Authority Points Lady Varin is served poisoned peacock meat. Fifth Course – The Sweet… The smell of cloves and honey and cinnamon wafts through as a single Manticore enters with a cake of incredible size nearly eight feet tall – it is designed like the Ziggurat but crowned with a marzipan figure of Zeech surrounded by light and with angels wings. Everyone applauds loudly, but as they do the cake begins to fall apart… The cake is merely unbalancing, however, the symbolism is not lost on the guests – and Kilraven and Vulras in particular: Maybe a party member with sense Motive noticed this, but only Ryn has Bluff and she didn’t try to return the thought. The hate in Zeech’s eyes is palpable, however, the Fabler makes light of the fall – saying that the cake is not made of cement and stone and iron – and that he will eat it all if no one else will. Everyone of course eats the cake – but Zeech does so in brooding silence – remaining so for the remainder of the feast. Lady Varin boldly toasts "May your evil kingdom last as long as that cake"! Lady Varin's cake is poisoned. Let us conclude our merriment with a dance with the dead… The Fabler commands that he and any obvious bards (who have shown their mettle as musicians) strike up a tune whilst the guests dance. The bone creatures re-emerge – dressed in finery and a dance begins – with the dead as partners. Zeech does not join in. Lady Varin objects and is served a poisoned drink. We didn't even bother to roll because she is so full of poison at this point that it really doesn't matter any more. Use the dance to conclude events – partners are switched and changed and the time for plain talking comes under the covering noise of the musicians – allow people to speak plainly – B’Kruss – if he has been driven over the edge (q.v.) will openly warn the heroes that this dance will be the last thing they enjoy – Lashonna may comment upon any secrets she has discovered and feels she can share – as do Vulras and Kilraven, characters show their true colours. Concluding the Feast and the Adventure Zeech will leave in silence – applauded of course by his fellow guests as he makes his way to his quarters – other guests are led away to their carriages and taken back to their lodgings. Lashonna will agree to meet the heroes again in a few nights time – they have piqued her interest with their antics at the feast and she will offer to bring them a dozen pages of Bucknard’s journal as a good will gesture. She will say that she will meet them at the summit of the Great Ziggurat in three nights time to talk to them about the future – there is much to discuss. These events are described in the next instalment of the Age of Worms Adventure Path – The Library of Last Resort. Note,the poison was different in the playtest. NEW POISON Redhand Ikrus: Type: Ingest DC 35. Initial Damage* 2d6 Con; Secondary Damage 2D6 Con. Price 3,500gp. DC to create the poison is 35. * The onset time for initial damage is 1 month, secondary follows the standard time afterwards.
ASEO out
I was fortunate enough to be able to playtest "A Gathering of Winds" Wolfgang Baur and James Jacobs have granted me permission to post the notes from that playtest for anyone who is interested in reading them. Before I post them though I would like to make a few things clear. 1. Being a Playtest, this thread will contain MAJOR SPOILERS. Major what?
2. The adventure was playtested with the following characters: Huckabee Leafbitter Male Dwarf Fighter 5/Bard 6
These characters had not played any of the other AoW adventures since at the time we playtested this I believe that only "The Whispering Cairn" was available, thus their magical items most likly varry from those that characters having completed the previous 5 adventures may have. That being said, comming from the Free City (of Greyhawk) it is possible that the characters sold and purchased varied items and may very well be entering this adventure with unique inventories. 3. Being a pre-publication playtest, several differences maye be apparent between these notes and the adventure as published. 4. These were the notes more or less how they were forwarded to Wolfgang Baur. They are not meant to be as much as a narritive story as they are to provide him a play-by-play acount of the playing of the adventure. Part of the reason for this is so that he could determine if the encounters or the dice were the major factors in a given area. (There were instances of both). 5. I'll try to put the comments I had as a DM to the author in Itallics when they occur. Hopefully you will find this interesting and entertaining. Oh yes, S
ASEO out
In several of the Dragonlance novels, the characters play a game that is set on scales and they play their pieces until the scale tips to the other players side. It had pieces of different weifhts and beings that were used to play a sort of war game on the tipping board... Anyone know if there was ever such a game, or rules for such a game published? Anyone know what I'm talking about? ASEO out
NOTE TO THE PLAYERS
Characters will be 30 point buy construction. If you choose to play an oriental adventures class, I'd expect you to play the character in an oriental manner such as dictated by the class description (a samurai for example up holds honor above all other virtues)
Any alignment is fair game. You don't have to write it on your sheet. If you are interested, I have a source book on evil characters that can be used with a suitable character concept. Additional source books will become available through play and access to info in new books will be granted by joining guilds, prestige classes or finding items in adventures. You may play any of the standard races from the Player's Handbook, and any of the classes from the Player's Handbook, Oriental Adventures, or the Psionist's Handbook. The world you live in has two cultures that are fairly intermixed. One is an oriental type culture (i.e. the PC classes/spells and equipment from Oriental Adventures) and the other is European from the Player's Handbook. PRELUDE The action will start with the characters on a boat as part of a large troop transporting armada bound across the sea to reinforce the friendly forces at a besieged costal city. This is the earliest in the year (mid January) that the convoy can set out due to the rough weather that has plagued both armies since the onset of winter. With the arrival of these troops the friendly forces should be able to break the siege and destroy the enemy before they are able to move their reinforcements over the snow covered land routes to counter your side's new invasion. With luck the war could be over with your arrival. But then what of you... You have each graduated from the Sun Empire military school of unconventional warfare. You have been assigned to Shadow Command Unit 32. You were destined for covert action on and behind enemy lines, but if this assault proves successful...what then? Session 1
The party, having each individually completed their military training, has been loaded on a cargo ship, The Wave Skimmer. They are traveling as part of a large convoy transporting the first wave of troops and supplies to the battle-front. Caught in a storm they are separated from the rest of the convoy. After the storm repairs are made and, the very seasick, Antiqueas is cared for by Ran. The Wave Skimmer makes all haste toward its final destination. As they approach the costal city where they are scheduled to disembark along with the rest of the convoy, the lookout calls “smoke on the horizon”. The city is under heave attack. The convoy is in port with the troop and equipment transports closely packed in the harbor. The military escort ships are ranging up the coast to attack the besieging force from the sea with their onboard catapults and ballista. The look out then makes a second call “vessel dead ahead”. Scanning the path between The Wave Skimmer and the port the captain views a vessel that appears to be a metal plated ship with no oars or sails. Instead, it has two half circular solid arches, one on either side of the ship. As the captain watches, the new ship hoists the enemy flag and moves at a very rapid pace toward the closely packed transport ships of the convoy. Everybody onboard The Wave Skimmer realized that with the wind at their back they are the best bet to intercept the new ship. The Military warships of their navy are up wind from the metal ship and won’t be able to maneuver to intercept in time, if they even notice the new ship’s attack run at all. The captain of The Wave Skimmer has his crew man the forward firing Ballista onboard his ship and he steers to intercept the strange ship. As The Wave Skimmer closes a stream of flame spews forth from the new ship. Through his spyglass the captain can make out several strange contraptions mounted on the railing of the strange ship. In front of each of these contraptions is a flame. The party instantly realizes that in any prolonged combat with this ship they will end up dying a horrible fiery death. Kag shouts to the captain to ram the other ship. The captain at first refuses, but is persuaded by Kag through the threat of personal violence and the knowledge that there are thousands of troops and sailors in the harbor that will die if this ship is not stopped. The captain has the sails set for maximum speed and The Wave Skimmer shoots toward the enemy ship. The ballista crew fires two more poorly aimed shots at the metal ship while The Wave Skimmer narrows the distance between the two vessels. Suddenly three lines of flame shoot from the metal ship. Fortunately only one hits The Wave Skimmer, but that is enough to set the port side of the bow on fire. The crew moves toward the bow and braces for impact. As the two ships collide, the majority of The Wave Skimmer’s crew and the Party members are thrown to the deck. Kag leaps to his feet and charges across The Wave Skimmer’s forecastle which, is lodged in the side on the metal ship in the middle of one of the solid arches which now is ruptures to reveal a water wheel, or at least the smashed remnants of one. Kag leaps on top of the water wheel’s casing and slides down the front of it to engage the enemy sailors in the bow of the metal ship. One of the enemy flame gunners in the bow of the metal ship manages to get a shot off which vaporizes two sailors on The Wave Skimmer and sets a portion of the port side deck on fire. While Ran, Aramoro and the remaining sailors attempt to board the enemy ship through the flames and broken wreckage of the two ships, Antiqueas makes his way back to the captain’s cabin an begins to loot it. The captain sees Antiqueas heading for the cabin area, sees his ship in flames, and decides to flee to his cabin to recover his wealth and abandon ship via a rowboat that is stored on the aft castle. As he enters his cabin he sees Antiqueas rooting through his stuff and threatens the wizard with bodily harm if he doesn’t leave. Antiqueas, having found nothing of interest flees back to the deck, which is now completely alight. Not being much for valor or running through flame, Antiqueas flees to the aft castle and begins to lower prepare the rowboat for evacuation. At this point he is approached by the one remaining crewman on board. Fearing that his retreat may be jeopardized by this sailor, Antiqueas casts ’Fear’ on him and turns back to lowering the boat as the sailor screams and leaps over the side into the frigid water. As Antiqueas reaches the water he sees the captain, belongings wrapped in a blanket, peer over the aft castle railing and scream “Come Back”. Antiqueas fearing trouble with the captain for having rooted through the captain’s cabin rows away from the burning boat as fast as he can, knowing that he is dooming the captain to a fiery death, or a cold drowning death. Meanwhile, Kag, Ran, and Aramoro as well as many of the sailors have boarded the enemy ship. Several of the allied sailors are killed in the boarding attempt either by enemy archers, or by the perils of jumping through the burning wreckage between the two ships. As the combat on the enemy ship rages, Kag is able to kill the enemy sailors at the bow of the enemy ship with his martial art skills. In the aft of the vessel the combat is vicious. Over half of the boarding allies sailors are killed and Ran is severally wounded before the final defenders are overcome. Aramoro ventures into the aft castle of the ship and finds a shrine where the sailors had made offerings as part of their suicidal attack. There is also a stairway leading into the hold of the ship. Aramoro ventures down the stairs and finds a hold filled with large vats and some strange machinery as well as a stove that has no fuel present. Before Aramoro is able to do anything else he is rushed by a large man wearing a leather apron and wielding a huge wrench two-handed. Aramoro retreats in the face of this attack to the safety of the stairs then turns to face his attacker. The man strikes Aramoro with the wrench badly injuring him. Fortunately Ran descends the stairs behind Aramoro and casts ‘Cure Light Wounds’ on him.
Ran returns to the deck and begins to administer healing to the surviving sailors and himself. Now that the combat has ended the boarding party realizes that they are still in peril. Their ship is nearly totally engulfed in flames and lodged in the side of the enemy ship upon which they stand. Furthermore, the now exposed wooden peaces of the paddle wheel are on fire and threatening to burn through into the hold of the metal ship. Seeing the captain on the rear of The Wave Skimmer they callout to him to turn the wheel to try to dislodge the two ships. Seeing that he is doomed anyway, the captain’s sense of duty returns and he moves to the ship’s wheel to try to help. The whole while he screams a string of curses at Antiqueas for abandoning him. Kag uses a toppled metal mast from the enemy ship and with the help of the sailors uses it to leverage the two ships apart and break the burning timbers that entangle the two ships. Ran mans the metal ship’s wheel and tries to steer it away from the burning Wave Skimmer. The ships finally tear apart and the last the party sees of the captain of The Wave Skimmer is his burning form still at the wheel, his mouth open issuing a dying curse on Antiqueas. Then the deck of The Wave Skimmer collapses and the ship sink beneath the surface in a hiss of steam and smoke. The shattered remains of enemy ship’s port paddle wheel are still exposed and burning. The surviving sailors from The Wave Skimmer begin to fight the fire. Below desks Aramoro sees smoke pouring in from the port hull and knows that the timbers separating the paddle wheel and the hold are burning. He takes action and decides to smash the ship’s bilge pump to allow some bilge water into the hold to wet the burning hull timbers. In his enthusiasm he totally destroys the pump and a fountain of sea water begins to pour into the hold. As he tries to plug the hole to some degree a sailor from The Wave Skimmer and Ran come down into the hold. These two move to help, but the sailor is overcome by the smoke and passes out. As the hold is flooded the ship begins to list. This throws Ran against some of the gears and the oven. As he hits the gear control panel several levers are pushes and the sound of the Starboard paddle wheel suddenly stops. As he regains his footing Ran peers into the barred window of the oven and sees a fiery figure within pounding against the glass. He doesn’t have much time to think about this because his attention is quickly redirected back to the gushing water. He moves to help Aramoro and between the two of them they are able to minimize the inflow of the water. Kag then enters the hold to see why the ship is listing and moves to help his companions out. The sailors above have managed to extinguish the fires onboard and now also move to the hold to help. Kag and a sailor are able to hold the leak so Aramoro and Ran move back to the deck. On his way Aramoro takes a look at the control panel and also notices the flaming figure in the oven. Aramoro flips a lever labeled containment and the bars on the oven slide out of the way. He quickly replaces this lever to its original position. Next he flips a lever labeled extinguish and is rewarded with a scream of anguish as the fire in the oven vanishes. Shrugging his shoulders he proceeded up to the deck. On deck the sailors are all shouting and pointing to an allied man-o-war which is slowly approaching haven be alerted to the situation by the flames from The Wave Skimmer. Antiqueas, who has been sitting in the row boar about 100 yards from the combat and ignoring all calls for his assistance from the sailors slowly, rows over to the enemy ship and waits to be rescued by the approaching warship. With the arrival of the warship, the sailors and party are rescued and the enemy ship is salvaged and towed into port. As the ship is toed into port the assault on the city begins to falter and then collapses completely. The party is called before several low level officers to give their account of the battle. They are then escorted through the ranks to give their report to higher-level officers. Over the next couple of days they give their report dozens of times. Additionally they learn that the enemy has halted its offensive and is suing for peace. It seems that with the failed attempt to destroy the troop carrying convoy the enemy has played their final card. Unable to repel the new invasion, and unable to quickly move their own troops over the still snow choked roads they have no alternative but to surrender. The Party are hailed as heroes for stopping the “Flame Ship” since if it had reached the port the undefended and closely packed troop transport ships would have made easy pray as they waited to unload. The party finally find themselves waiting on the foyer of the General commanding the operation. The general is currently discussing the surrender conditions with the enemy envoy. Periodically, portions of their heated discussions are overheard by the party.
With that the door burst open and the party jumped to their feat. Out through the door stormed the enemy ambassador. Just then the generals eyes lock on the party. “Ambassador!…What about these men. They have just arrived and never even set foot out of this city. Surely you can have no opposition to appointing them?.”
With that the party leaves and is met by the generals adjutant who informs them that they are to receive the Order of the Star, a medal for valor in action and granted a governing charter to claim and rule what lands they may, north of the state of Meriador in a region called the Valdan Wilds. The next morning they are presented their medals in a very formal ceremony in front of the assembled ranks of the army. They are then told to report to the Duke of the city of Gondrake, which is located on the southern tip of the Meriadorian peninsula and is the capital of Meriador.
ASEO out
With the death of the ruler of Redhand, the PCs may become the new leaders of the region. Is this Cannon, and if so as of what GH date? I know that there are some LG adventures that still deal with the leader that is soon to be replaced in AoW. In any future GH adventure/Gazeteer, will Redhand be ruled by NPCs that completed AoW in the cannon world? ASEO out
OK at the end of chapter 1 the heroes should have the four children. Then the Boholder shows up to take one of the kids back to the same place that the PCs plan on taking him...or at least should be taking him. Also, the PCs don't get the full reward if they don't return all four kids, but all four kids eventually end up back at the orphanage. So, do the PCs get credit for that? Can the PC convince the Beholder that they are going to return all four kids to the orphanage? Also, why make his presence known, and hint at the value of the boy, when he could have his minion check in on the auction invisibily, and then track the kids to a place more appropriate of a "rescue" without leaving witnesses? If he discovered that the PCs were returning the kids to the orphanage, he would not have to act at all. ASEO out
Why do the Lizardfolk attacking the keep not use ladders to reach the second floor? Area 7 of the lizard lair mentions "A Large lizardfolk wearing armor..." Is this meant as big compaired to other medium sized creatures, but still medium sized, or is the size for Kotabas (which is listed and Medium) wrong and should be large? ASEO out
I've always been a big fan of tactical maps. Thanks for the poster tactical map of the ground floor of Blackwall Keep. Keep up the great work. I hope that there are more tactical maps of primary encounter areas in the future. One question about the normal garrison of 30 soldiers...22 including the commander are dead, 3 and the Warmage have been captured, 4 are unconscious...leaving 14 in able condition? I know my math isn't the greatest... ;-) ASEO out
The Red Hand of Doom by James Jacobs with Richard Baker An exciting super-adventure that pits heroes agains an army bent on domination. Rampaging hobgoblins and their allies threaten to destroy the realm and all who stand before them. Characters who dare confront the horde soon discover that these particular hobgoblins worship Tiamat, the evil queen of dragons, and eventually come face-to-face with her draconic minions.
128 page softcover, $24.95 This you James Jacobs? If so, care to share any additional details, like level range and that sort of thing? ASEO out
From the SRD... Whirlwind (Su)
Question 1: It says that creatures witha Fly speed may escape the Whirlwind with a save roll...Does this mean that non flying creatures can not escape? Question 2: If the whirlwind moves into a PCs square, the PC must save vs damage, and save vs being picked up. If the PC gets picked up, then the Whirlwind can eject the PC "Whenever" it wants. Does the PC just get spun out of the Whirlwind and left in the last square the Whirlwind left, or the square it is in? Question 3: Can the Whirlwind eject the PC from a height so that the PC takes falling damage based on the height of the Whirlwind? Question 4: If a PC is ejected from the Whirlwind in the same turn that the Whirlwind picked up the PC, can the Whirlwind (Perfect fly 60 ft) re-enter the PCs square and force them to make the two saves again? Possibbly picking them up and ejecting them again? Question 5: If A whirlwind is killed, do the PCs it was carring fall for damage? ASEO out
Transplanted to it's proper place from the DM questions about Whispering Cair thread... Warning …This is a Rant, but I think there are some good questions in her as well. I love that D&D 3.5 is a mini's game. I really like using miniatures in my games. For PCs I tend to use the huge variety of Reaper Minis, primarily because they are top quality, fairly low cost, and easy to customize to fit any PC that has entered my game so far. This includes a halfling that wields two flails. I like many of the D&D miniature (DDM) creatures, especially the clasic D&D monsters that are unavailable from other sources. The random packaging frigg'n kills me.
Damn! Oh well, I guess I'll stick with Reaper minis except where I find the DDM singles for a reasonable price for the size, not for the "rarity" of the mini. Too bad other companies can’t make minis of some of the D&D monsters. Reaper has tried a work around. They have their four tentacaled four legged "Phase Cat" instead of a Displacer Beast and Vulture Demon instead of Vrock. Things like Orcs, Goblins, zombies, skeletons, Dragons and PCs are easy to get from a variety of companies. It is the Abbolith, Xorn, Carrion Crawler, Grey Render, and Slaads that are common in D&D adventures that I can't find figures for, or have to pay exorbitant prices for "because they are Rare" and some lucky shmo ended up with 6 of them. Most of the DDM figures are poorly painted anyway, though they seem to be getting better, and the larger ones tend to be pretty well done. Still, I usually end up re-painting the ones I get. Maybe they could sell them unpainted for those who want to paint them themselves. This could cut cost, but the Randomness would still be a problem. Another thought would be to sell DM packs (all monsters) and player packs (all PC). Now you’ll get the issue of “where would we put a Drow?”. I’d say monster. “Half Dragon” Monster. “Half Orc” PC. I just get frustrated with the concept that I’d like to use D&D miniatures to enhance my D&D game, but can’t reliably get the creatures I would like with out either buying random boxes until I get the right ones. Which has three negatives: 1) all the extra unwanted miniatures that Sure I could sell on ebay if I wanted to take the time (which I don’t). 2) I may buy 100 boxes of random miniatures and never get that frigg’n Beholder. 3) I may end up spending $50 to finally end up getting the Beholder or, maybe not ever get one. I have to applaud my local game store. They open like 10 boxes of minis from each set that is released, and sell the mini’s by size. First come first serve. I have picked up several minis in this manner and am very pleased. I did have to laugh though, In the last 10 boxes they ended up with 14 Killer frogs, 9 of which have sold so far. Hell, I bought 2, but I sure as hell don’t need 14 of the things. I would think that if the DDM were sold in just the individual plastic bags then the packaging cost would go down. Sure the crappy minis (like that Bullywog Thug) wouldn’t sell well. (so quit making them). It all reminds me of a story. A guy owns a grocery store. He gets a shipments of Figs in. One of the bags of figs is all rotten. He then takes one good fig out of every bag, and adds one rotten fig to each bag, butting the removed good figs in a bag with the last of the rotten figs. Then he sells all the figs. When a person gets a rotten fig in their bag, they figure that “hey, it is just one rotten fig, it is bound to happen” and they don’t mind to much. Meanwhile, the store owner has sold all his figs, including all the rotten ones. Quit selling rotten figs by packaging them with the good ones. Sell the good ones openly for what they are and people will buy them. I’d pay $5 for the beholder figure. If it were sold individually. I’d pay $8 for one of the Huge minis, even though I’ve seen the Bullette and Treant selling for $4. Set standard pricing by size, and cut the rarity cr@p. What is the purpose in making limited quantities of any particular miniature, especially if it is a particularly popular model, except to create the false hope that a consumer might get one of these in a box that they buy, and when they don’t, that they might keep buying until they get it. I guess it is just a gamer’s lottery. I could see small minis for $1-2
Being poorly painted (though paint quality is improving, and the paint quality I guess is purely subjective based on the buyer’s painting ability and time that they are willing to invest) does not to me justify a plastic mini costing more than a quality metal mini (say something from the Reaper catalogue…and I know that if you really look, you can find a bum mini or two in the Reaper stuff, but I’m not looking at the rare exceptions here.) Who is painting these things anyway? Someone in a China, who is probably not making much for doing it. Last thing for now: Why do the medium minis have a 1 inch base, and the huge minis have a 3 inch base, yet the large minis have a 1.5 inch base not a 2 inch base, and I think the small ones have a ¾ inch , not ½ inch base? ASEO out
Is there somewhere that there is more info on this struggle? Was it a Law vs. Chaos war, wher good and evil were sometimes alligned along the law/chaos lines, or was it a fight between Chaotic evil and lawful good/neutral? I know that the background lies in the Rod of Seven Parts background. Is that product a decent cannon source document? ASEO out
OK, I know that the first adventure "The Whispering Cairn" is for first level characters. And they should be pretty close to 3rd level when they finish it. "The Three Faces of Evil" picks up next, and PCs should be about 5th level by the time they are done. Now, I don't have any idea on 3-5, but episode 6 is for 11th level characters, so I'm guessing that episode 3 takes characterd from 5-7, episode 4 from 7-9, and episode 5 from 9-11. What is the complete expected progression through the campaign? Looking through the first two adventures, I've compiled a list of the magical items that the party is likley to end up with. Now, I'll hold off on posting that at this time, but I was wondering what people think of the level of magical items, and what type of magical items people would like to see more or less of in future adventures in the series? I know that personnaly I'm a fan of misc. magic items like Robes of Patches and other unique items that provide roleplaying capabilities, or spark the player into creative use of the item. Also, what level magical armor/weapon/ability enhancment item do you see as appropriate for a character of say 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 18th and 20th level? Thoughts? ASEO out
I'm reading through this adventure and have some questions. 1. How many cultists are in the temple of Hextor room #3. I'm guessing 9 by the CR and EL. 2. Many of the numbers are off when referencing the different rooms. In room #5, it mentions cultists and guards from area 2 and 3. should this be 3 and 4, or will the skeletons in 2 retreat back to 5 to open the door. In 5 it also mentions that when the retreating guards pass 4 they open the door. I'm pretty sure that the 4 mentioned here should be 5. Additionally, in area 7 it mentions the guards in area 5. There are no guards in area 5. Should this be 6 instead? This problem continues in the Temple Organization sidebar. 3. The commoner cultists are listed as having daggers and longspears. By the DMG a Commoner is only proficient in 1 simple weapon. So which do they take the penalty in? 4. in area 9…It seems strange that something like a pearl of power, something that any of the three priests in the temple of Hextor could use would be locked up in a vault. Can each priest use the pearl once each day? Or can it only give one caster, one spell, back per day. The CSRD isn’t clear. I could see the two priests in area 8 getting this item. Then Kendra using it to cast a second ‘Protection from Good’ on Garras, then Garras using it to cast and extra ‘Bless’ on Kendra if the time allowed. Or Garras using it first and Kendra then taking it for that extra ‘Bane’ or ‘Fear’.
ASEO out
In my game I reciently used the Shifter Race from Eberron as a Template and applied it to a Half-Orc. The base creature losed 2 CHA, but when they shift they get the benifits of the shifter type they take. So far it has worked well. It is like a mini Were-creature. Has anyone else tried this? Thoughts? ASEO out
Ok, I hate to be one to start a thread like this, but I'm curious... What are people's favorite Necromancer Prestige classes in the following categories? 1. Arcane
Please include comments and source document for the Prestige Classes. ASEO out
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First, I’d like to say that I’m enjoying reading this adventure and hope to start a party on this AP in the near future. I did have some questions about the adventure so far. 1. Who are the new characters in the illustrations? 2. What is the clue given by the broken hand on the sarcophagus? (Turn three clicks to the right?) 3. While under “The Tunnels” it mentions that the red lantern is in area #20, in area #20 I found no mention of the lantern. 4. What is the Mad Slasher doing with the Beetles? 5. Where did the builders live while they were building their living areas? (Outside in tents probably) Why spend the extra time to build worker living areas instead of just building the tomb? 6. Area #19 is noted as being completely submerged. If the stairs from #18 descend at a 1:1 rate, then the floor of #19 is 10ft below #18. If all areas have a 20ft ceiling, and the water starts halfway down the stairs, then the water in areas #19-22 should be only 5ft deep with 15ft of air above. Is this correct? 7. 8 beds for workers, 30ft x 40ft shower area? 8. Why doesn’t the Water elemental in the shower area interact with (attack with slam) the Ghoul in area #20. 9. How many spheres are fired at each target on the beam each round. Is there a way to make them have a chance to knock the characters off the beam (DC10+ damage done each round DEX or Balance check) 10. Why won’t ‘Knock’ open the catch on the door in area #23? Or maybe some other spell, Maybe ‘Unseen Servant’ (I can’t remember if they can pass through walls, or be cast out of line of sight.) Sorry, I have to get back to reading the rest of the adventure. Great stuff. ASEO out
What is the background for the entire campaign? How much of it takes place in cities or towns. The reason I'm asking, is that I may try to run it with characters that start out as Koblods, but get reincarnated as some other creature whenever they die. That way I can keep the same characters through the campaign, just not in the same bodies...just a thought. My current campaign takes place in a frontier settlement where the Kobolds live in the basment of the local castle. ASEO out
This was a campaign that I ran from 99-02. It began in 2ed and then transitioned to 3.0 Basically it is a 2nd edition, no skills and powers, Character kits are discouraged, use PHB, DMG type game. I allow all races to mutli class or dual class at any time within reason. There are no race class restrictions, but a Dwarven mage will have some problems. Stats are rolled 4d6 re roll 1s, 7 times and take the best 6 and arrange them, as you want. Characters start at 1st level. Humans get a +1 to any one stat. Mages get bonus spells like priests do based on their INT. I don't use alignments, characters are judged by their actions. We use miniatures extensively. I encourage role-playing, problem solving and combat. I work hard to ensure that everyone is having fun and allow the campaign to move in the playing style that the players prefer (roll-playing, problem solving and combat). I hate power gamers and munchkins and am careful to not allow magic to over power the game. I also work to keep a single PC from becoming dominant. ----NIGHT 1------ Currently the party is made up of:
The game takes place in a world of my creating. The basic premise is that there were two kingdoms that were at war over 1000 years ago. Kingdom A unleashed a plague/curse on kingdom B that resulted in the death of all the humans and demi humans in kingdom B. The plague however started to spread toward kingdom A. The mages from Kingdom A cast a powerful spell in the one mountain pass that separated the two kingdoms to stop the plague from entering kingdom A. This spell halted the plague, but also caused a 100 to 40 ft wide canyon rift to form in the valley effectively separating the two kingdoms.
The Party approached the Inn at 5 Points, an Inn one day's travel to the valley of the rift canyon. As they approach the Inn they notice all sorts of pioneers, settlers, adventurers Etc. gathering at the Inn. Since it is early evening the party enters the Inn to gather information and get some food. They hear several rumors about "the other side" and learn that the Inn has no rooms available. Shendar ran a few con jobs and gathered some money for the party since they were basically broke. Morak and Darius settled down at the bar and began to gather rumors.
I'll post a session or so every couple of days If there is any interest. Feel free to leave comments if you'd like. ASEO out
I was wondering if this adventure path will have built in contingency plans to cover the probable likelihood of character death that may occur. What I'm talking about is: Will there be a known temple where PCs may be raised/resurrected/and the like? Will there be opportunities to cross paths with NPCs for the specific purpose of bringing dead characters back to life? Does the adventure path cater to dead characters returning to life, or is it better to bring in new characters to replace the old? Nothing puts a chink in a DM's plan like an unexpected character death. And even the expected deaths can stall a campaign. It might be interesting to have a side adventure that gives characters (in any game/campaign) the opportunity to do something that will allow them to return an companion to life. If this were something scaleable over a wide level range, then you could definitely use it as a contingency plan when ever you needed it without breaking the whole campaign. ASEO out
As a longtime D&D player, I have been witness to several D&D adventures that involve space Ailens, or at least their machines. Old timers may recall Temple of the Frog, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, and I think All that Glitters...or maybe it was one of the X modules...It has been a while. Back in the day I discovered that 1st Edition D&D and 1st edition Gamma World were easily transposable, and have since used GW1 Legion of Gold in a variety of campaigns including presenting the Sub-Aquatic Lab as an alternative means of leaving the island in A$ Dungeons of the Slave Lords. I have always enjoyed offering an adventure or two where the party finds them selves figuring out the workings of futuristic equipment and weapons and doing battle with Robots/androids and perhapse picking up a mutation or two along the way. These si-fi adventures have not been without their lessons learned. 1. All future weapons and equipment chould have charges and not be easily recharged less they leave the futuristic adventure and end up in your fantasy world. I currently have a character in my campaign in possession of two Mark V blasters. He is at -4 to use them until he takes an exotic weapon feat. Each gun can fire 5 shoots and the only place he can recharge them is at least two weeks travel away, and may not still be functioning. While the Blasters do around 3d6 damage (per the Omega World mini game back in a DUNGEON/ POLYHEDRON) they do allow me to send a few meaner creatures at the party of currently 4th and 5th level characters. And if Future weapons or devices are going to ruin a climatic encounter, they can always just not work. Maybe their warrenty just expited or something. 2. Players often die or blow themselves up in a fantasy turned future session. I've found this particularry true of the Sub-aquatic lab from GW1. A speargun with explosive speard (like 10d6 damage) have killed a number of PCs who are just testing one by fireing into a near by object. To remedy this, I have the androids the party is fighting in the lab take the dead PC and put them in vejuvination vats that bring the PCs back to life...sometimes with an artificial heart or limb. One player in a particulary self destructive party coined the phrase "Back to the vats" which has become the players' plea whenever faced by a TPK. 3. Don't over do Si-fi in D&D. It is D&D after all and if your players wanted to play Gamma World, ot Star Frontiers, then they would be rather than playing D&D. I've noticed that 'The Reverse Dungeon" has a Barrier beak device in it, and I thought that was cool. Personally, I'd like to see the ocassional Si-fi interlude in a DUNGEON adventure. As apposed to a past Si-fi actor ;-) Since Greyhawk has an existing connection with star travlers, I don't think adding mini si-fi links is off key. Anyone else interested in this? Thoughts? ASEO out
I've been playing with taking the maps from the supplements and using just paint and Word, cutting them and enlarging them to combat tile scale and printing them out. My questions are as follows: 1. Can copies of these maps be provided without area numbers, traps, or secret doors marked so that they may be made into combat tiles for people who are inclined to do so? 2. Anybody know how to simply enlarge these maps and keep a level of clarity to them? I'm talking about using PC software that comes with the PC, not specialized photo editing stuff. ASEO out
1. How deep is the water in 26? 2. How deep is the water in 27? By the map, I would think that everything South of the number 24 would be around 10 feet based on the depth of the water by the dam. That being said, if the northern 5ft of 23 is under less that a foot of water, and the Dam is nearlt 10ft deep, I think it would be fair to say that the water depth increases by one foot per/5ft travled to the south in the Dungeon. Thoughts? 3. What are in the chests in 21? Was this room opened by the Fingers, or had it been previously opened? 4. Do the Fingers actually all have skull tatoos as pictured on their foreheads? 5. If they go unencountered for long enough, do the Fingers engage the occupants of 14, or move on? Nice adventure. This is another one that I'll definately drop some hooks for to see if the players bite. ASEO out
Were anybody's players actually surprised that a guy with the name Orbius turned out to be a beholder. I think that this might have had that "I can't believe we missed that clue" effect for newer players, but my players were talking about killing him (when they got powerful enough) after the first mention of his name. Player 1: "Lord Orbius Val bla bla...? You're kidding right? This guy is a Beholder"
ASEO out
In an editorial once there was a promice made that past adventures would be updated. Now I'm sure that that promice was made before the enormity of the task was truely understood. With that being said, Erik, Is there any official effort to update the past adventures? If not, is there somewhere that fans/past authors could update adventures and post them on the site? ASEO out
I've always enjoyed subjecting my players to situations that required moral calls to be made. I'd like to see more of this type of thing appear in DUNGEON adventures. Things like: 1. Whether to kill noncombatant enemy creatures
I'd like to hear what other moral issues DMs have sprung on their players and which adventures from DUNGEON people have found raised interesting moral issues. ASEO out
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