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I think that having a cut throat thief show up at the end of a fight like he's an Archangel is kinda lame. If Penkus had a weapon or magical item worth anything, he should have used it to save his own miserable hide, not waited for a dramatic moment to give it to his avengers. The olny way this would work is if you use a dead PC that the group was really attached to, not some rotting corps they found almost as an afterthought in the first game.

Vanthus has a high AC and lots of mobility, but he really can't dish out that much punishment, from what I've seen. My PCs were completely out of spells/healing when they fought him, had one guy unconscious, and he still managed not to drop anyone.

The Olman/militia/Jade Ravens/phanaton helpers are good fix, if he's about to murderify everyone.

I have to agree. Vanthus wasn't a threat to my players. It was everything up to Vanthus that caused them problems.

"Serpents of Scuttlecove" is about as "adult" as "The Styes" or "The Weavers." It's not going to be in a sealed section like "Porphyry House Horror" was back in issue #95 (which is where Scuttlecove first appeared). In other words, yes, the place has been toned down. But probably not as much as you might think.

Cool!

Does anyone know how adult the Scuttle Cove setting for Serpents of Scuttle Cove will be? My wife ran the Adults only Modual from when the Book of Vile Darkness came out and it was awesome! Will this suplement be the same, or will it be toned down?

One of the things that I did to throw a wrench in my players plans was to have the fleet arrive a week earlier thatn planned. I had the Yuan-ti open up a ship sized dimension door and the fleet sailed through. I also had the flag ship sail into the harbor way ahead of the others, cloaked in invisibility. When the portal opened, the ship became visible and opened fire on the other ships in the harbor. Only the Sea Wyvern was sparred because it was still in dry dock being repaired after a hit and run attack earlier. I ended up doing this because my players finished their prep early, and were starting to way over annalyze everything that was going on. I figured if I just threw them in to it, they would be fine. And they were.

I got mine on 3-13. It arrived by pack mule smuggled across the northern boarder of California by a band of Kobold Blackmarketeers. Thankfully it arrived safe and sound before I finished Lightless Depts.

I'm playing through the STAP right now and I have to say that Lavinia is one of the most annoying characters I have ever met. It isn't really Lavinia herself (although her responsibility for the circumstances may be revealed at a later date), but rather the fact that it seems like everytime we turn around the tart is getting kidnapped or killed or whatever. And we are supposed to be working for her? Yeesh. My elf mage doesn't have a lot of patience for this kind of thing. We've already had to raise Lavinia from the dead once. If we have to do it again, he's gonna say screw it.

No spoilers please, since I'm a player.

Personally, I think this is you Dm's fault. I took one read thru of the first game, and decided Lavinia had to be changed in a big way, otherwise my players wouldn't work for her at all, let alone save her when it's needed. I changed her from a weak little girl, to a strong woman who had been groomed to take over her families fortunes whenshe came of age. I gave he a swashbuckler class, and some mage levels, and her level a little ahead of the PC's. (Having her trained by the Jade Ravens on how to fight.) I have three female players (four when I started the path) they would have ripped a damsel in distress apart if I had left it alone (not to mention what they would have done to me.)

Honestly, I swear so much in real life, that my players wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Personally I would just swear. if you players are of an age where that's appropriate, anyway. If it's out of character for you, then it will make the NPC stand out that much more.

Toolbag the Conqueror wrote:

Fake Healer wrote:

So to adjust my list of who not to game with...EVER!

1.Txwad
2.Whoever ikki gamed with that allowed orcs to anal-rape a character...to say tortured brutally would have sufficed.
3.Anyone who bring in a character sheet that says "Rouge" as the class.

FH

i really hope that that "rouge", nice spelling by the way, comment was meant for me as I assume you meant rogue in which case if you are referring to my character's partaking a previously mentioned incident that was clearly outlined as to why it happened.

Dude, I have been smackin' people around on this board over the misspelling of "Rogue" for over 1600 posts. I put that on my list of people I do not want to game with....people who can't spell a core-class right. It has nothing to do with Dexterous little tricksters, and everything to do with people who think that make-up and a hue of red make a character class.

It has nothing to do with your actions with that character. You will notice that these boards are almost purged of the misspelling of Rogue besides the rather snarky ribbing that people give me for championing this cause. That is my doing with a dash of humor.

FH

Dude, I saw this on a shirt on cafe press and thought of you:

Rouges are red
Violets are blue
Spell my class wrong
and I'll backstab you.

No, but we convert 3.5 stuff to 2ed all the time.

I run alot of epic level stuff, though we play 2ed, I have PCs that are approaching 60th level. Here is some of what I do:

The PC's learn that the gods are just playthings of an older more powerful race that controls all of creation, setting god against god and mortal against mortal.

Introduce a pocket dimension that was a genetic experiment of above beings in creating a race of epic level extra planual creatures and monsters

The key I've found to running very hig levels is cunning. Play your villans like you are running your own PC's. WHen you create a very difficult problem, don't even try to create a solution for it. That's the PC's problem.

Create advesaries that are half again as high level as the PC's and have the PC's fight them on equal numbers. (Anytime a group of my PC's fight a single creature, they cut it to pieces, because of that whole strength in numbers thing.

Don't allow the PC's to deal with only one villian at a time. hit them with a half dozen, and allow them to take advantage of the PC's distractions caused by the others.

This is what I've got for a start.

I've delt with a Player with a similar game style. He was more about shocking other players than he was about playing the game. What I started doing was throwing our Munckin Traps that I knew he'd walk into. (A Munchkin Trap is what our group calls a trap or setup geared at punishing bad behavior, that everyone in the group can see except the person it is aimed at. It only works when the target ignores the advice of the rest of their team, and walks into it anyway.) I had a problem with him killing NPC for no reason other than he could. he'd start bar fights and immediatly go to swords and spells, he'd torture people just because. So, what I started doing was "Hiding" High level NPC's in every Tavern. (One being a 60th level TPK that he walked up to and slapped before being ground into hamburger.)
What the people who defend this type of behavior are forgetting is this: Yes D&D is a group effort, but if the DM isn't happy, there is no game! The Dm has all the work to do, this player just has to show up. If he's causing trouble in the game, and pissing off your good players, boot him. This isn't grade school, you don't have to 'be nice'. Boot him before his behavior costs you good players who aren't going to put up with his crap. Gods know I wouldn't!

And as far as txwad,Dude, grow up. It's not funny, and it's not cute (Unless you're playing with a bunch of 14yr olds.) Bathroom humor is the bottom end of the comedy foodchain. It is easy to use, because it requires very little thought. That type of humor went out of style with that Mysoginist Andrew 'Dice' Clay.

Cool idea. Here is mine: I give you a silly :) and you let me use this idea, okay?

That's why I posted it, for people to use. Just be shure the Mongrelfolg get a fair trade in the deal.

I had a cool idea, that kind of stunned my players at the Barbas Trading Post in the Mongrelfolk village. Because of how thier city is described, nothing in the trading post could be bought with money (Except silver which to them, I gave the value of gold because they could use the silver for making arrow and spear heads. Everything that they bought had to be traded for something usefull, especially food and tools. Weapons came next, magic, and Misc. Gold and Platinum were worthless. I figured with how on the fringe their society was and how far they were from any place that they could spend cash at, that they would put a higher value on practical items and no value on money. It really threw my players for a loop.

Not bad. Was it a tough fight?

Not too bad (and I boosted the Dragon Turtles hit pts) My dice hated me at that moment, and the Glutton couldn't hit the water it was swimming in. The Pc's made very short work of it in two rounds. Our group is six plus two NPC's.

*Spoilers*

Mid game post. Half the team almost killed by the Elder Black Pudding (Had it drop on them as the were entering the other side of the cave.) They are getting ready to enter the Mongrelfolk village. Have stopped to rest at the curtain. PC's rested while the players went for Starbucks.

Down we go!

I just would like to know if there are any DMs who had the fun to run the encounter with the Glutton! :)

Yep, my players killed him last session. And they even manged to do it without getting their ship sunk.

Have a demon, sent by Demogorgon, suddenly appear and scoop up his remains before the characters have a chance to use the spell.

That's pertty close to what I ended up doing. WHen they cast the spell, I had the body animate, possessed by a small part of an aspect of Demogorgon. IT cast some spells, did some damage and then the PCs destroyed the body for me.

So, my players decided they want to dig up Vanthus and have a conversation with him...Any thoughts?

Water pressrue is one of the hidden perils in D&D land. One of the jokes here at the office is that there's nothing living below 100 feet down in the oceans of D&D, since things below there would eventaully be killed by the pressure damage. In the core rules, there's really not much that protects anything from pressure damage, yet pressure damage is part of the game. It's frustrating.

Do you think that Free Action would be enough to counter that?

I just did my first read through on Lightless Depths, and I have a scientific question:While the part can survive the air pressure two miles down, how will they survive the water pressure when they flood the city when maximum dept for a human diver is about 900 feet (313 meters). I understand the whole suspend disbelief thing, but most of my players are either college students or college graduates, and I know this number won't fly. Is there a spell or magical item that will help them survive the pressure or do I need to come up with something on my own?

I've had to increase the difaculty of the one ALOT! FOr a start, ten ships instead of five, and a CR20 NPC on vanthus's side. My PC's have fortified farshore to the point of turning it into a fortress, and any ship entering the harbor will be screwed in a matter of rounds. THey had stuff that they had bought that allowed them to return to port and stock up on cannons and black powder, arming three ships to the teeth and with some very cleaver magical enhancements to the ship has given it a water jet propulsion system. On top of that, They already have a way to neutralize the Vroc's. They set out after scrying the fleet to do hit and run attacks. (Damn the history channel for introducing them to chain shot!) In one session, they destroyed four ships in open combat and one undead Kraken that I added just to throw in a monkey wrench (THey turned the Hellfish into a floating bomb with black powder and tar. Blew the thing to rotten calamari). The actual battle even now will most likely be a route, so, I'm having one of the NPC's that they've been traveling with turn traitor and he'll start damaging their defenses from with in, when the attack starts.

I don't target PC's usually, unless they become disruptive to the other players, or they start doing really stupid stuff.
What I will do is put out situations that I know certain players will willingly walk face first into, due to Munchkin behavior or not learning from past mistakes. Most of the time, the player that I'm most prone to doing this to, will often identify the situation as a "Munchkin Trap" and then proceed to walk head first into it anyway.
As far as Avner goes, My group killed him five times before leaving him dead. He was a pain in the ass, and I knew from the begining that my players would hate him.
As far as intentionaly pushing your DMs buttons, I say do it at your own risk. Who ever said a Dm should be impartial was dilusional. It is a human playing that part, not some saint of neutrality. Piss them off on purpose and watch them ruin your day. The worst that you can do is throw a fit, leave the game and stop playing with that group. Which could very well be what they want you to do.

I know that with Sea Wyverns Wake, there is alot of NPC interaction with the way that it is writen, but this is how I'm use to running games all the time anyway. I always put an NPC into a group as one of the members. I find that this is an easy way to guide the group through an adventure. The NPC is treated just like any other PC getting a full cut of treasure (Though I tend to fudge their leveling to keep them comprable with the PCs). OVer the years I've created hundreds of NPCs, some with full character sheets, most with just a blurb to help me remember who they are and what they do.
I'm curious how many other DMs are heavy on their NPCs, VS those that only use the ones that are key to the modual?

I'm getting ready to run the seige of Farshore in ToD, I'm planning on Tavey turning traitor, having been a plant by Vanthus, and open up a breach in the islands defenses, and maybe have him back stab the PC that has taken under his wing (Literaly). The group has gone to alot of trouble to equip him, and I have another NPC that I've set up to look like a possible traitor. I had Tavey bought as a slave for the captain of the ship. He isn't happy about being owned, and has been stealing everything that he can get his hands on to buy himself out of bond, but the player running the captain treats him like he's her pet, and I've made it clear that there is growing resentment. I'll wait until the height of the battle to spring this on the group. *Evil Laugh*

I've found that the biggest fear of new gamers about roleplaying is that they look silly. On eof the tricks that I use to bring them out of their shell is to have an NPC that just starts to pick on them. once the player gets pissed about the attention, they won't bat an eyelash about lashing out at the NPC in character. once they get good results and praise from you and the other players, they will feel more comfortable playing in character.

I've been playing D&D for 18yrs now, and I've always had female characters. SOme of they guys that I played with in the begining gave me crap about it, but we were 15 at the time, so it wasn't a very mature response.
Part of the attraction to female is that I find it easier to build certain types of characters as women. Thief/ assassins, mages, psions, bladesingers. It tends to be classes that require alot of grace, and finess. (Though I will at times run a huge amazon too.)
I don't have problems with going back and forth between gender, because I'm our groups primary DM. I play male and female NPCs all the time and given that I have a drama background from high school I do voices and accents for different characters, so that my players can quickly identify who their talking to even if I don't say their name.
Aesthetically I tend to invision all of the characters as physically appealing. I do character sketches, and all PCs and NPCs that I sketch have chisled muscular bodies. The human(oid) body is beautiful and I don't want to be staring at some hideous little chud with a hunched back and crossed eyes. (If I wanted to do that, I'd just walk around downtown.) At the same time, I don't make my characters anatomically impossible.
I have some players that play both genders, and others that only feel comfortable playing their own. Most that play both genders don't do it very well for the opposite gender, turning them more into fantasy sterotypes, than solid charactes. The ones that play only their gender, In the case of my wife, It's the skin that she feels comfortable in. With some of my male players, the thought of playing a female character is a threat to their sexuallity. The fear that by playing a female character they will some how seem gay. It's really stupid.

I'm just getting ready to start Tides of Dread. I was wondering if anyone out there has gotten farther than this, and if so, how did the game go? I've made some major changes to ToD, so I'm curious as to how it went being run by the book?

Aside from that, I'm also curious as to which parts of the game your PC's had the most trouble with?

Well, given that James likes rehashing old monsters it could be a little known monster from one of the older editions. If not, it's probably got something to do with the ancient Olmans (maybe a monster with an Aztec or Mayan feel?) or a demonic creature of some sort (another one of demogorgon's illustrious creations).

Or the aspect of Demogorgon that is supose to be guarding the operation there. I remember this being mentioned somewhere, I just can't remember where off the top of my head.

Yah I have bought like about 7 or so of these guys. be careful with which pack you pick as some of the sets are more colonial, and others are more late medieval/baroque era. They will make the big ship movements of ship to ship battle easier though. i am also going to use them in the siege of Farshore.

By the way as far as minature sized ships, I have gotten my hands on a Mega-blocks pirate ship that is awesome. It is just the right size and is going to work great for the close up battles. I am trying to get my hands on another for the two ship combats.

I saw a PoTC playset of the Black Pearl That I had thought about getting that was the right size, but we tend to play at a friends house, so I thought it would be a pain to transport.

I was at a game shop in Santa Cruz on vacation, when I found something that will help if you are running ship to ship battles. The is a card game called Pirates that has two snap together ships of various sizes and styles. When I ran the Scarlet Brotherhood blocade in SWW, my PC's got into ship to ship combat, but i didn't have any minis out to show the battle, and they got confused a couple of times. These are perfect, plus they have alot of styles of ships to give the DM ideas. I just wanted to pass this along. I thought it was cool.

The mother's diary did mention something killing a T-rex without much effort. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm thinking a dragon maybe, but that feels a little too predictable.

I posted this about a month ago, and wanted to add this to the thread. I've just finished SWW, it took eight nights of game play an over a month to get through, mainly because my NPC's were a pain in the @$$. Here is the post:

So at this point we are two sessions in on ‘Sea Wyvern’s Wake’ and my PC’s are going out of their minds with what I’ve done with the NPC’s. Starting with the first day I’ve had Avner throw a fit causing the captain (A PC) to throw her first mate (also a PC) out of his private cabin to give it to Avner. I’ve had Tavey brought on board having been purchased as a slave by an NPC that I’ve been running with the group since The first game, giving the little boy to the Captain as a gift. There has been the logistical problem of keeping a horse on board the ship. (The horse keeps getting loose because Instead of using the pickled Mephit, I made it the familiar of the assassin. I didn’t use Rowyn)> A day out to sea, the first mate decides it’s a good time to ask about ships weapons. (I gave the Sea Wyvern four guns, but had them stashed in the cargo hold behind all of the supplies and with almost no ammo.) They find out that Conrad is a mule for a blue slaad and deal with that rather well though they find out that Lirith has a massive supply of narcotics on her (This is my own little twist. One of the PC’s asked her if she had anything to knock Conrad out while they cut the slaad out. It made me giggle.) After the surgery they locked Conrad in a storage room, though no one seemed to know why when they thought about it.
Skald I had being part of the same magical experiments that is a back story for one of the PC’s. he tells her that the Vampire who had done the experiments on them had sent out hunters to find them, and he fled the city. He then promptly barricades himself into the Captain’s quarters and refused to come out.
This was just the first four days of sailing.
The next session begins with my NPC having a argument with Avner followed by the NPC throwing Avner overboard. The first mate (a wereshark) dives in after him and both are quickly left by the boat. The captain stops the ship, and the Wereshark decides to knock Avner out so he can change forms take Avner in his mouth and swim back to the ship. What ends up happening is that Avner is harder to knock out than the PC assumed, and a fist fight ensues in the water. Avner is knocked out six rounds later and is bruised and bleeding. The wereshark changes forms starts swimming toward the boat and Avner wakes up half way back to the ship and starts screaming. Once back on board he locks himself in his room with his servants and refuses to come out. Meanwhile Tavey has taken up stealing anything he can get his hands on in hope of buying his freedom, especially stealing from Avner because he looks like he has a lot of money.
Skip to the dinner with Lavinia, and the Mephit creates a distraction by letting the horse loose again, and then poisons all the food with sleep poison, giving the assassin time to cut a few throats before she was taken down.
In the course of dinner Tavey drugged Avner using the leftover narcotics that the team had from Conrad’s surgery, because the team knew that Avner would tell Lavinia about the whole beating and shark thing. While Avner was drugged, Tavey then proceeded to rob him blind, only to be caught by the first mate (Who Tavey has taken to as his protector).
At this point, the team hasn’t even gotten to point B on the map. My next plan is since no one has checked on Skald in a few days, when they do go looking for him, they will find he’s hung himself in the Captain’s quarters. The Pc’s have really been running, trying to do damage control. I love it.

I could fill six or seven pages with the hell I put my PC's through with the NPC's. Avner was killed 4 times before the PC's left him dead. Tavey was killed at the ruins, and everyone was so busy looting, they forgot to raise him from the dead and left him on the island only to have to row back and get him. Lirith my little junkie, lost her stash so the PC's had to deal with her in detox. Tavey ended up beating one of Avners servants to death with a broom handle due to some badly worded orders from the ships first mate. The Mephit I used as a familiar of a Lotus Dragon Assassin (Not Rowyn)who kept untying Avner's horse and then scaring it.One of the PC's became obsessed about eating the horse, and in the end did. This is all I can think of off the top of my head.

Ressurection and raise dead are very common in our campaign. My wife had found an herbs list from her LoTR core books (Published by ICE)That listed over a hundred different herbs for healing and such. We converted them to D&D stats and have been using them in our campaigns ever since. One of them does Raise Dead and has a very reasonalble cost of only 1000 Gp. It's an easy way to help lower level characters keep in the fight. I personally don't like to make killing off a PC into something permanent, unless it is something that is a very big deal. My players get very attached, and I feel that if you are quick to permanently kill characters, with just a roll another one up attitude, the character looses it's depth, and just becomes a sheet of paper with a bunch of numbers.

I'm currently running STAP, my players are near the end of SWW. Only two characters have used guns, One NPC and the ships captain, who's PC is an avid hunter (It didn't take much for me to talk her into a gun). One of the things that I've done with the NPC (Based loosly off of Jayne Cobb from Firefly and Serenity) is have him carrying a wide range of period firearms. muskets, pistols, a double barrel blunderbus, a pepper box pistol, ect. he wears a bandolier with about a dozen different guns, plus caries the blunderbus and the musket strapped to his back. Most of the PC's steer clear of him in a fight due to the instability of the weapons and their tendencies to explode in your hand (Natural one. We play 2ED). Recently the team has run the scarlet brotherhood blocade, and when everyone jumped up to use the ships cannons, they found the only the captain and the NPC knew how to fire them. This led to a crash course in firearms 101, and the first mate blowing up two cannons in the firefight.
WHat I've started doing with the NPC is having his stuff modified. his musket now has a magical plus, a magical bayonet, and a mace ball built into the butt of the gun. He's bought different forms of magical shot (Basically any variation of an arrow) as well as some that are hardened beads from a necklace of missiles. His tactics are very simple shoot and drop. With playing 2ED a round is a full minute, so firing and reloading in a single round is Ok. (In colonial times a good soldier could get off three shots with a musket a minute.) I want to change how the PCs think of guns, not as some exotic weapon, but as something as effective as a bow or crossbow.

Blackdragon wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

Farshore's population is 220. Most of whom aren't that much in a fight.

Why wouldn't more of the population be skilled with combat? They are living on the Isle of Dread! Even with the wall, there are huge amounts of dinosaurs that can fly or swim around it. There are all of the intelligent tribes, including lizard men, and the demons from HTBM, never mind pirates as a whole. I would think that these people have rudimentary combat skills, spell casters, druids and healers of their own. Most evey farmer would have a bow (Or a musket if your using firearms). I really think you are comparing the population to a regular city of comparable size and not an extreme outpost on one of the most dangerouse islands D&D has ever created.

Blackdragon, the colony is not ON the Isle of Dread. Rather it is on a small islet called Temute about 8-10 miles away from the southeastern peninsula inhabited by some of the Olman tribes. Thus, it's a fairly "safe" place from which to mount small expeditions and to trade with the natives around them.

Have you actually read the adventure yet?

Have you? what is ten miles to a Teradon or an aquatic dinosaur? We're talking about an archipelago not a seperate continent.

Farshore's population is 220. Most of whom aren't that much in a fight.

Why wouldn't more of the population be skilled with combat? They are living on the Isle of Dread! Even with the wall, there are huge amounts of dinosaurs that can fly or swim around it. There are all of the intelligent tribes, including lizard men, and the demons from HTBM, never mind pirates as a whole. I would think that these people have rudimentary combat skills, spell casters, druids and healers of their own. Most evey farmer would have a bow (Or a musket if your using firearms). I really think you are comparing the population to a regular city of comparable size and not an extreme outpost on one of the most dangerouse islands D&D has ever created.

I think the point is that the PC's at that level might be able to take down the 4th level pirates as a whole. What they wouldn't be able to prevent is the massacre of the citizens of Farshore by said pirates before that point. There is only about four of them (PCs), after all - they can't be everywhere. The pirates are effectively an amorphous mob attacking the town - the PCs are specifically challenged by the vrocks, Vanthus and a few other nasties, which would obliterate low level commoners and experts with ease. The pirate stats are given more for the odd incident where the PCs might come across them - but it should be the citizenry fighting the bulk of them off, off-screen.

If the PCs don't care about the citizens of Farshore, of course, then maybe you need more pirates to "challenge" them if they are feeling genocidal. But I presume enough would get through to torch an undefended, unfortified Farshore, rub out any useful NPCs, and generally make the Isle of Dread that much more dreadful for the PCs, even if they would have their victory in the end.

And what if they Take Farshore out of the equation all together? It has a protected bay. Two or three ships could mount a defense outside of the bay itself making sure no one gets to land. Turning the beaches into Normandy would bottle neck an invading ground force and they could be cut to pieces by archers. With the way that the Crimson Fleet aproches the Island, there is no reason to assume that the Pc's or the Island defenders will wait for them to land on the island. Especially if they have close to equal numbers (Like taking one of the Scarlet Brotherhood ships from SWW). IF this isn't added into the equation of posibilities it should be. Otherwise you risk railroading you players into following the scenario exactly the way the modual is laid out, and with experienced players this will piss them off, even if they don't say anything.

Five ships? That's the invading force? Give me a freaking break! Why would the PC's even bother with all of the side quests when they will have two battle ready ships to fight them with (More if they capture one of the ships from the CBH ambush in SWW). I'm going to have to at least double the number.

So at this point we are two sessions in on ‘Sea Wyvern’s Wake’ and my PC’s are going out of their minds with what I’ve done with the NPC’s. Starting with the first day I’ve had Avner throw a fit causing the captain (A PC) to throw her first mate (also a PC) out of his private cabin to give it to Avner. I’ve had Tavey brought on board having been purchased as a slave by an NPC that I’ve been running with the group since The first game, giving the little boy to the Captain as a gift. There has been the logistical problem of keeping a horse on board the ship. (The horse keeps getting loose because Instead of using the pickled Mephit, I made it the familiar of the assassin. I didn’t use Rowyn)> A day out to sea, the first mate decides it’s a good time to ask about ships weapons. (I gave the Sea Wyvern four guns, but had them stashed in the cargo hold behind all of the supplies and with almost no ammo.) They find out that Conrad is a mule for a blue slaad and deal with that rather well though they find out that Lirith has a massive supply of narcotics on her (This is my own little twist. One of the PC’s asked her if she had anything to knock Conrad out while they cut the slaad out. It made me giggle.) After the surgery they locked Conrad in a storage room, though no one seemed to know why when they thought about it.
Skald I had being part of the same magical experiments that is a back story for one of the PC’s. he tells her that the Vampire who had done the experiments on them had sent out hunters to find them, and he fled the city. He then promptly barricades himself into the Captain’s quarters and refused to come out.
This was just the first four days of sailing.
The next session begins with my NPC having a argument with Avner followed by the NPC throwing Avner overboard. The first mate (a wereshark) dives in after him and both are quickly left by the boat. The captain stops the ship, and the Wereshark decides to knock Avner out so he can change forms take Avner in his mouth and swim back to the ship. What ends up happening is that Avner is harder to knock out than the PC assumed, and a fist fight ensues in the water. Avner is knocked out six rounds later and is bruised and bleeding. The wereshark changes forms starts swimming toward the boat and Avner wakes up half way back to the ship and starts screaming. Once back on board he locks himself in his room with his servants and refuses to come out. Meanwhile Tavey has taken up stealing anything he can get his hands on in hope of buying his freedom, especially stealing from Avner because he looks like he has a lot of money.
Skip to the dinner with Lavinia, and the Mephit creates a distraction by letting the horse loose again, and then poisons all the food with sleep poison, giving the assassin time to cut a few throats before she was taken down.
In the course of dinner Tavey drugged Avner using the leftover narcotics that the team had from Conrad’s surgery, because the team knew that Avner would tell Lavinia about the whole beating and shark thing. While Avner was drugged, Tavey then proceeded to rob him blind, only to be caught by the first mate (Who Tavey has taken to as his protector).
At this point, the team hasn’t even gotten to point B on the map. My next plan is since no one has checked on Skald in a few days, when they do go looking for him, they will find he’s hung himself in the Captain’s quarters. The Pc’s have really been running, trying to do damage control. I love it.

Was it just me or do these Golems seem WAY underpowered given the levels the PCs should be at? I think the stat block only has it having about 70 hit points (I don't have the modual in front of me). I really beefed it up, otherwise my players would mow right through it.

another option would have been to turn them into a hatchling.

If one of my players worded a wish like that, I would have turned them into a copper dragon statue. My players have learned to be very careful when wording a wish with me.

Curious--is this just a descriptive switch--i.e. using the "savage creature" template and describing them as reavers, or are you using a different stat template?

Well mainly it is a descripting switch (though I did boost up their hit points a bit and made sure they had some low level elemental resistance.) I just couldn't get the image of Davy Jones' crew from POTC: Dead mans chest out of my head when I was reading the savage transformation. Six months ago when I first heard of STAP my first thought was of Reavers, and I was a little disappointed when I realized I was off the mark. I made the change because Reavers have two things that make them scary: 1. Is the idea that they really aren't monsters, but humans driven to the point of ultimate savagery. Way more scary than any space monster. 2. is the fact that even with the level of madness the Reavers reached, they still maintained their intelligence and their cunning. THey had their own society that allowed these savage cannibals to raid and work as a cohesive unit maybe even more effectivly than the creatures they were raiding, because they didn't experience fear. When ever I get the chance, I like to make humans the scariest monsters in the realms.

One of the best things that I've found to counter act this type of situation is to insert a really abbrasive NPC into the group as part of the team. Make them rude and smart @$$, and counter productive to the group if you have too. Have them single out the characters that you are having problems with and draw them into hating the NPC. If you can piss the player off at theNPC, they'll be more involved just to get even with them. (It helps if the NPC is several levels higher than the group.)

The other thing that you can do is set up situations where these characters have no choice but to roleplay. You are the DM and you set the tone of the game. And if the DM ain't happy, everyone dies! If it still doesn't work, then think about dumping some of your players. You don't need to feel obligated to stoop to the lowest common denominator.

Ok, so my team makes it to Kracken Cove to find the burning ships and the beach in chaos filled with Savage pirates. What I've done with the Savage Pirates is to change them from what the modual had into something more akin to Reavers from Firefly and Serenity. All my players have seen the movies and were viewing the Reavers as they know them by with a great deal of fear and dread. I also wrote a lead in story setting up the area and a creepy folk tale passed along by sailors about Reavers and Reaver raids. Upon first seeing them on the beach and still alive even on the ships that were on fire *Evil Grin* their response was "F**K this! We're leaving!" It actually took me telling them that they better get use to fighting them now otherwise it's going to be a short campaign. The players engaged them in a fight, but their fighting style was way different than they normaly fight, using way more caution and a whole lot less bravado.

My wife told me after we broke for the evening, that I had almost done too good of a job setting the mood. This made me laugh and I had to share.

I had to read through this adventure five times before I figured out that parts 4&5 take place in the middle of the game and not the end. Why Isn't it in sequence?

Not to downplay such a tragic event, but it's kind of scary. It just goes to show that you can pretty much kill anyone with anything (eg a home made katana)if you have the will to do so.

And if you talk to sword afficionados they tell you that factory-made wallhanger swords can't be used because they bend and/or snap and can't cut anything, and that if you want a functional sword you have to pay thousands of dollars for a folded steel masterpiece. Just goes to show that when it comes right down to it, a sword is pretty much just a sharp piece of metal with a handle.

I blame Quentin Tarantino for this guy. Damn him and his hip modern re-imagining of the samurai genre!

I collect swords, and every piece I own is a wall hanger, and most would snap if used, but a few of them are full tang 440 stainless steel and razor sharp. If someone was to break into my house, I know that one of these "Wall Hangers" could make this situation look like an episode of "Highlander". Don't dismiss how dangerous these swords are. most of what I own are made of stainless steel and are sharp. Even if the handle breaks, I still wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that one shot. BTW 440 stainless steel is the grade that is used in making surgical tools including scalples.

Are we so desperate to control what they think of us?

When I grew up in a time that my Father branded me a Satanist because I played D&D? Yes we need to control what they think of us. Otherwise Ignorance rules the day.

Actually, I agree. I don't think that the article was trying to make D&D responsible. I wasn't happy with the fact that it was mentioned several times as opposed to other aspects of the story only coming up once, and I tried to figure out what bothered me about this.

I think I finally have stumbled upon it. In the 80's, when we had people saying "D&D is the cause of X," it was a stand up fight. They would say whatever they thought about D&D, we could throw in the facts about the game that they ignored, and for the most part, we were happy because at least we could argue the point.

This article is more subtle, in that it doesn't use D&D as the cause, but it already assumes that its a "strange hobby," completely sidestepping any debate on the topic. No, it may not cause the problem, but its a symptom. Its thrown in to support the fact that the guy is acting irrationally. And if we say, "D&D doesn't cause this behavior," the person citing it as a symptom can easily deflect by saying they never said it did, they were just citing the subjects behaviors.

Its more of a clandestine, embedded predjudice, and it almost makes me miss the days of the well meaning but unable to support their case fanatics, because you could refute and dismiss them fairly easily with an open mind.

Of course they won't list golf or stamp collecting or fantasy football as hobbies, becasue if he was interested in any of these, they don't support the "crazy" image.

When you think about it, D&D IS a strange hobby in our society. THe People who play are of above average intelligence, doing something that is using the purest form of imagination, cunning and teamwork. In society they pay some big Roid Monkey millions of dollars for throwing a ball really hard That is strange! What do you mean this game is on paper? Where is the Controller?Remember, mindlessness is the norm, conformity is the rule, society is little more than apes with laptops.