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In Session 2 They lost a druid to the Mad Slasher and the female monk ran around the pillar and right through a patch of Brown Mold while the party was going at it vs the lurking strangler...all they heard was her HOT lantern hit the floor....
Our paladin tongith: "WHOA. That Ghoul, I think it really IS evil....I jump back"
I swear WC is just as bad as ToH...either that or I'm just a mean DM. My group is fairly big (6-7 charcters at any time, next week 8!)and in three sessions 4 PC's have died, going through the adventure 'as is'. The Brown Mold, the Mad Slasher...and tonight it was beetle swarm #2 for the Paladin and The Albino Bartender for the party Half-Orc PC....lol...details: They climb down into the servant quarters where the beetles are...get into a big fight...the cleric of Wee Jas flees and climbs up the rope, followed by the SECOND cleric of Wee Jas...the top one in her haste rolls a 4 on her climb check near the top of the 60' shaft and down she goes...the bottom cleric tries to grab her...both fall and splat, at mid negatives (I even did half damage for collision and fall impact). Meanwhile the Paladin gets swarmed and bit...all that's left is the +1 chainmail...they retreat to town...the Half Orc players is JONESING for a fight because he's 30 xp from level 2....he goes to the Feral Dog and tells the bartender "Your beer sucks!" The replacment paladin 'just happened' to be in the bar, and the two clerics of Wee-Jas and the Ninja come in right at the start of trouble (they didn't even rest after the arse-beating in the Cairn)...the albino grabs the pc half orc by the shirt collar "What did ya say 'bout me beer?" The party PC punches Kull in the chops for 7 subdual. Kullen's mage bud stands up and fires off a Enfeeblement ray for 6 str loss at the PC half-orc....the PC half orc (1st Barbarian) gets his blood up, runs around and attacks Kull with his Great Axe... "Axes is it?" growls Kullen. The PC Paladin (rather that show much diplomacy, leaps up on the bar and takes a smack at the PC barbarian for subdual..he believes the PC orc is overduing it when he punches then tries to hack Kullen...true enough)but for his trouble the paladin gets an arrow in the back from the ranger in Kullens band. The cleric of Wee Jas fires off an arrow at Kullen's mage, the party ninja uses invsibility and LEAVES, the two clerics get color sprayed..one goes to sleep...I even let the evil mage tell the other cleric to get out or die...what does Wee Jas cleric 2 do? He attacks...and gets hit with a sleep spell...zzzzz.... The Paladin is now flanked by a berserk Kullen and his Glaive-weilding friend, since the PC halforc went down like a hooker after Kull smacked him for 19 damage...since the paladin never actually WOUNDED Kull or the Glaive man, he is spared but Kull takes the head off the sleeping half orc...the two clerics of Wee Jas are ransomed for a large amount of gold from the Cult of the Green Lady, who promptly tell the two PC they are no longer entitled to free healing or sleeping qrtrs until they repay the randsom gold and stop smearing the name of the order with stupid acts. The paladin comes back and begs Kullen for his longsword back, but ends up trading a sunrod for it...and the PC half-rocs head is now on a deer antler over the bar...am I mean, is the module deadly or are my players just stupid?
... There is a huge emotional attachment for some people and when a factor they felt they had no control over, seemingly at random kills their character, they can get quite ticked off. Lol...it can make a DM feel bad too. 3 weeks ago, I was running a game where the party ran into Derro...the first indication theya re in danger is when a 'Hail of Stones' spell rolls two 20's and then a crit with the ranged attack....we play with instant kill threat and 'blam' down goes the 4th level half orc barbarian. We roll dice 90% of the time out in the open and this time the orc died...his player tried to think of every way out of the situation...porr guy, I felt for him but it would not have been fair to say he somehow survived when everyone there new the rules we were playing under....
As lame as it sounds, Dopps in 3.5 are neutral...first thing i looked up when I thought of the party paladin....
You'd think they'd bother to tell me they were DM'ing it...with all the notice
So I decide to take a batch of players I've never met and undergo the Age of Worms...they knew about this for two weeks before the game date. I get there and we do the intros...the first hint I get from one of the players thats something's amiss: "I know a little about Diamond Lake..." (Huh?....Don't tell me...)anyway most of the group are nice guys and all so we go on....finally half the group tells me they were DM'ing Whispering Cairn for their own group "But don't worry, they all died at the Wing Warriors encounter...we didn't get very far" Far? Isn't that near the END of the first adventure? What to do? Well, they find two dead wolves and a third comes running out from the crypt chased by two hell hounds...now the 'in the know'players are a little surprised. Fortunatly I've read up to Adventure 4, and rather than a coffin, they find an elevator down.."What the hell? You totally changed this..." They encounter tieflings and get their asses beat, come back and get ambushed by Grimlocks (yeah the Cult is below the whispering cairn)...3 party members are at negatives, two are exactly at '0'...the two remainign grims roll lousy on sense motive and the halfing barbarain with his greatsword and one of two clerics of saint cuthbert roll great on bluff....when the grims leave for assistance, the '0' hp folk use tiefling potions to revive and run away with the rest of the party. But it still pisses me off they neglected to tell me half the party has read the entire first adventure....three of the guys are descent players who just want to have fun, but a few are critical of how the adventures running since they would handle a few NPC diffrently...should I continue the game or no? I'm running the game for local players as well on opposite weekends, so I have an easy out...
There was also a lame book put out by WoTC Called: Queen of THe Demonweb Pits. This book had Lolth as an active character (Lame as it was) with a Lame group of adventures traveling into the Abyss and Killing her in her walking fortress. Bad writing! Great writing is the War of The Spider Queen series. It doesn't deal with Lolth alot, but it does deal with Lolth Drow and their awesomely evil, selfish, back stabing ways. (At the end of the book one of the Priestesses becomes the new Avatar of Lolth.) Great source for ideas. lol...not to be confused with the MODULE Queen of the demonweb pits... Back then, Lolth was really more a major demon than a diety, and the adventure, though a bit weird, was fun (note that Gygax did not come up with the weird maze/spacecraft, it was purloined from a Gencon tourney module, so thats why there's a great deal of diff between what it was and what it might have been)...so many folk nowdays think drow originated in the Forgetful Realms...even going so far as to have Lloth and Lolth, or even Loth....
These two critters would be great to throw into Greyhawk for the PC's to battle...they just look cool and it would be intresting to see them try to kill PC's as well as ebon aspect folk....lol especially the Hand...and squat dwarf sized humanoid with a giant hand for a head would be great to 'grab' the player's attention....
ANYTHING (and I do mean ANY) that Dave Howery wrote. His 'The Leopard Men' and 'The Elephant's Graveyard' were the best adventures Dungeon ever published (including 'The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb'). And 'The Land of Men with Tails' was good, as well. I sent a letter to Dragon once, asking whatever happened to Dave, and they were bummed he didn't keep in touch with them. His The Dark Continent articles in Dragon rocked as well.
it could be intresting to have the PC's near the Rift Canyon when IUZ's forces take Riftcrag....dodging Iuz's hordes of demons and humanoids (at least prior to the Flight of Fiends) would be fun....the Boneheart group could make for stiff high level competition...if they should learn of Kyuss's imminent return, the race is on....or they might be unexpected allies?
You can always take them into the cloud giant epic level adventure from Dungeon #93, "The Storm Lord's Keep" (for 21st level PC's)....or you can pit them vs. the shades and Phaerimm from the return of the archwizards storyline...having someone who can match spells with a group of elder Phaerimm would rock...really at such high levels squads of beholder lackeys should be a fun fight....by the way, I remember seeing it somewhere, but what was the name of the Phaerimm spell that made a horizontal cyclone of swords that shredded a large portion of the good armies and cost Laeral Silverhand her arm? (not the cheese blade-barrier...this was an arcane spell caleld sword-storm or something)
Amen brother! Leave the psionic crap for Hiero Desteen and his book series http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345308417/qid=1127355284/sr= 1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-1735766-2606216?v=glance&s=books They make great reads but psions like him are really lame in a world based on magic....too much like a science feel
The Rift Canyon is 510 miles North/NorthEast of Diamond Lake at the Rift's Westernmost point. It is located within territory between the areas known as the Bandit Kingdoms and the Shield Lands. Bandits live in the canyon itself as well
http://www.bandit-kingdoms.net/images/BKmap.gif Rift Canyon: This strange valley is more than 180 miles long and up to thirty miles wide, but was not formed by river action. A rocky wasteland surrounds the Rift, adding to its unnatural character. Rainwater drains into caverns throughout its expanse. Long oxplored by the lawless folk of Riftcrag, the Rift still shelters many menaces within it. Thousands of evil Reyhu bandits fled to the Rift following Iuz's invasion in 583; these angry men worship Erythnul, and they have no qualms about sacrificing intruders. Rift bandits often venture out to gain food and weapons; try as they might, Iuz's commanders cannot block all canyon exits. The west end of the canyon has dreadfull monsters that seem to issue forth from the caverns. Southwest of Rift Canyon is White Plum Mountain, a lone volcano of awful reputation; north are the Tangles, where other anti-Iuzite bandits hold out. Rift, Men of the: Rift Canyon and nearly all the rough lands around it (the Rift Barrens) were ruled from the town of Riftcrag, which long had a notable nonhuman population of orcs, gnolls, bugbears, ogres, and the like. The original bandit force here largely abandoned the city to luz's forces in 583, gathering in the deep recesses of the Rift and planning a dark revenge. These forces are augmented by many refugees from luz's attacks (notably Reyhu), and they are led by the charismatic self-proclaimed Plar of the Rift, Durand Grossman (NE male human Rog11). Native nonhumans and a few magically controlled monsters round out what is one of the three most active and well-defended resistance forces in the Bandit Kingdoms (the others being in the Fellreev). Rift folk are mostly as chaotic and evil as the nonhumans, but they are clever and skilled at mountaineering and trap setting. Many thieves and berserkers are among the warriors here, and Erythnul worship is widespread. luz's agents inhabiting Riftcrag made it a regional capital in 584. They keep watch over the canyon from the city and from the Leering Keeps, five citadels perched on the northern edge and eastern end of the enormous chasm. Led by Cranzer (NE male human Wiz15), a powerful member of luz's Lesser Boneheart, these forces patrol the Rift, attempting to contain the places growing army while continuously assaulting the Tangles with axe and fire. The Rift holds mines that provide the region's best silver veins. Of late, Cranzer has made deals with the Rift bandits in order to make the regular silver shipments personally demanded by luz.
Lol I have a player in AoW who's paladin keeps lying...The three adventureres from greyhawk arrive at the mine shack and ask if the PC's know where the cairn is. "Nope...no idea where it might be" shouts the paladin. Blam....Pelor sucks 100xp as a penalty for lying (It was spur of the moment ruling but god it was funny and felt appropriate)..."I'm keeping my mouth shut...I need my xp". not 10 minutes later the Paladin again lies his arse off at the Ferril Dog and blam loses another batch of Xp. 'Firk Ding Blast' is a good summerization of his reaction..."Damn it, it's hard to be a paladin!" I think he gets the point....this is a good way to keep him in line until he really violates his creed majorly.
Hehhe...my group actually had a hell of a time with the Lurking strangler who came up behind the party and took its time hitting them with fear and sleep ("You feel a brief flash of anxiety" (they made their save vs fear)..finally it put the Ninja (by himself in the statue hallway) to sleep and started strangling him...I really played up the gasping wheeze sound effects...the druid's wolf heard and came running and fell asleep in mid leap...the party was near the bedroom and saw the wolf go down but no one wanted to round the corner (they didn't know if the wofl was dead) I mercifuly let the ninja use his Ki ability to revive before rd 3...the monk ran around the other side of the pillar right into the mold (they saw it earlier, didnt know what it really was, but no one approached)...she died and all the half-fear-ray party heard was a thud before her lantern went out and the mold expanded. They kill the strangler. So the wizard gets too close to the mold and down he goes...the druid pulls him back (they had not figured out the mold was the cause)...the druid uses produce flame to 'thaw' the wizard and I tell him the mold comes growth-rushing toward them....finally a ray of frost cleans it out, but the female monk bought it. When the slasher's pit is opened out springs the swarm and slasher who attack the ninja (again in trouble)...the druid rushes in and gets slashed to ribbons dead. Lol the party wizard tried color spray on the swarm, the slasher and the ninja...down goes the ninja alone and gets swarmed...the slasher makes his save. The slasher chases down the wizard and the paladin (who's carrying the ninja)....the halfling rogue (who wants to be a throwing master) dishes out some hurt on the slasher and the paladin finally gets the telling blow, and finally chases the swarm away with torches....they carry the ninja and wizard out....two dead PC's and two asimov clerics (replacement PC's)of the green lady arrive to join the band, claiming they can learn much about death by hanging with the stalwart band...they got THAT right...
I'd have to agree the plot is hardly complex....I play with some folks with room-temp I.Q., enough that I told them 'You might want to write these names down'. Then again, it's fairly simple to manipulate them when they have lost the path. One of the yokels decided he wanted to let his 'evil' druid's wolf fight in the feral dog pit right off the bat without much description of the local npc's. "The huge mastiff they bring to the pit, 'Old Red-Fang', is criss-crossed with countless victories over anything from pit-bulls to badgers...you're young wolf pisses itself and hides with its tail between its leg under your chair..." "Uh, maybe I wont put him in the pit..."
...death happens all the time, and the fact that there's a nearby diamond mine and a temple to Wee Jas, I give "locals" a discount on the raise dead spell. After all, even with the local Diamond mine, not every character has the 4000 gp worth of dust (instead of the regular 5000) needed to buy the temple's service. Unfortunatly there's not one cleric written 'as is' in Diamon Lake that's high enough to use Raise Dead on a party member...probably the only way to get some one raised would be a 3 day trip to the Free City....
If you're really worried about it, figure that the mine personel would have a beef with the players suddenly ruining their buisness (beign careful not to draw attention would be nearly impossible in diamond lake, where everyone is into everyone else's buisness). Smenk would certainly drumb up a way rob the PC's of this resource if possible, let alone if he didn't out and out hire people to kill the players. Extra unwanted attention drawn to the Lake area would also upset the cult. Finding workers to help remove the iron might not be as easy as one would think, even in a town full of hardened miners (there's a reason they don't look for cairns to rob....they are workers, not danger-seekers). With the expense remove the iron, pack it and ship it off to greyhawk (its useless in a small berg like DL)plus the license fees, monopolized smelting fees, etc, the players might be lucky find it a break-even profit. Then again, you can throw some bandits and humanoids at them during a convoy shipment. Oxen pulling heavy ore are not fast.....it would be an adventure in itself trying to make it to Greyhawk...and who knows if a few Rust Monster's dont come calling to smell all that feris metal.......
Well so far I' had a ton of new players ask to join right before the game tonight (Im pretty lucky, I'm playing 5 hours of Shackeled City as a player, before DM'ing 4 hours of AOW...what the heck, gotta be home in time to watch 'Rome'). So far I've got a 1/2 orc barbarian, Human Fighter, Halfling Rogue, Human Wizard, elf Ninja (lol....he's visiting the monistary as a exchange-type student), Half Elf Druid and a Human Monk. Thank god for the Overload starting suggestions. I Did have a bit of a time getting them NOT to sell info for the Whispering Cairn location to the 3 greyhawk adventurers....they wanted anything to get money to leave the slimey town. They just discovered the elevator down when we quit for the night....they slapped the wolves around in two rounds. Might ahve to adjust Kellan's band by adding a level to half of them.....
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