Big Jake's page

missing bag of

called life. In

You might consider adding in some more encounters in "The Spire of Long Shadows" to bulk out XP...

That's sound advice. I do need to work in an encounter anyways. One party member recently aquired an amount of enmity between him and an evil outsider, thanks to The Deck of Many Things.

Part of the reason that they are eager to leave is that one PC lost 20k xp to the DoMT, and another gained a -1 penalty on all saves. They're kinda hoping for a wish spell or two to help them out. After that, they may intend to finish the tomb.

Another aspect is strictly from a role-playing side... they need Allustan to help out Diamond Lake. The PCs want to set up either a new ruling system or oust all of the corrupt mine managers, and they believe that Allustan will be a key person to work with... to the point that they don't think that they can cause change without his influence. Even with the possibility of great treasure, they are very concerned with fixing up a few things (and people), and I think that the Tomb isn't holding great sway with them right now.

We started GoW last session, and the PCs found Allustan fairly quickly. They followed his tracks, didn't look left or right, found him, saved him, then said "Okay... let's go meet Manzorian!" (They brought Eligos back to life, and he told the PCs that they should go to Allustan to seek an audience with Manzorian.)

I transferred my shock into Allustan:

"Allustan looks a little taken aback and says, 'Don't you want to find Icosial's tomb first? Who knows what we may find here?'"

We were wrapping up at that point, but right now the players seemed content to walk away and move on. I'm not sure what I should do if they don't want to explore the rest of the tomb. Hmm.

Koopa Pasta. The

I introduced a Deck of Many Things, and the party bard (Bard 10/Seeker of the Song 1) said he'd draw two.

First he drew Ace of Diamonds: Know the answer to your next dilema. "Cool", he said.

Then he drew Joker (with trademark): Loose 10,000 xp and must draw again. "Crap!", he said, to a bit a laughing.

Then he drew the Joker (with trademark) again!: Lost another 10,000 xp and must draw agian. "No way!", a little laughing, mostly from the DM.

Then he drew Ace of Clubs: All magic items you posses disappear permanently. "This sucks!", with still some laughing and a couple of I-told-you-so's.

As the player gets up for a smoke break, I said "Hey, there is one good thing..."

"What?"

and another player (Ix) interupted:

"You just saved a bundle on car insurance!"

vaccine potions. The

trainers, groomers, groupies,

jackalope, but not

jackalope. The rogue

Little children are always roleplaying, just watch.

No doubt. I have a 5 year-old daughter who is able to carry on a conversation with a stuffed animal.

She loves hanging around the game table, and little by little, she's become more involved. Last game, the druid's animal companion failed a save v. confusion and ended up attacking the druid. My daughter was there, so she rolled all the attacks and damage.

She watches us at the table and imitates what she sees. At first it was rolling dice. Then it was rolling dice and saying "missed... darn it!" Then she was rolling dice and reading the numbers off them. Then she was rolling dice and writing the numbers down on a piece of paper. (She still doesn't have a good grasp on adding, but I see her working up to it.) Then she was moving the miniatures around. Then she was choosing two miniatures to fight each other. Then she was rolling dice and moving minatures as well.

I figure sometime this year she'll want to sit down and play some D&D together. We already spend time "play acting," so she understands how to pretend to be someone else...a waitress, a police woman, "the Daddy" (she'll put on my BDU hat and tell me what to do, because she's the Daddy!), and all sorts of things. I think she'll really like playing D&D.

paddle battle muddle.

I can't wait to see it! I have the poster of the AoW painting framed and I hang it up for most of my gaming sessions (when I remember to pick it up).

I hope it will be made available as a print as well.

by lifting a

"The Scarlet Brotherhood" has a chapter on the Amedio Jungle.

I love the book as a whole, but I'm having a hard time using the info on the Amedio Jungle with AoW.

I think my problem stems from running Shackled City as a "Forgotten Realms-friendly" campaign. Plus, the location of Cauldron near the Almedio Jungle was done retro-actively, and the encounter tables and description of the local towns and settlements don't seem to mesh well with the descriptions from The Scarlet Brotherhood.

The adventure doesn't really invite exploring outside the Spire itself, so it doesn't have to come into play at all, but does anyone have any suggestions on how to play up any jungle encounters using The Scarlet Brotherhood as a reference?

.... "serpentine, serpentine!"

LOL! You're showing your age! Careful... you might confuse the young 'uns with quotes like that.

, and they quickly

, also known as

Will 'o Wisp Vs. Lantern Archon

Hound Archon Vs. Chain Devil

Shambling Mound Vs. Black Pudding

To the North is the Empire of Iuz and the shield lands. Alhaster is in the shield lands? Does Prince Zeech have anything to do with Iuz? I am looking for a way to have Iuz, or his minions at least make an appearance in my campaign.

Let's see if I remember this well:

Zeech, as the rightful ruler of Redhand, cut ties with the other Shield Land "nations" before the Greyhawk Wars. When Iuz's forces came through he didn't rally his troops to help the Shield Lands fight, and simply yielded his lands to Iuz.

Zeech was left in control of Redhand, with his capitol in Alhaster, but he pretty much reports to one of Iuz's priest-generals who sees over the area from another city (I forget the name) north of Alhaster.

So, if you want to include references to Iuz, he has his priests and generals throughout the Bandit Kingdoms. The first best chance to use them would be in Prince of Redhand, though it would be foolish for the PCs to mix it up with them at this point.

By the end of the AP, if the PCs take control of Alhaster, they will have to contend with Iuz's forces and try to make ammends with the neighboring nations, making up for the deeds of Zeech. At that point, they will be 21st level or higher, and you will have lots of opportunities to throw Iuz into the mix.

The celebration alerted

Greyhawk can be complicated at times, especially if you haven't been following it for years. (Anyone want to explain Ringland to me?)

I love the Living Greyhawk Gazeteer, but it does lack simple things like an index, a listing of deities by culture, racial bonuses for the various elves, for example.

As for who runs what:

The Duchy of Urnst and the County of Urnst continue to be separate nations, each with their own rulers and distinct governments, and neither govern Greyhawk.

Greyhawk remains a Free City governed by a Lord Mayor, elected by the governing oligarchy. The Cairn Hills, where Diamond Lake is, were ceded to Greyhawk in CY 584 (AoW -11).

I played up the fact that the hills used to belong to the Duchy of Urnst, and some of the mine mangers still smuggle out some of their ore that way, paying tribute to old ties.

There are several Greyhawk experts on the boards, including Erik Mona, and Rexx, so hopefully they can fill in some of the nitty-gritty for you (or us), or provide links to useful sites.

post is HERE!

...it's quite obvious at this point in the AP that they've "graduated" and coming back to the podunk town they started in is awkward.

I think that the return to Diamond Lake is inherently awkward. The players were looking forward to returning "home" after more than two months in the Free City, and all it took was a few descriptive phrases of the state of Diamond Lake to make it feel smaller than they remembered.

They definately feel like they've "graduated," as you say. I described these new adventurers as either wearing old mix-matched armor and adventuring gear, or items so new "you can still see the creases in them." They kinda smiled a bit, thinking about how far they've come from where they started, and I think they were genuinely interested in helping out the new guys.

worthy of such

The Pay-Out

The PCs won’t receive payment from the NPCs. The “pay-out” for being a patron of an adventuring party is information and influence. Just as the PCs’ interaction with Allustan forwards the plot of the adventure path, so should their interaction with their new employees.

After some time allowed for the NPCs to complete their task, they return with information, or clues to follow-up on. Perhaps they recover a chest that belonged to the former Twisted Branch clan chief, filled with recently minted coins bearing the imprint of the Principality of Redhand. While the NPCs will no doubt want to keep the treasure, they can deliver one coin to the PCs, giving them a clue to Ilthane’s stomping grounds. Perhaps they encounter a group of kobolds returning from a pilgramige with pieces of black dragon eggs, indicating that Ilthane (or her mate) may have another lair somewhere in the swamp. Perhaps they discover alchemically enhanced undead, indicating a location where Ilthane conducted more experiments. Maybe they find clues that tie Ilthane to Dragotha, mysterious books with missing text that will become clear after the events in “The Library of Last Resort,” or letters that describe how other Ebon Triad cultists have created stronger Ebon Aspects.

The main idea is that you present information that will help them along their way, and let the players know that their money and faith in the NPCs doesn’t go unrewarded. And hopefully they will feel more ties to the world they play in.

The Task

The PCs can pay the group to perform any number of tasks that they can’t immediately attend to themselves. This includes escorting the lizardfolk representative with the Free City treaty back to the Twisted Branch lair, investigating Ilthane’s other interests in the Mistmarsh, taking a message to the new leader of the Twisted Branch tribe, or tracking down another Ebon Triad cult or investigating the appearance of Kyuss-spawn in the swamp or beyond.

Whatever the task is, it should be something that the PCs are interested in being done, within the scope of the Age of Worms adventure path or not, and something they consider worth to pay for it to be done. If the PCs can’t come up with any ideas, have the NPCs toss one out.

The Price

The NPCs will accept any amount of payment, but will initially negotiate for more if offered less than 250 gp each. They are in sore need of adventuring gear (Father Childramun doesn’t even own a suit of armor) and provisions.

If the party doesn’t routinely sell off all the treasure they acquire over the course of the adventure path, they probably quite literally have a bag of +1 longswords and other useful items. If the task they want to be done is important enough, it is in the PCs’ best interest to give up a few items for them to use. Play this up as you see fit.

Velias Childramun (LG male human cleric 4, Overload p. 19, Dungeon #124 p. 58)

No one is more distraught than Father Childramun over the deaths of so many. He has never looked his age, but now he looks older than he is, and the lack of restful sleep isn’t helping. He is torn between what he wants to do… and that what he believes he should do. He wishes to stay in Diamond Lake to see over the funerals of many he knew as children, and to watch over the children of their own that are left orphaned. But his dreams of the past few months have become clear to him.

His dreams have revolved around darkness and shadow, clouds and storms. Usually in places he could not identify, vast swamps, foreign city streets, smothering jungles, and bleak deserts, but sometimes places he knew well. The dreams were infrequent at first, but now pervade every sleeping moment. What he once thought was just “a bit of gravy” influecing his dreams, he now knows are omens sent from Pelor. With each dream repeating itself over and over, he began to notice things he didn’t see before: points of light within the shadow, pushing against the darkness, holding off the approaching storms. He believes that he has been called by Pelor to bring His light to the darkness, not to wait for the darkness to come to him.

When he saw Merris talking with Mélinde the other night by torchlight, he believed it was a sign that he was to join the group. He believes in the abilities of the others in the group, but after spending his entire life in Diamond Lake, he is unsure if he has in him what Pelor is asking.

Merris Sandovar (NG male human ranger 3, Overload p. 15, Dungeon #124 p. 57)

Merris was returning from a diplomatic trip to Blackwall Keep, with Valkus Dun and Dietrik Cicaeda, when Ilthane attacked Diamond Lake. He is angry about the dragon attack and plans to take out his anger on the next dragon that crosses his path. (Give him favored enemy dragon +4 at 5th level.) He hasn't cleaned his travelling outfit since returning to Diamond Lake, and he looks a little road-weary, but there is no missing the determined glint in his eyes or the smell of freshly fletched arrows in his quiver.

Merris stands next to Mélinde with his hand on her shoulder. He allows the two women to do all of the talking because he considers himself to "get along with animals better than 'umanfolk." He will be able to tell the PCs that as of 9 days ago the Twisted Branch clan was unharmed, but admits that the dragon could have attacked the lair anytime after he left, or that the dragon has headed that way after the attack on the town.

His friendship with Captain Trask is still the strongest relationship he has in Diamond Lake, but his anger and desire for action is strong enough to lead him on what he sees as “the right thing to do.” He is glad to have Mélinde in the group. Though it a lot to convice her that she is capable of leading a team, he is confident that her leadership and martial prowress will pull them through whatever they will face.

Proud Polly (CN female human rogue 3, Overload p. 11 "Companion" and p. 21 "Emporium Encounters")

The PCs recognize Polly as an *ahem* employee of the Veiled Corridor. Due to the timing of the dragon's attack, most of the employees and clientele of the Emporium were not in the building and survived the destruction of the establishment. Many of them are waiting to see if their services will still be needed when Zalamandra re-opens, but Polly is ready to move on. It was Polly who approached Merris with the idea of forming an adventuring party, hoping he would be able to recruit from the garrison's militia and clergy. She is extremely happy having Mélinde and Father Childramun in this group.

Polly speaks for the others, as she is the least "shook up" over the dragon attack. She considers herself the leader of the group but realizes that without a clear short-term goal the group will not likely work together. She also knows that they need money to get them started, and that without a single magic weapon among them they may not be able to overcome many obstacles.

She tells the PCs that they want to help, but they're not sure how. If the PCs suggest that they stay in town and help rebuild, she says that they want to take a more active approach, "...like you guys." A sense motive check DC 10 will reveal that they are looking for a paid job, and they will accept any offer from the PCs.

If the PCs don't readily offer magic weapons, Polly makes a point of telling them that they don't have any, and that the fight against the dragon has proven that they are sorely under-equipped. (Depending on how your party distributes treasure, it may be possible that they have several extra +1 longswords.) They will graciously accept any magic weopons the PCs can give, and will understand if they won't give them away, or if they don't have any.

Here's an idea I've incorporated into my AoW campaign:

When the PCs return from the Free City in "A Gathering of Winds," they find out that Ilthane has attacked Diamond Lake. You can use this opportunity to introduce a group of NPCs that have banded together to try to take an active part in the goings-on in the area. The NPCs go to the party members looking for some guidance and funding.

The cast: (Taken from Age of Worms Overload and Dungeon #124)

Mélinde (LG female human paladin 3, Overload p. 15, Dungeon #124 p. 58)

The usually exuberant red-haired paladin is uncommonly quiet and morose. She hesitates to speak with the party members, allowing Polly to do most of the talking, especially when asking for money or magic weapons. Many of the garrison soldiers were killed during the dragon's attack, including all those in her platoon. She feels responsible for their deaths, and feels uncomfortable asking for what she feels is "a handout."

Initially she only speaks of the destruction that the dragon caused, and the deaths of those she knew, speaking in short, cold sentences while staring at the ground. It is evident that she is shaken up from her experience. If the PCs treat her with respect for her abilities, possibly pointing out that some of their own comrades have fallen, she soon comes out of her shock and can describe the dragon's tactics.

HoHR: The players killed the mimics in Sodden Hold and move on to the next room to free the prisoners. After they killed the "prisoners" that attacked them, they saw the bodies change from their human forms.

One player: "Wow... they're, like, SUPER mimics!"
Another player (Ix): "You mean, like, DOPPLEGANGERS?"
First player: "Oh..." with a sad little look on his face.

his daily affirmation:

to your enemies!"

want to offer

Wow... here I am 5 months later. I finally got the lower-level party into play in my Age of Worms campaign. Here's the gist:

****Some Age of Worms Spoilers****

The party members (now 11th level) returned to Diamond Lake after spending just over two months in the Free City (Greyhawk, for me) and having won the Champions' Games. They teleported back to their house and discovered some people were there, apparently making themselves somewhat comfortable.

With a few quick introdutions, they discover that the three people were Velias Childramun and Melinde (from the Chapel of Heironeous) and Proud Polly, a recently unemployed *ahem* compainion from the Emporium. They told the PCs that they had been waiting for their return, and told them about the destruction of the town, the black dragon, and Allustan.

After answering all the PCs' questions, they said that the attack by the dragon destroyed their sense of safety, and instead of staying in town fixing things, they would rather go out and be involved... "like you guys."

The players at first were like "okay, good... go get 'em" and I asked for a Sense Motive check, then I said "you feel like they're asking you for a job... a paying job... and some guidance."

The lights went on, and the party cleric sat down and went into great detail all about the Age of Worms, the Ebon Triad, and whatnot, to which the NPCs just kind of went blank-eyed and nodded.

The druid then asked if they knew a tracker, and they said they did. So he said, "Get your tracker, escort this lizardfolk back to the Twisted Branch tribe, and deliver this note to their new leader." The NPCs' eyes lit up at the easier to understand agenda.

They gave the NPCs some gold and two +1 longswords when it became clear that the new adventurers didn't have an enchanted weapon between all of them. In exchange, the NPCs will handle the final part of the treaty, and look into Ilthane's other dealings in the swamp... something they wanted to do to try to find the dragon's lair.

The idea worked great, and it seemed that the players were interested in having their own "pawns" in the great dragonchess game.

I've now started on what kind of information the NPC party can bring that will lead the PCs on... most likely freshly minted coins from a particular area near Ilthane's lair.

I have two daughters, one 5 year-old and an 18-month old. They both love to be around the D&D table and will often roll dice for whomever they are nearest.

The TV is on pretty much constantly, but we're usually not in front of it except for breakfast and lunch, or on "pajama days." The girls pretty much play with their toys, chase the dog, color, pick on the dog, snack, tease the dog, fight each other (that started sooner than I expected), let the dog out unsupervised, play, go out and look for the dog, get ready for bed, give the dog a break.

They love music, and we listen to Dora the Explorer, Veggie Tales, The Wiggles, Playhouse Disney, Kim Possible, Little People CDs, Blue's Clues, Strawberry Shortcake, just to name the most popular.

My 5 yr-old has recently discovered that she likes jazz, "Daddy's Music," as well as country, "Mommy's music." I think the jazz started this past Christmas as I was playing Brian Setzer. She liked it so much that it barely left the car CD for a week.

We have a lot of DVDs, and I think that the Scooby Doo movies/tv series get the most viewing time.

I play trumpet, and the girls will usually end up in whichever room I'm practicing in, usually with a xylophone or drum. My older girl likes to blow into the trumpet, and can make a single note, and will sometimes stand in front of my music stand and sing or make "trumpet sounds."

As for D&D, she also likes to take the miniatures and stage fights with them. She recently started rolling dice and writing down the numbers that she gets. I guess I'm going to have to help her make a character soon. :)

the PostMonster General.

1)Dungeon 128 - Arena battle 1:

How do you handle the 3 other groups? I don't want to run all 3 with the PC's action intermixed. I think the player's will get very bored as they will not see much action with all the groups and battle will take a long time between their turns.

We rolled one initiative for each group, using the leaders' initiative modifiers. It worked out okay, and it was definately easier for me to run each group. I let the players make any alliance they wanted, then ran the other groups per their motivations as presented in the magazine.

It still took quite a bit of time between actions, but they were interested in what each group was doing, so I don't think anyone got bored. The whole fight went down in like 5 rounds using this method. Having the groups concentrate fire at the same time (instead of each person on separate initiative) sped up the demise of the NPC groups.

before it could

why it took

She replied, "Wow...

But it was against the Froghemoth that things almost got away from the party. Firstly, they were immediately incensed by the delay and wanted to walk out...

Oh, yeah... my group yelled foul at me as well. I just said, "hey... I'm running this as written" with a satisified smile. A couple of the players were ready to leave, but one reminded the rest of the amount of money that the thieves' guild had on them and suggested that they just wait it out.

Almost everyone was grappled. The cleric had some spell on him that made him automatically win any grapple checks (I don't remember which one), and the druid's summoned elementals were, once again, very effective.

I am a big fan of the Deluxe Character Sheets, and I've downloaded all of the ones from the WotC website that were made for all of the classes in the Complete series.

Is it possible to get four-page PDF Deluxe Character Sheets for the new classes in the Dragon Compendium? I know that I can use the general character sheet for them, but it would be neat to have specific sheets for each of the classes, so that the sheets can include class-specific items, like two spell progression charts for the Savant.

The perfect party:

Cleric
Druid
Bard
Rogue
Savant (From Dragon Compendium)

I love a party that includes PCs with lots of skill points and knowledge-based skills. I like groups that don't rely on a single PC to "get the job done." I also don't like to deal with some of the high-level arcane spells, so the lack of a wizard/sorceror is okay with me.

If the above list didn't have the savant, I really like the Archivist (from Heroes of Horror), the Delver (from Path of Shadow), the Scout (from Complete Adventurer), or if I had to choose another core class, the Ranger.

My current party is: Half-Orc Druid (with racial substition levels from Races of Destiny), Kender Rogue, Elf Bard/Seeker of the Song, Elf Cleric/Entropomancer, Half-Doppleganger Rogue/Psion/Elocator. They really have to rely on each other's abilities to get through the different encounters, and they do a great job.

I got my copy of Dragon in the mail today, and I had the silly thought of Paizo sending me a Valentine's gift.

I just wanted to say, Thanks for being my Valentine, Paizo! I'm sorry I didn't send anything, but you'll be getting my re-subscription money soon :)

Wow... what a difference between groups. IMC, the bard made a great bardic knowledge check, and I gave him a little quote that he had heard:

"The Apostle of Kyuss will rise, feasting on the Champion"

The players had no idea what the "Apostle of Kyuss" was, or what would happen if it ate "the Champion," but they took it to mean that they needed to protect Auric at all costs.

When they finally saw the ulgurstasta, they still didn't really know what it was they were facing... until it was released.

When they studied the scrolls and understood the implications of what might have happened, everything started to make sense. They understood that Auric received help from Raknian (giving the golem manual to Khellek, etc.) ensuring that they survived to the final round for the sacrifice.

To them, the Champion's Belt itself was secondary. But now that they've managed to avert dissaster, they want to win.

If Bozal (sp??) is defeated how is the big undead worm released. I thought he's the only one who can do it. Can Raknarian (sp).

Anyone with a rod of cancellation can release the ulgurstasta. IMC, the PCs took Bozal down to exactly 0 hp, and with his partial action he released the creature. I considered his action to cause him to drop to -1, so that encounter didn't feel anti-climatic at all.

Fighting the ulgurstasta early will still be tough, because more than likely the PCs will burn a lot of their spells/items just getting there. The fight should push their abilities to their limits.

My group will finish up The Champion's Belt this weekend and move into A Gathering of Winds. We play every other week, and it's taken 3-4 sessions per adventure. I figure we're going to finish the AP by the end of the year, and we may speed things up to make sure we can.