B_Wiklund's page

Many congrats Hill giant. Good luck on the long task ahead! Looking forward to the seeing the end product. And a congrats to all the other 2nd rounders!

Looking back on the two adventures (I've already ran them) I'd agree there are some railroad elements. However, they are at least dramatic railroads. Namely the two that stick out are Journey's End and the shipwreck.

For the SWW I highly recommend that the PCs are in charge of the ship. When I started the campaign I provided 4 extra 'occupation' skill points for professions and knowledges and did make clear that nautical elements would be prominent. So one PC was the Captain and the other the Navigator. The NPCs for those roles became aides of sorts to the PCs for those tasks.

The NPC cast goes a long way to keep the journey interesting and unexpected events flowing. For instance, the Avner character underwent a lot of changes as the cleric was intent on 'rehabilitating' the cad and making a hero out of him. It took a long time and many attempts but ultimately Avner did become a better person and even figured prominently in the defense of Farshore against the pirates in TOD.

Journey's End is unavoidable but my player's did enjoy that section a great deal. The creepiness of the situation and finding the source of the problem gave them enough hooks to go along with it.

The shipwreck was tweaked slightly as the party was responsible for navigating the ship so they could at least beach it near the shore and keep the damage to a minimum (making the restoration of it easier once they obtained supplies from Farshore). The party still felt their actions were influencing the outcome of the event.

As for HTBM when I ran it the players spent along time conferring on the beach as to what to do. They talked about building rafts, heck even hangliders. In the end they did take the overland route (mainly because the cleric was tired of sinking in water with his full-plate). So again I felt my players had choices and options.

Overall it really depends on the group and the DM's willingness to improvise, embellish the written material and keep the game enjoyable. Both of these adventures were amongst my favourites to run in the path though TOD was probably my favourite.

Lightless Depths
Tlaloc's Crater

After successfully destroying Tlaloc's Tear but not its guardian (replaced brain collector with beholder.) the priest in full plate not as fast as the other party members was not able to get out of range from the Finger of Death eye ray in time. He rolled a scorching 2 on the Fort save. Interstingly, the party fled Golismorga back to Farshore. Should provide a bit of a twist since by the time they return the whole place will be flooded with cranky aboleth.

While I can agree with the principle of 'you broke it you own it' re the Us and Iraq, it's hard to tell anyone who's having to serve over there; 'yeah basically unwinnable but you're stuck with it now.' No, in the end the U.S. will pull out on the basis of self-interest. There will be some attempt to claim a 'victory' (I mean Bush did say earlier mission accomplished right?). And yep it will embolden terrorists and other nutjobs. Whilst Lovecraft and international politics usually don't mix he said it best; "Do not summon one which ye cannot put down."

I'd be interested in hearing how you compressed the Lightless Depths and the City. I've thought of doing that but why reinvent the wheel...

I'm keeping Emrag, and the trogs but after the trog village speed up journey to Golismorga. After dealing with Holashner's Ziggurat I'll make the shaft more noticeable. With any luck the PCs will use the shaft to exit after dispatching Tlaloc's Tear. I know in City of Broken Idols it states the PCs would interrupt an army of 100 Skinwalkers but I'll alter that (probably use a group like the one the PCs are supposed to encounter en route to the plateau.

Also has anyone used Stormwrack to change the way some of the sea adventure parts went, or any homebrew or other seagoing ideas? I may use other kinds of ships than the caravels that seem to dominate this AP.

I defintely have been making use of Stormwrack for marine terrain, spells, gear etc. I tried the Narrative Naval combat once. My group didn't really enjoy it and neither did I. I've simplified it to opposed Profession (Sailor) checks as to whether the ship is boarded or gets away. Describe in general some of the action but go straight to the boarding for actual combat.

I've been modifying it a bit as we've gone along. Reducing lengths of dungeoncrawls, eliminating some encounters, adding some sidetreks etc. Mostly I've been using it as is. The party just finished Tides of Dread and now I'm looking at considerably shortening the campaign. The Lightless Depths/City of Broken Idols is going to be condensed into one. After Serpents I will probably eliminate all the adventures save for the confrontation with Demogorgon. That will take some work but I wasn't impressed with the other abyssal adventures and felt it needed to cut to the chase.

When: Tides of Dread Vanthus Encounter
Who: Human Cleric 10

After wading through hordes of vrocks, yuan-ti etc. and having done pretty well only 2 of the party members got to aid Lavinia (the others were a few rounds behind them). The cleric took a full attack from Vanthus dropping him in a hurry. Psion in the party with 8 hp left narrowly avoided the same fate courtesy of a Quicken Power Mind Thrusts just before Vanthus' next action.