Black Dougal's page

Just an idea: maybe it is the only power the circlet does have at the moment. James said that its additional properties are yet to be revealed, but that does not mean that they are there or even dormant. Maybe they will be added later on, who knows?

Bocklin

I love the power the authors have writting this stuff. Erik could have wrote that the noble's outfit the dead goblin is wearing appears normal, but has additional qualities that will be elaborated in future AP installments, and the entire board would then spend months debating what cool thing the outfit is for..and then the staff could totally crush expectations by saying it simply has an enchantment that keeps it perfectly pressed.

What I'm saying is that given the lead-in this circlet has gotten, it better be meaningful! I'm talking like immunity to mind control from abberations or something like that..

I thought the syringe is a very interesting idea. I start to wonder at the technology level. The ability to make a thin metal needle with with a hollow center..that takes a level of precision your standard fantasy setting won't have.

Therefore, I gotta assume this is a totally expensive device, very hard to make, using the skills of several experts in a big city.

I let my players sell it to the town alchemist for 1000gp. Saves me the trouble of worrying about all kinds of nasty things they could have done with it.

I don't know about you, but after I felt like I was being watched, I'd like to find out what the heck was up. And when I found notes form the Faceless One warning the other cultists that me and my friends (mentioned by name) were...

I love it..why did I feel like I was having an x-files moment when reading this..

Diamond Lake is all a big Conspiracy.

the truth is out there

Dragotha's abilities were actually very different from the dracoliches in the Forgotten Realms setting.

It was a completely different (and much cooler, IMHO) take on an undead dragon with almost none of the same abilites and weaknesses. That's what I hope they keep, because it will be a big, nasty surprise to players who have read Draconomicon or a FR book and think they know what they're up against.

The death wind, in case you were wondering, was one of his four breath weapons. Basically it's a black cloud that makes targets save or die and the ones that die immediately reanimate as intelligent undead under Dragotha's control.

It's sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

EDIT: Dragotha is male.

Well, both White Plume Mountain and Return to White Plum Mountain don't actually indicate what sex the dead wyrm is. I'll defer to it being male since I don't have evidence to the contrary. No idea why I thought it was female.

Why not start with the 3.5e stats for a dracolich from the Draconomicon?

Yes, they could do that. I haven't bought the Draconomian yet as I am still miffed at having bought all the 2nd edition stuff (including the Draconomian for 2nd edition) and seeing it made obsolete. Slowly I am capitulating but haven't picked that up yet.

straight-up fight, which is bound to end in tragedy.

This kind of worried me too. My characters, with the help of the ridiculously seductive half-elven rogue, managed to charm the info out of Kullen.

They went to get the Paladin from the barracks after telling here what was going on. I figured this was going to make the observatory too easy just didn't want to use the "you can't find the Paladin" excuse because they were not time constrained. So I let the Paladin join up for the trip to the observatory but I figured, fine I will sick Kullen gang on them.

My rationale: Kullen hates Filge for treating him like a gofer..he knows the PC's are going for Filge. He knows Filge is a friend of Balabar's. So what better way to kill 2 birds with one stone then to let the characters kill Filge and then tell Balabar that they caught the PC's looting the observatory and took them down.

Of course, Kullen's plan didn't quite work out cause the Paladin was there. She insisted Filge be taken prisioner instead of killed. As the party left the observatory Kullen attacked, Filge still had access to most of his spells and realizing Kullens intent sided with the PC's..

Net outcome..Filge dead, Kullen and gang dead. 1 PC dead, 3 severely wounded, Paladin not too hurt. Lots of gear to sell and bad boy rep of party higher in Diamond Lake after taking down Kullen..which brings them to Balabar's attention and perfect lead in for the second adventure.

It seemed tough to me as well, so I gave out some XP for digging around in Diamond Lake before entering the cairn (2050 to be exact!).

By the time the wolves were dealt with (EL4 if you are generous/ 1350 XP) and the sarcophagus lid trap diarmed (CR2 so 600XP) another 1950 XP were issued and low and behold, my party of four was up to level 2 for the tougher encounters.

They retreated, camped and healed in area 1 and then headed in, a little tougher and a lot warier. Does this seem like a reasonable solution or did I give it to them too easy?

Acanthus the Sage

I think I described a bit of my experience for Qbert on another thread but I think the whole adventure just screamed for some pre cairn sessions just so the adventurers have some sort of reasonable chance. But you know, as much as some people love the old time modules like Hommlet, even then things were not always a cakewalk. You get to the final encounter in hommlet and your first or 2nd lvl characters were up against 18 bandits, a 4th lvl fighter and a 5th lvl cleric. The only way to prevail there was outside help.

So I don't see anything wrong with some pre cairn xp and gp opportunities..either that or bring along the 3rd lvl paladin babe who is basically lit up with big neon lights saying "NPC helper for low lvl parties"..

Wow, I'm a new to these boards and this thread has been quite interesting. A few thoughts:

1. Wil Save was a creative marketing tool to maybe attract new readers but in my opinion would have been better suited to Dragon as opposed to Dungeon.

2. Message board threads can be a magnet for negativity. As veteran of the Survivor Sucks message board I can tell you that people tend to dogpile when they smell blood..the target of the attacks (in this case Wil Wheaton) should bear in mind that such posts are long on hyberbole and often exaggerate faults.

3. Erik Mona and the current staff of Dungeon are amoung the best team I have seen since I started reading Dungeon in 1986. The editing is very good, the artwork is fantastic, the overall package is great value for money.

4. I am thrilled that the magazine actually has a message board where the staff regularly interject with ideas and thoughts. If one of them should feel the need to label some board participants whiners, that is their perogative and makes them seem human, as long as they realize that such message board participants are likely to be the most avid readers of the magazine and may be indicative of readership as a whole.

the feral human barbarian in the party was in full rage, and no quarter was given.

lol...barbarians..excellent props to move the action along.

And I totally agree there is no moral dilemia here with going on the offensive from the get go. The cult leaders know that discovery of their existance means they have to immediately silence intruders. The Faceless one more or less says that in 124. They are 3 evil cults hiding in a mine, not officially sanctioned temples ..and good characters have a legit reason for going down there and smiting.

Could you tell me what that Dragotha is, please?

I don't have the old Dragon mags, and never heard this name before...

Undead Dragon(female I believe) that lairs in the fens near White Plume Mountain. See TSR Module S2-White Plume Mountain (circa 1980) By lawrence Schick.

I assume they will use Dracolich stats from Forgotten Realms and maybe add some other abilities.

And I think there is a Dragotha adventure on the Wizards of the Coast website for download but I don't think it is Greyhawk canon by any means and I am looking forward to the Age of Worms spin on the legned.

I am beginning to wonder if we are overthinking this. I haven't seen 125 yet but why would a priest or paladin of heironous need any reason to attack followers of Hextor other than they simply there. Mortal enemies and all that.

Oh, I can see a case where in court the two might have to exist peacefully, but we are talking about a underground temple of Hextor in a town the servants of heironous are pledged to protect. Holy Crusade time.

My party was able to afford the wand pre cairn exploration as I ran a few sub-quests before hand:

One of my players is playing a female half-elven rogue with 18 charisma..of course the bluff/intimdate/diplomacy skills got maxed..so she wound up negotiating a cheaper price..

and the other characters wound up doing all kinds of odd jobs as well to earn some cash. I'm not talking Baldurs Gate prologue type mindless tasks, but more like the fighter who was attached to the garrison had to go out and hunt some bandits with a few men and they got to finders feee from the merchant for recovery of some ale casks as well as selling off some low grade bandit weapons, meanwhile the ranger sold a boar to the restuarant and the other rogue was gambling - I think the fighter brought in the most cash. Mind you, even with all that they didn't have the best armour but they wanted to make sure they had some cure light wound potions and the wand.

The cleric was about to make his third foray into the cairn.

is it wrong to find this quote particularly funny?

The placement of the Aventurers Wand (i.e. Burning Hands wand) in The Captain's Blade store now makes a lot of sense..

I think the easiest way to handle the lantern thing is that every time they are taken out of the cairn they teleport back to their original location within 24 hours.

That way there is no glut of strange lanterns glutting the warehouses of City of Greyhawk art dealers.

Lets face it, I imagine a teleport type contingency is far less power intensive than a major creation type contingency.

What are the really good things needed for a new Greyhawk campaign?

Humm, there is no easy answer to this one. Basically, what was nice about 1st/2nd edition D&D was that there was so many modules out you could pretty much construct a huge epic campaign out of various sources and hardly have to do much work. I started a capaign in Lendore Island in the CY570's and after finishing the L series they moved onto Hepoland for I1 and Idee for I2 and then moved the action to Hardy where they started the A series. Subsequent to that they moved to the City of Greyhawk to try their luck in Castle Greyhawk..where a time trap subsequently moved them into Cy584 and the close of the wars.

For a capaign starting with 3rd edition, I would still recommend begging/borrowing/stealing the City of greyhawk boxed set..it is very good. The later From the ashes update from Carl Sargent was very good and the Roger Moores "The Adventure Begins" was just awesome. It perfectly updated previous material and threw in stuff from Gygax's original camapign that hadn't been seen before.

My other favourite is the U series, starting with secret of saltmarsh. Seeing as how Wizards has detailed saltmarsh in detail in the new dungeon masters guide 2 it is tempting to start a campaign there and then maybe move to the amedio where some elements of the first adventure path could be incorporated.

I have the luxury of being a huge D&D fan from 1981 onwards. I have almost every Greyhawk product ever produced (even the aweful Puppets and Childs play modules.

While I enjoy Forgotten Realms and ran the Night Below supplement in that world, nothing compares to the gritiness of Greyhawk.

I mean, there is no Elminister around to save your ass if you get in trouble. For that matter, if you are above 10th lvl in Greyhawk you are someone to be reckoned with, whereas in FR you are Average Joe.

So I love seeing more Greyhawk set in 3rd Edition, since it feels more anchored and character actions seem to have more meaning. My two cents.

I love the Whispering Cairn adventure in 124, its as good as anything I've ever seen in Dungeon and I have been buying it since 1986.

However, just a few questions because I love details and a few minor timeline issues cropped up when reading the issue.

1A. Ellival MoonMeadow is said to have lived in Diamond Lake for over 100 years, longer than any other living resident..however..

1B. The Dourstone mine is said to have been in operation for centuries, and Ragnolin Dourstone has managed the mine since the begining

1.C. Dourstone was said to have picked the mine location through the influence of the faceless one..which implies that this happened hundreds of years ago..however

1.D. The faceless one is human and so unlikely to have lived for centuries, and even if he has he is said to have arrived at the mine 6 months ago..

So how to reconcile this? I am going to fudge things and assume that Dourstone inherited the mine and his ancestors were guided by the cult, and the faceless one is simply the agent who has recently been assigned to the mine.

Ok, next one...

2.A. The seekers broke into the cairn 50 years ago, and one stole the red lantern. So

2.B.Alastor broke into the mine 30 years ago. How did Alastor get to the final trap without having all the lanterns (since the red had been stolen 20 years previously and stuck in another part of cairn?).

I am fixing this by assuming the seekers broke in 25 years ago as opposed to 50 years ago.

All very minor stuff but I love the details, which is why this is such a great adventure. I'm the type of DM that loves to list the type of each gem and if my characters cared I'd also break the coins out of country of issue...