Arcesilaus's page

It is a frigid New Year's Eve in the Free City-State of Gate Pass. Located in the mountain pass which separates two hostile nations - Ragesia and Shahalesti - Gate Pass has been neutral since the end of their last war. That neutrality is about to be put to the test, as a scourge comes for the city out of Ragesia.

By now, every magic-user in Gate Pass knows of the Scourge. The Emperor of Ragesia died barely a month ago, and a witch named Leska has moved to cement herself as the next emperor of Ragesia. Leska, leader of the Ragesian Inquisitors, has decreed that all disloyal users of arcane magic are to be tracked down and killed to prevent future threats to the empire. The Inquisitors, clerics specialized in countermagic, travel with military escorts to the borders of Ragesia. Their first target is Gate Pass, its neutrality long viewed as an insult to the nation’s honor. Those who resist them will have to face the searing power of the Ragesian Empire.

An entire army marches for Gate Pass, and the people of the city fear that they will not be able to resist the might of the Ragesian military. The city leaders are bowing under pressure and have barred exit from the city, intending to welcome the Inquisitors that come with the army in the foolish hope that the Ragesians will reward their cooperation with mercy.

The Ragesian army is nearly at Gate Pass’s doorstep, so time is short. The war is about to begin.

A local resistance movement devoted to keeping both the Ragesians and the Shahalesti out of the city has formed in the dark underbelly of city, and you each have your reasons for gathering near midnight at a small tavern about a mile from the western city wall.

Greetings.

I am considering running the 4e version of ENWorld's 'War of the Burning Sky' campaign.

I would like 5 players.

Please let me know if there's any interest.

O

PS Looks like I have 2 already, so 3 more.

Greetings.

I am considering running the 4e version of ENWorld's 'War of the Burning Sky' campaign.

I would like 5 players.

Please let me know if there's any interest.

O

Shadow in the Sky

So the journey begins for our intrepid heroes ...

This is the Discussion board for the Second Darkness campaign.

Howdy.

I am a newbie PbP DM, thinking about running Second Darkness via 4th Ed. I am in the middle of running a real-life Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign in 4E and think the campaigns convert easily. I am looking for 5 PCs but will maintain some alternates, if demand is high.

Character creation would be using standard 22-point buy and anything in the WotC Character Builder is legal (ie, anything in a book or e-zine). Obviously, the setting will be Golarion, but we can probably manage to squeeze a Forgotten Realms concept into the setting, if you're dying to use something FR. If you have access to the Second Darkness Player's Guide, we can talk about adapting traits to 4E.

For mapping, I will be starting with Aubrey's coordinate system (if you haven't checked out either of his long-running PbPs, you should), since I am not yet skilled in Adobe Illustrator (though I'm hoping to change that soon).

I check the boards frequently and would expect any player to post at least once every other day (once per day is preferable).

Any interest?

O

I have, up to this point, been pretty disappointed with the Second Darkness AP, for reasons discussed in other threads (most importantly, the shortening of the adventures). For what it's worth, I still think the adventures are fairly well done, but not on par with anything done in Rise of the Runelords or Curse of the Crimson Throne.

That said, having read A Memory of Darkness, I feel that things are getting better. This has been, by far, my favorite of the 5 SD adventures so far, and it really captures the "cool" parts of traveling to an elven kingdom, gate-hopping around the continent, and dealing with a demon-besieged fortress. I enjoyed reading the adventure almost as much as some of the Rise of the Runelords adventures (CotCT still blows everything else out of the water).

Now, my only complaint is the state of the Winter Council. Over the course of the 5 adventure, the Council is built up as a shadowy Illuminati-like group of elders that have been running things all over the world for longer than humans have been recording history. They have been portrayed as powerful and knowledgeable, able to call down assassin attacks and pull strings from across continents. Further, one imagines that any demonic siege that is focused on wiping out the lone elven redoubt within their vast woodland holdings would be a mighty force, including some of the most powerful demons on the plane. But, when the PCs finally find them, the Council consists of 4 sad, lonely hermits and their tiny team of defenders being besieged by a squad of demonic middle-management whom the PCs are never expected to encounter in any meaningful way (I know this could go lots of ways, depending on the characters' actions, but it's still not a very memorable pack of demons). In fact, although I read the rest of the adventure very carefully and couldn't put it down, I really lost interest when the party reached Thorn's End, because the whole setting was such a letdown.

I feel like the Winter Council would be much more intriguing if it wasn't neutered before the party ever arrives. It should consists of a decent number of elven elders (perhaps 12, now that their 13th member has taken the path of the drow) who continue to be active in elven politics and wield significant power. It makes a much more fun encounter if the PCs have to deal with a real Political Entity that shows the patient, long-view, and Machiavellian scheming that the Winter Council should be using. To counter that, the demonic force should be equally powerful, a real threat to such mighty elves. As long as the power levels increases are roughly equivalent, it doesn't really affect the plot all that much, but makes for a much more dramatic encounter.

Thoughts?

O

An example and subsequent question:

A halfling prowler attacks the party ranger, slashing him with his short sword, and then makes the Secondary Attack, as listed: +8 vs. Fortitude; the target takes ongoing 3 poison damage and is slowed (save ends both). The ranger, luckily, happens to be wearing Deathcut Hide Armor, which has Resist poison 5. It seems pretty clear to me that, even if the halfling makes the secondary attack, the ranger will never take the ongoing damage, as the armor sucks it up. My questions:

1. Is the ranger slowed, or is he only affected by additional conditions if he takes damage?

2. Assuming he is NOT affected by the slowed condition, is there any point in asking the player to make a saving throw for the poison, or can we safely pretend it never has any affect? (I'm assuming we can ignore it, I just want to be sure I'm not missing something.)

Thanks,

O

So, this came up in my last session, and I figured I'd share with the community:

We are running CotCT and as the party was hired to investigate a necromancer's hideout, they thought it wise to invest in some holy water. Since there are no rules for holy water, yet, I quickly came up with the following based on alchemical acid, from the Adventurer's Vault. I don't have my books with me at work, so the format won't be official, but I'm curious what others think.

Holy Water (level 1) - 20 gp

+4 v Reflex, Hit: 0 radiant damage, ongoing half damage (save ends). Miss: half damage, no ongoing.

What this means is, that against a creature that has no vulnerability to radiant damage, holy water has no effect. Against a creature with said vulnerability, however, the water does damage equal to the value of the vulnerability on a hit, followed by half that amount ongoing. Thus, a zombie with Vulnerability radiant 5 would take 5 points of radiant damage and 2 ongoing (save ends), with only 2 points on a miss.

The players seemed to like it.

Thoughts?

O

One is for the writers; the other is a solicitation for advice regarding a character's background.

First,

Second, one of my players is playing a fey-pact warlock (yes, 4th edition). I have been struggling with the motivation for a powerful fey creature to provide the arcane insight to a tiefling to allow such power and thought some of you bright folk might be able to help me come up with the fey's goals. Obviously, it wants something. I am leaning toward the Runelord Sorshen connection but haven't come up with anything specific. Can anyone out there think of something that an amoral fairy would want from the Material World?

Thanks for any and all help.

O

Howdy.

Since I am running CotCT with 4th edition rules and my players want to go to level 30 for their first campaign with the new rules, I was thinking about changing up the main bad guy to make him a bit more epic in nature. To that end, I was considering replacing the final BBEG with Dahak, the first evil dragon, as detailed in the article on dragons in Pathfinder #4.

First, does anyone see a major problem with this? He is given deity-type statistics, but I figure 30th level characters should be facing gods (particularly weak ones that are only partially bound to the incarnate at the time of battle).

Second, is there any more information about Dahak kicking around the Paizo vault or upcoming in the Campaign Setting book?

Thanks,

O

What do we know about this Isle? I found it on the map of Avistan (west of Nidal, Varisia, and Cheliax) and it is mentioned in the Gazetteer under the sorcerers entry as ruled by someone who is "draconic." Is there further information somewhere else in the book? I hunted for like an hour, but couldn't find anything.

I ask, by the way, because I am running CotCT in 4th ed, and one of my PCs is a dragonborn. I would love to know if there is some secret island of draconic humanoids already established somewhere in Golarion.

Thanks,

O

As the thread says, my gaming group finished Rise of the Runelords today, and Karzoug was defeated (mostly). My players feel appropriately heroic, and, amazingly, only one character died (permanently) over the course of the entire AP. It was a blast, and I think everyone truly feels that Paizo published a quality product. Everyone is excited to start CotCT next week. That said, looking back, there are several things that I wish I had done differently and several things I DID do differently. In the interest of providing some feedback as well as possible guidance for those to come as they strive to prevent the return of the despicable Runelords, here are the things that I would or did do differently:

Burnt Offerings
This was a great start to the campaign and an adventure that my entire group enjoyed. I only wish I had played up the backgrounds a bit more and made the NPCs in this adventure more memorable for the players. As the DM, I know how interesting Nualia and her henchmen are, but I didn't do a good job of letting the PCs in on the whole backstory. I guess I didn't let them talk enough. Interaction with the NPCs in Sandpoint was pretty decent, though, and my players loved anything that had to do with getting to know and protecting the townsfolk. One of the PCs actually ended up marrying Shayliss in a huge ceremony. Sandpoint was a highlight of the adventure. I wish also that I had played up the wackiness of the goblins in Thistletop a bit more. When they attacked Sandpoint, I played it up, but at home, they were much more traditional goblins, which is a shame.

The Skinsaw Murders
My players' favorite adventure. It helped that I had the PC rogue burning down the area mills to impress the Szcarni. This naturally made him a suspect in the Sandpoint murders. Wheee! The scarecrow encounter didn't really work out for me, and I'm not sure if it was because I don't have the patience to run what was essentially a maze encounter, or if the individual ghouls were too easy. Either way, it ended up being pretty yawn-worthy. I should have played up the "human victims tied to sticks" aspect, to make the players unsure whether the twitching scarecrow was a ghoul worth killing or a human that needs to be saved. Foxglove Manor was amazing (everyone loves the haunts), even though Aldern was a little obvious as the bad guy. He was also a push-over at the end of the day, and I should have either: 1) given him some ghoul minions for support and 2) left him as a human. I think that would make what he's doing even creepier. Everyone knows monsters kill people ... when people kill people, that's eeeevil. I did the fix suggested for Xanesha and replaced her with Lucrecia from HMM, but it was still nearly a TPK, and escape came only with some friendly universe-shaking from the DM. So, in short, the encounters in this module were either too easy or too hard.

The Hook Mountain Massacre
This was probably my biggest change in the whole AP. I moved Fort Rannick MUCH closer to Sandpoint, playing on my players' desire to protect home-base, and they certainly appreciated it. I made Paradise a gambling den beneath the Fatman's Feedbag and let the rogue actually see it before it burnt down and killed his contacts in the Szcarni. The party met Xanesha and Lucrecia together and wiped them out this time. Overall, this part of the adventure went well, and my players leaped at the opportunity to fix up Fort Rannick and take over. In fact, the cleric in the party founded a new order, The Hand of the Light, to protect the surrounding countryside. In retrospect, I wish I had run the final battle with Barl Breakbones as a siege encounter, in which the remaining ogres and giants attacked Fort Rannick. As it stands, the players never got the opportunity to play with their new toy, which is the basic problem with the last half of the AP. After all this Sandpoint build-up ... off they go.

Fortress of the Stone Giants
This was probably the weakest of the adventures for my group, although the stone giant raid was awesome! Definitely one of the highlights of the campaign. From there, though, it seemed a bit unrealistic that these captives were hauled all the across the continent to be sacrificed and kept alive while the PCs traveled, planned, rested between fights, etc. The players wisely skipped most of the aboveground area of Jorgenfist, the black mummy and harpies were essentially a page-waste, and I dropped a lot of the off-theme encounters underground (the kobold barbarian, the trolls, the scanderig, and the shining child of Thassilon). I wish I had made the tribal situation above ground more political and something the PCs could have been involved in more directly. The idea that they just wander off after Mokmurian dies was sort of anti-climactic. I managed to rescue it a bit when the cleric took the Leadership feat. For his cohort, I gave him a young stone giant brave who had been sent to help the party by his tribe.

Sins of the Saviors
The Scribbler was a waste. I wish I had simply found another way to give the PCs the riddle that led to Runeforge. His guards and wards was simply annoying and he was a cakewalk, although the glabrezu caused some trouble. My players really enjoyed the remainder of this adventure, though, and the sin-themed dungeons were a hit. I wish they had been a bit more involved and that all 7 sins had had dungeons, but I understand space restrictions (stupid Scribbler!). The necromancy dungeon was too long, though, and I cut a fair number of the unnecessary encounters there. It was this adventure, by the way, in which my players finally commented on the Golarion diary fetish and vowed to never write anything down, when they became evil masterminds. I also should have either made the directions for creating runeforged weapons more clear or, since my players ended up with 6 different flavors of runeforged weapon, given them more opportunities to use the abilities of the non-domineering weapons.

Spires of Xin-Shalast
By this point in the campaign, my players were starting to look at each other at the beginning of each session and say things like, "Why are we doing this, again? We're trying to stop what now?" Karzoug had finally been identified as the BBEG, but the players had no sense of the urgency or of the consequences of failing to prevent his return. They had just been told (by a bad guy and a bad guy's diary, of course) that Karzoug needed to be stopped and said, "okay, I guess." I should have made it more clear how evil Karzoug was and made it more of a personal mission to stop him. At this point, they were so far away from Sandpoint that they had no personal attachment to anything that was going on at this point. The dwarven cottage was a nice touch, and one of my players actually said, "This is Pathfinder, so it's going to be creepy." I reworked Svevenka to make her a bit more interesting and useful, but my party never really needed her help, because ... they skipped Xin-Shalast. I should have seen it coming, but I figured they'd hit the Spire and then return to the city find Sihedron Rings. Turns out that the save DCs for the occlusion field were so ridiculously low that the whole party just weathered the storm until they killed some giants in the main spire and stole their rings. I did manage to throw Ghlorofaex at them, but they avoided everything else. Alas. Also, I didn't use the "death zone" altitude rules, as they seemed to be a real hassle and can only be overcome by a wizard (something my party lacked). The fights within the spire were pretty cool (except Viorian, who only got one turn), and the final battle against Ceoptra, Khalib, and minions was awesome.

In summary, my group very much enjoyed the AP, and I learned a great deal about how to run a whole campaign from start to finish (I ran Age of Worms, also, but RotRL was much more solid). I hope this information is an interesting read and maybe provides some suggestions for other DMs. YMMV. It seems CotCT has managed to correct some of the issues I had with RotRL, and I'm really looking forward to running it.

By the way, in case you're wondering, Karzoug was not slain. The party cleric managed to turn him into a ruby statue with Chellan, the sword of greed, and the Soul Lens was destroyed, stranding Karzoug in the pocket dimension of the Runewell as a statue, until someone comes along and dispels his transformation. Look for Rise of the Runelords II coming next summer, and this time it's personal!

O

Although I really like the specialist abilities and the distinction they add to the various specialist wizards, I fear that they ultimately lead to the same problem that clerics always faced in 3.5: domain abilities and spells didn't go far enough to make a cleric of a god of death, for example, feel really different in tone than a cleric of a god of war, for example. A single spell per spell level, with a fair amount of overlap between domains, does not create enough distinction between clerics (an issue that it seems the team recognizes, hence the changes to cleric domains). The specialist abilities seem to face the same problem. As has been brought up several other times on these boards, the primary benefit of specializing is an additional spell at each spell level, something specialists already had (with the flexibility to choose a spell, rather than having it assigned). I like the specialist bonus powers, the at-will component of the 1st level ability, and the fact that the 2nd level ability is available 1/day per 2 caster levels. In fact, I was thinking that the other powers should actually be extended along this line.

Suggestion: the 4th level power should be available 1/day per 3 caster levels, the 6th level power 1/day per 4 caster levels, etc.

Thus, a 9th level Illusionist would have illusions that last 3 extra rounds (specialist bonus), can shoot a blinding ray at will (1st level), can create a silent image 4/day (2nd level), can cast invisibility 3/day, can cast displacement 2/day, and can use his invisibility field power for a total of 9 rounds every day.

Although some might think this is a bit too overpowering for the specialist wizard, the spells that are being discussed here are not game breaking and make the wizard truly seem like part of a specialist group, rather than a dabbler (players shouldn't have to ask if an NPC is a specialist).

Thoughts?

O

I hate to add to the list, but PF #9 arrived today, sans Gazetteer.

O

Ok. So, in my campaign, we keep equating Thassilonian with Latin, given its ancient nature and seeming popularity with the adventuring crowd. This has been convenient, since I am a high school Latin teacher in my spare time, and I have been able to throw the occasional Latin quote at my players whenever someone (a sinspawn, for example) shouts at the PCs in Thassilonian, and it sounds really cool and foreign. (I'm not sure this is what Catullus had in mind when he wrote his poems, but at least they're getting some use.)

So, since I'm a big geek, with nothing better to do on a Friday night, I translated (quite poorly, I might add) The Scribbler's poem into Latin, just to make it feel a little more foreign. If anyone is interested, here it is:

Si veneficium desiderium clarum est
Ad Aenigmatiscaminum tibi abscendum est!
Ibi enim ars magica solum
Accipit initium iustum et commodum.

Litoribus eurois fumantis speculi,
cum vesper propior est fine diei,
Quo manent facies septem arcani
Custodes circumstantes ad portam Aenigmatiscamini.

Quidque saxum decus tyrannorum septem,
quisque dominator celat unam clavis partem;
Si libantur commodus prex et veneficia;
Septem claves accipe scalasque ascende.

Xin te exspectat gelida monte
Portis oscitantibus regali voce
Claves vertunt bis in Sihedrone --
Aenigmatiscaminus occultus manet intra.

Et nunc venisti caminoque iunxisti te
In eruditione rara mens tua se ingurgitare --
Et cum in via umbrarum facias iter
In Aenigmatiscamino diu labor tuus morabitur.

Ta-da.

Please enjoy!

O

So, the PCs find the strange land-bound ship in the Shimmerglens and, after some serious wiping at muck and moss, discover its name to be the Celestial Monarch (I don't remember now why this name popped into my head as I was desperately casting about for something (usually I change my favorite band names into things like inns, e.g. Jets to Brazil = Griffin's Flight to Waterdeep, Modest Mouse = The Humble Rodent, Built to Spill = The Leaning Tankard, etc.)). Anyway, the bard makes a ridiculous bardic knowledge roll, and suddenly I'm forced to come up with a story for the ship: Assuming the ship was named after its most prominent passenger, I declare that the bard has heard tales of a faerie queen of the First Realm that, as part of a pact with the humans of this world, wed one of the Linnorm Kings. The fey queen lived with her husband dutifully until the end of his mortal life, then packed her belongings onto a ship and set out into the expanse of the ocean and was never heard from again. My thinking is that she eventually ended up setting up shop in a foreign land, setting up a gate to the First Realm, and eventually we have the Shimmerglens.

My questions:

1) How long ago could something like this have happened? Could this be a story from Thassilonian times, or are Linnorm Kings a relatively new creation? I ask only because the PCs are determined to discover what area the nautical charts refer to. If they are pre-cataclysm, I have no problem telling them that they are impossible to place by anyone living. If younger than that, then it seems like someone should be able to figure them out. I could just make them maps of the Linnorm coast, but as I think about it, maybe it should be a chart that supposedly leads to a nautical route back to the First Realm, the faerie queen's passage home after fulfilling her end of the bargain with the humans. Sadly, the charts were mislabeled (on purpose?) and she was lost to the swamps. Hmmmm. Thoughts?

2) Are nymphs immortal? Could Myriana be that same faerie queen? After meeting her, the PCs already believe she is Queen of the Swamp and seemed truly moved by her desecration and death.

3) As a side-quest, I ran these PCs through Wingclipper's Revenge (Dungeon 132), in which they received a token (two-headed coin) from the Grey Man, which they can use to call in for a favor from the fey at some point down the line. Any thoughts on how to tie these two elements together?

I ask because I am frequently impressed by the creativity of folks on these boards. Any help is appreciated.

O

Has anyone considered "prettying up" the encounter with the hags and Lamatar on Hook Mountain? I was just looking at the covey powers of the hags and was thinking it would be more fun to pull the tried and true "beautiful damsel in distress" shtick, particularly since the hags are less than excited about their continued working relationship with Barl.

I imagine that as soon as the hags hear the combat between the PCs and ogre guards, they use mirage arcana to make their cave appear more comfortable, like a small cottage or boudoir (complete with lots of decadent pillows and gauzy hanging veils), veil to make Lamatar look like he did before he got "wight-ed," and disguise self to make themselves into the aforementioned "damsels." When the PCs bust in, the hags play all nice and convince them that they are a sorority of local "weather witches" and have been held here to make the rains that Barl wants. Lamatar keeps strangely quiet but backs up the sisters' story when prompted to do so. Assuming the PCs don't immediately attack, the hags offer a moment's rest and some nourishment, in the form of Oil of Taggit soup (Fort 15, unconsciousness). If the party all fail their saves (unlikely), the PCs wake as Barl's prisoners and get to enjoy his monologue about Mokmurian's power before they inevitably escape and kick butt. If at least some of the PCs remain awake, then the combat proceeds as the hags drop their illusions and Lamatar leaps into the fray.

Of course, if the PCs don't eat anything, the hags beg for the PCs to rescue them and, flee into the mountains, given the opportunity. The PCs might think they have successfully brought Lamatar back alive for Myriana, until the reveal, which should be fun. Also, the hags give one of the PCs a hag's eye as a reward, which allows them to show up later, when the time is right. Mwah ha ha.

The encounter seemed a little boring and too straightforward as written, so this seems like a better choice. Any suggestions or thoughts?

O

EDIT for more details.

I feel like this may have been addressed elsewhere on these boards, but I couldn't find the thread, so ...

I am somewhat unhappy with the fact that Fort Rannick is so far from the town that the PCs have been working so hard to defend for 2 adventures and was thinking it might be more fun to move it closer to Sandpoint. This would allow me to establish Paradise, the floating casino, within Sandpoint itself and run the possible inclusion of the PCs and allow them to witness (and possibly prevent) its burning down. Then, when the PCs clear out the ogres, they can take over a fort that lets them protect a town that is dear to them, rather than Turtleback Ferry, a place they've never heard of before arriving there. The final plus is the option to run a couple encounters from within the keep (once it's fixed up) against Mokmurian's stone giant scout parties, effectively protecting Sandpoint, prior to the all-out attack in PF #4.

My question, though: does anyone have a good suggestion as to where to move the fort so that it still has access to a river and makes sense as a fort intended to protect Sandpoint?

Also, does anyone see any major problems with this set up?

Thanks,

O

Does anyone out there (or Paizo staff) have any thoughts as to the mechanics for running a Bloatmage?

Just wondering if anyone has already put something together or if we should expect an "official" write-up.

o

Howdy ...

I am planning to start Burnt Offerings with 6 1st level characters, which isn't much different than the standard 4 character party (as opposed to the only other thread I could find about scaling, which involved 4th-5th level characters).

I have 2 questions:

1) Is there any official advice on scaling Burnt Offerings to work for 6 instead of 4 PCs? I could do it myself, I think, but it would be nice if I didn't have to do all the work.

2) Is scaling really necessary? I know that Dungeon adventures needed to be scaled because, as one-shot adventures, they had to be an appropriate challenge right away. RotRL, however, provides time for the XP system to balance things for me. With 6 PCs, XP will be more widely distributed, meaning slower level advancement, meaning that by the middle-end of Burnt Offerings, or so, the adventure should be balanced again. This means that things will start off easy, but I feel like that might be okay, given the story. On the other hand, this diluting of XP might lead to an underpowered party as we reach higher levels, since 6 4th level characters are not necessarily as powerful as 4 6th level characters (certainly 20 1st levels are not equal to 1 20th level). In which case, it might be necessary to beef up encounters just so there's enough XP to level everyone appropriately, or I might need to write side adventures for XP, but how often? I'm tempted to use the CR table to determine the party's "level," but I'm not sure it applies in that way. Does anyone have any thoughts about this?

Thanks,

O

did anyone else have a problem with the ulgurstasta sorcerer in Into the Wormcrawl Fissure having a 21 CR? my party chopped him up toot sweet, after dropping a greater dispel magic on him. with 6 rounds spent buffing himself and travelling, he didn't make it to the fight with the centipedes and scorpions until there was only 1 centipede left. he took one shot from a heal spell and got the heck out of dodge. then, when the PCs caught him in his lair, they GDMed him, and chopped him into little wormy pieces before he got to take his second action.

i should have caught this initially, but with a 25 AC, SR 21, and only 153 hp (after his false life is dispelled), it's not surprising that he didn't last long against 5 18th level characters. i was just a bit disappointed by how quickly he went down.

so, this is just my shout out to other DMs to maybe buff him a bit more (or just give him some more tactically advantageous terrain to run and hide in).

o

I recently had a player in my campaign cast a ForceCage around a flying target. As hard as i tried, i couldn't find anything that states that a force effect like that is affected by gravity or needs to be braced (a la web). so, i let it hang in midair for its duration.

thoughts?

o

hello ... wondering if anyone out there has any thoughts about an interesting response to the players' loose lips in The Whispering Cairn.

In my campaign, Khellek has come to Diamond Lake in search of a lost expedition of Seekers who found a tomb containing a strange lantern-puzzle and some ancient glyphs. Unfortunately, Khellek has the wrong place and is checking out the Stirgenest Cairn. Meanwhile, the PCs have begun plundering the Whispering Cairn and have found some interesting stuff (not the red lantern, though, and haven't passed through the face-trap). Having returned to Diamond Lake, the PCs have let slip to Khellek what they have found, and he is obviously interested.

Realizing that other party members may have spoken too freely, the party cleric (with the help of Allustan) has sold Khellek a false map to the Whispering Cairn that will hopefully throw him off track long enough for the PCs to finish looting the cairn. Unfortunately for the party, Khellek is no idiot and suspects a double-cross. The obvious plan is for Khellek and Auric to check out the (false) site from the map, while Tirra tails the PCs and discovers the true site. Once the rival adventurers know the true site, they move in. I have played Auric and Tirra as too genial to allow outright murder, but Khellek has no compunctions and the party cleric and fighter both have family in Diamond Lake.

I would like to allow the rivals to move in on the PCs' turf (to really make them RIVALS) but without disrupting the flow of the adventure. Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

O

Hi. i was wondering if anyone had any thoughts as to the tactics that the rival party might take in the following situation:

IMC, Kkellek and the Seekers are looking for a burial cairn in the hills with some sort of weird "lantern puzzle" that apparently destroyed a Seeker expedition a couple decades ago. unfortunately for them, they have the name wrong and Khellek was very disappointed to discover that the Stirgenest has nothing interesting to yield. meanwhile, the PCs have returned to town from the WC, not yet finished exploring, but having made significant progress. unfortunately, they have loose lips (and characters with low Wisdom) and let it become known to Khellek that they have found the cairn he has been looking for and that it is full of goodies to be plundered.

one of the PCs (the cleric) figured out that this might be a really bad thing, so he asked Allustan (who doesn't like Khellek) to make up a map of the surrounding hills with some cairns marked on it. the cleric mislabeled the map and sold it to Khellek for cheap, cuz he had to get out of town quick. the PCs are hoping this little deception will give them time to finish looting the WC and get the heck outta Dodge.

well, Khellek's no idiot, and the PCs' cleric and fighter both have family in Diamond Lake. so, my initial thought was to have Tirra tail the PCs as they head out of town (which the PCs will be expecting and may take precautions for), while Khellek makes plans to make the PCs miserable. i think Auric and Tirra (as i've run them so far) are a bit too amiable to go for the murder of the PCs' families, but certainly Khellek must have some nefarious ideas. Anyone out there have some thoughts?

o

I am considering running an Iron Kingdom version of the Age of Worms adventure path. I feel like the mood and atmosphere of Diamond Lake lend themselves quite nicely to the SteamFantasy aesthetic.

If anyone else is familiar with the setting, do you have any suggestions for the elements that are not obviously translated? These include: the Wind Dukes, the Chaos Lords, the elementals in the Whispering Cairn, the 3 gods involved in the Ebon Triad.

Thanks in advance.

o

Let me start by saying that I was really impressed with The Whispering Cairn and planned to run the Age of Worms adventure path based on what appeared to be a really interesting and well-though-out adventure. The Three Faces of Evil, however, I found extremely disappointing for a variety of reasons which I will elaborate below. I am writing this not simply to complain but in the hopes that the writers of future Age of Worms adventures are reading (Sean K., this means you) and will put a bit more effort and thought into their work than has been presented in 3FoE. Ok, here is a non-exhaustive list of my issues with the adventure:

-=* SPOILERS *=-

1) Motivation. It appears that there is an assumption here that the PCs will want to follow up on the green worm from The Whispering Cairn (hope the PCs found it and gave it to Allustan to decipher). There is about half a page of discussion about what a bad guy Balabar Smenk is and then no real reason why the PCs would want to do anything that he suggests. "Roleplay him as all the more annoying, arrogant, and grating..." (p. 20). Oh, yeah, cause we all know how eager players are to work with the really obnoxious NPCs.

2) The Mine. Sometime between The Whispering Cairn and 3FoE, the Dourstone Mine turns into a veritable fortress, complete with stockade (which appears to have a 400' perimeter) and a watchtower (!). Ragnolin has 2/3 as many guards as the Free City Garrison! Presumably, not every mine in Diamond Lake has as strong a defense force, or more than 10% of the town's residents would be guards. Therefore, this copper?/iron? mine sticks out like a sore thumb. This is hardly the best way to keep a SECRET cult secret. I'd also like to mention the dozen dwarves that suddenly appeared, when a mere handful lived in Diamond Lake in WC. Finally, we are told that Ragnolin would rather pay a few guards to keep the workers in line, but none of the guards are guarding the workers. They're all out patrolling the estate.

3) The Elevator. First, why is this area boarded up (DC 18 Strength check) if cultists pass through here twice every day (to join the guards)? Secondly, if the winch mechanism is ON the elevator, then all the cultists are trapped below during the day when the human cultists have presumably left the elevator at the top of the shaft, and no one (including PCs) can descend at night (when the assault seems most likely). This is okay from a realism point, but grinds the game to a halt.

4) Errors. Some of these have been mentioned previously in other threads (commoners with proficiencies in 2 weapons, curtain instead of door to Theldrick's room, missing cultist quantity, etc.), but their proliferation is astounding. Some examples: Garras, Kendra, and Theldrick all wield heavy flails (2-handed weapons) while wearing shields; we are never told what the book on G&K's table is; grimlocks are not proficient with shields (i'll grant them morningstars); the grimlock barbarian's knives are described as "dull, rusty" and her armor is "battered," but it turns out they are masterwork daggers (complete with +1 to hit) and +1 studded leather armor (and how the heck did she preserve the drow head?); the grimlock chieftain's damage with the greataxe should be 1d12+9 when he is raging; the acolytes of Vecna cast message to warn the Faceless One, but they don't even have that spell in their grimoires, let alone memorized; twice grimlocks are said to use their longspears to hold off PCs, but they don't HAVE longspears; and so on.

5) Darkness. I understand the desire to make the dungeon creepy and play to the monsters' strengths, but not everyone can wander around in utter darkness just to tick off the PCs. Dire weasels, for example, don't have darkvision. I can't imagine how they wander around that maze in the dark. Further, I imagine the kenku need at least a candle to see in the secret passages (where the PCs' torches don't shine).

6) Kamikaze bad guys. EVERYONE in this adventure fights to the death (except for the guards topside). This seems like a copout. The theory being that the writer didn't have enough space, time, or energy to create personalities for the named NPCs, so they never speak and just keep swinging till they're dead. That's 5th-grade D&D. Even the set-up for some encounters: "The grimlocks are under strict orders to never disturb Grallak. Thus, the guards assume that intruders are at hand if anyone approaches" (p. 37). REALLY? None of the grimlocks EVER have to talk to Grallak? How does he get food? So anytime anyone approaches, Grallak's 3 guards stab first, ask questions later. This seems lazy. Like all the writer wants is a big, long fight scene. Which brings me to the last point ...

7) One Big, Long Fight Scene. This "adventure" is just that. Not only is it all dungeon crawl, with a brief nod to "infiltration" through a dozen guards, but almost every single room is loaded with badguys. Many of them are unnecessarily redundant or confusing (chokers? why?) with no real way to get past them without an unavoidable battle (to the death) everytime. Again, this reminds me of the dungeons I used to draw when I first started playing D&D 20 years ago: full of unavoidable battles with no interaction or story (in short, no ROLE-PLAYING). This whole adventure is a miniatures game, essentially.

Whew. Sorry about the length of this post, but these things have really been bothering me, and I hope that those in power take a look at what their readers have to say and think about the product we're shelling out good $ for.

o