Craig Shannon's page

Just noticed a slight inconsistency in their levels. In DUNGEON #111 page 40 Fario is listed as a Ftr6/Rog6 and Fellian is a Rog3/Clr9. However in DUNGEON #113 page 61 they are listed as Ftr5/Rog5 and Rog3/Clr7, back down to the levels they where in DUNGEON #109 page 16. Obviously a typo but should they really be Ftr6/Rog6 and Rog3/Clr9 or Ftr7/Rog7 and Rog3/Clr11 (following the 2 levels each per AP adventure)? Fairly important for the campaign I am going to run as the party has no Rog or Brd.

Nice idea, accept that it's Nerull not Vecna :) (well at least officially). I was going to use something similar except one of my players is a LN Clr1 (Wee Jas) who by that point will most likely be a LN Clr3/Nec3/Mystic Theurge6/True Necromancer6. My idea was that Wee Jas commands him to destroy the heretic Embril. He will most likely become the high priest of the Cathedral after that, assuming he lives that long. I can't wait for this PC to start messing with the Soul Pillars as well :) I have also made him Shackleborn (he has no idea) and he has been summoned to the Cathedral from Sasserine, and is given free reign (very odd in a Wee Jas temple) and access to dubious material, in the hope that he becomes evil and can be put in a Soul Cage. Incidentally the other PCs are a paladin of Pelor and a Ftr/Clr (Saint Cuthbert) Pious Templar wanabee. Promises to be interesting.

"Flood Season" page 26 DUNGEON #98 half way down the right hand column.

Wouldn't work in the long term unfortunately. Jenya is supposed to advance a level per adventure, whereas the PCs advance about 3. By Zenith Trajectory they overtake her.

Possibly a large shrine as although it only has one remaining cleric (Kristof Jurgensen, human male Clr4). It did have two more powerful cerics but they died in an accident last year. The shrine is peripheral to the main Adventure Path as is but there are one or two involvements (minor). A cleric of a healing god is always useful :)

I am not sure about the ELs. They probably are tougher than they seem. I know that when I converted Life's Bazaar and Flood Season to 3.5 that quite a few creatures had +1 CR on 3.0 which made a big difference.
My problem is I have only have three players, let alone four. They are all human males, all lawful neutral (except the paladin), and are all religious. I am starting in Sasserine and having the players sent to the temples in Cauldron for a variety of reasons. On the way I am going to run Evil Unearthed from Dungeon 82 and rename Brokhollow as Hollowsky and have the battles link back to the Demonskar and Shatterhorn. The protagonists will be Ebon Triad (Hextor and Vecna).
So by the time players reach Cauldron they will be level two, so we will have a Pal2 [Pelor], Ftr1/Clr1[Saint Cuthbert], and a Clr1[Wee Jas]/Wiz(Nec)1. My issue is will level 2 be enough, or should I run Playing With Fire from Dungeon 82 as well to get them to level 3. With no rogue, and their religious affiliations (which will make the campaign even more interesting), the campaign is going to be a lot harder than usual.

Between Life's Bazaar and Flood Season Jenya Urikas goes from Clr5 to Clr6. The Flood Season Web Enhancement has her taking Leadership as her 6th level feat. Her leadership score is 8 so thats a 4th level cohort. I know who I'm adding (backstory NPC from the main temple in Sasserine that is a friend of the PC Saint Cuthbertian), what did you add?

No worries, my players want me to start very soon, as in preliminary group get together next Wednesday, with 1to1s over this weekend for character background. I'll be working my arse off, I have the base data in Word and Excel (and thus Access really), but a wizzy web site will have to be a work in progress. I'll try and sort out some web space tommorrow so at least people can have my notes, otherwise I'll use IIS6 to set my PC up as a file server (although my ISP may get stroppy).

Weird coincidence, I am ramping up to run in the New Year and had knocked several tables together correlating NPCs and where ther are at (inclduing their advancement over time). I was going to knock togther an Access database. I scanned the map of Cauldron and have been cutting out the various locales as .jpegs (a bit like the old Volo's Guide to Waterdeep maps). I might knock a interactive web page together (I still intend to get a web site with forum up and running to support the campaign). My point is if anything ineteresting appears here I'll include it and make it freely availble for others when I am finished.

Looks good, except the nobility trades are a little bit out. The Taskerhills are headed by Lord Ankhin Taskerhill. They own mines in the mountains and manufacture and ship obsidian furniture and knick knacks to the northern cities (Dungeon 113 Foundation of Flame page 59), The Vanderborens are self made commoners to nobility from being real estate tycoons (as above page 60) (they also own and run the Lantern Street Orphanage), the Aslaxins are art dealers (non-obsidian) and don't get along with the Taskerhills (page 61), and the Lathenmires aren't part of Cauldron's nobility (page 60), although they could be Sasserine nobility.

Convert the first two to 3.5 as opposed to 3.0. Certain CRs change etc. I've done it a while ago and we are due to start sometime in December.

BDKI-04 It Came From The Deep. Also mention of Kyuss being one of the Faceless Masters of The Writhing Towers of Wormhall. BIS2-04 All That Withers. That'll do for now. Anyone else got anything to share?

Go here if you want details on Kyuss as a god (under the Living Greyhawk Deities v.1.3 link). http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=lg/downloads

FAO Chefs Salad. What can I say? I was very bored :) Quite sad really. Also noted that the LGH campaign featured URC1-01 The Secret of Zodal's Temple, URC1-03 Tear of Pelor, and URC1-07 Exposing Kyuss, in an adventure arc called the Kyuss Conspiracy series. Did anyone play them?

Also the avolakia reappeared in Monster Manual II, page 29, 3.5 Update Booklet page 30.

Just noticed that the Minions of Iuz article in Dragon 270, in which the Hound of Kyuss (pronounced kai-OOSS for those that don't know) appeared, was also written by James Jacobs. A pattern is starting to emerge :) Ironically Kyuss appears to have visited Lake Matreyus in the Amedio Jungle, specifically the Olman (later Suel) city of Elatalhuihle which is in hex V1-80, which is about three hexes (about 200 miles) east of Cauldron (assuming you play Greyhawk and place it in hex U1-77 as advised). Thats enough trawling through old books for now, but for those that are interested LGHJ 1 pages 23 & 24 and LGHJ page III page 13 (it has his religion details) have more Kyuss related material. A little more in WGR3 pgs 27/28 and WGR5 pg 54.

The ulgurstasta re-apperaed in Fiend Folio (page 180 - 181), brought up to 3.5 on page 24 of the update booklet.

Hounds of Kyuss are undead beetles with nasty bites. Also used by Iuz's Boneheart. That's my curiosity settled for now.

Interesting bits under the article "Denizens of the Wormcrawl Fissure", in issue 276, written by none other than James Jacobs! It also references Hounds of Kyuss in Dragon #270 (I'll have to dig that one out of storage). Montsers listed are the avolakia, riftjumper, nerephtys, ulgurstasta, and ciruja plant.

Had a look on the Living Greyhwak map. If Cauldron is in U1-77, then 1650 miles northeast (or 25 65 mile hexes) puts Age of Worms in W-21, V-21, or V-22. These are in the County of Urnst, and covers High Madreth and Radigast City. This is about 260 miles south of the Rift Canyon (about 4 hexes). One of the older Dragons , but after 3rd edition, had a nice article on it's denizens. I'll dig out the number.

Excellent. The only thing I might suggest about rule dependency (which is more of a moot point unless D&D 4.0 suddenly appears) is possibly to have Andy Collins (he is Dragon Sage now isn't he) cast his eyes over it before letting a rule intepretation into the module that will potentially have a critical impact on plot. However the point is taken, there is unlikely to be any major shifts in rules for some time. Well at least I hope there won't be :)

Right, stuffed full of curry and wired from the spices. Time to go online and shoot stuff, I'm on tenterhooks enough as is without reading about more juicy gossip on Age of Worms :)

I forgot one thing. My missus lured me away with the smell of curry, evil culinary succubus that she is. Thats not the thing I forgot but why I forgot :)

Things for improvement:

3) Conisistent Web Support. You seem to have signed up to this but for a long time it was just Life's Bazaar and Flood Season and not a peep again until 114, which did sort of excel itself, as did 115. Where is 116 then ;) Basically keep as you are going currently and that would be an excellent model.

Oops. I appear to have given James a bug. Seems that, like me, these little things gnaw away at ones mind and they just won't go away :) A packages release will sort that, though I doubt it will be out before January :( Oh well, at least my polyglot but less sensible skulk solution has been given a bit of acceptance as viable. Chris's stance would still be nice to know.

Excellent. I always fancied playing a cleric of Pelor :)

If Kyuss is in it then you have a mad god. Very scary mad god but mad god nonetheless. And loads of undead. And worms. *shudders with dark delight*

What did I like about Shackled City?

1) The unusual setting. City in a dormant volcano in a jungle. Love it. Reminded me of Suildam (?) from Against the Slavelords. Stangely it doesn't seem too alien, more like strangers in a strange land. A bit like the Dutch and the British colonies in the East Indies in the 1600's (which fit's in with the Holds of the Sea Princes).
2) Campaign Seeds. These really helped to get an idea of what is going on. Although it sounds like "The Path Ahead" will supercede them in Age of Worms. Nice idea nonetheless.
3) MMII and FF monsters. Even if you don't have the book the stats where provided. My players won't have a clue what they are fighting. If you don't own the books then your players really won't know whats going on as you will never have used them before, like when you first meet a troll and it keeps getting back up because no one knows about the fire and acid. It will stop them being blaise. Although it can be a bugger to find suitable miniatures :)
4) Extracts from new books in advance. Such as bits and pieces from Draconomicon and Libris Mortis (as well as BoVD). This made the modules very unique without straying too far from the core books for those on a budget (not me but I can sympathise).

Things for improvement.

1) Setting guidance. Some guidance on where to bloody place it would have been nice at the start, not in Dungeon #110 page 10. Luckily I haven't started it so it's a moot point and I will just place it in hex 77-U1 but it must have been frustrating for others. Big 3 obviously, as in GH, FR and Eberron I suppose. Incidentally if Age of Worms is set 1650 miles to the north east of Cauldron, in Greyhawk that puts it somewhere near the Rift Canyon (I shall get my map). Ah, Kyuss, better bring clerics with the Sun domain and Extra Turning. Radiant Servants would be best.
2) Plot. Make it tight (although planning it from the start should help this immensely). See my post elsewhere about skulks, dark creepers and Keygan Ghelve. Previous posts on the paradigm shift from Demonskar to Smoking Eye already abound. Also avoid plots too dependant on rules (in case they change), such as Xukasus in Flood Season being highly improbable in 3.5.

Other than that I love it. Keep up the good work.

Cold Steel, check out page 61 of Dungeon #116. Celeste will be covered, as will what destroyed the Spell Weaver empire, and more Kyuss stuff (I wonder if this will back weave into where Tarkilar got his gift for the dwarves). Oddly enough I might leave these ones sealed and let my mate run them, so I'll actually get to play D&D in something other than NWN. Eric or James, will having run Shackled City as DM "spoil" any parts of Age of Worms? I'll run Age of Worms if I absolutely must ;) It just sounds so cool and I haven't even started Shackled City yet.

He did, he visited it a few times (it's in his bio). My issue is that it's a fairly fundamental premise to the whole adventure and it's blatantly wrong. I am just curious as to why this never came up in play testing I guess :) A viable suugestion from Paizo, or better still, advice from Christopher Perkins would be nice. My perfectionsim is making me come across as all Sarcem Delasharn :)

Right, that settles it. I am only running for three players and had a feeling it might be a bit much. I am defenitely running a 1st level party bonder in Sasserine beforehand to get them to 2nd level. The party intend to be as follows:

LN Human Male Ftr/Clr (Saint Cuthbert) who wants to become a Pious Templar with Cauldron's Temple of Saint Cuthbert as his chosen temple. The Path will be great for him, he'll flip his lid when he founds out how deep the rot goes.
LG Human Male Pal (Pelor) who wants to help restore the profile of Pelor's shrine given the recent death of it's senior priests in an "accident". Again great fun for him and another one unlikely to be happy when he rumbles as to what is really going on.
LN Human Male Wiz/Clr (Wee Jas) who wants to be come a Mytsic Theurge and get involved in Cathedral politcs. Probably not so much fun for him but the opportunities for Machivaellian role-playing and, of course, dying messily, should be endless.

I can't wait to run it. No rogue either and everyone religious and lawful. This is really going to be fun (for me at least).

Me too Busker, but remember that miniature is an "eye beast" and is clearly not a beholder ;) Just like I am using 02809 attercops for ettercaps even though, for copyright purposes, they are obviously nothing like them :) If WOTC actually sold miniatures that weren't packaged randomly and painted by some colour blind half-wit then maybe I'd buy theirs (the Chainmail and 3.0 D&D figures are perfectly acceptable and thus I bought lots of them). However enough ranting about miniatures (and I use the term loosely) has already occurred in general ;)

Saying that his ressurrection, trial by Church Inquisitors and execution might be an interesting story (such as why did these adventurers have to deal with these heretics within Cauldron and why didn't you spot them, with all the power that Saint Cuthbert granted you, such as truesight etc). Cuthbertines are bloody minded enough to ressurrect someone merely so they can dispense justice upon them. Then again I do tend to play them possibly harsher than most :)

Sarcem is missing his head and his tongue has been eaten. That's no raise or speak with dead for him. Embril will not raise him, if you are a player and don't know why then go away and stop spoiling it for yourself ;)

Sasserine is over 200 miles away, it's the flood season in tropical mountains, Jenya won't leave her flock, no sending, hideously smelly rotten corpse. Enough said on that one.

Also read Sarcems bio from the web enhancement. He is a lot more two dimensional than Jenya and is likely to annoy any non-Saint Cuthbertine PCs. In fact he'd probably annoy them too. Read the following, he's a bit of an ineffectual wanker really (he couldn't look after himself for a start).

"Sarcem Delasharn is a barrel-chested man with flinty gray eyes, well-groomed black hair, and impressive sideburns. He
takes his position as high priest of the Church of St. Cuthbert
in Cauldron seriously . . . almost too seriously. He runs a tight ship and expects nothing less than perfection from those
under his charge. Tradition bound and loyal, he has become
nothing less than enraged of late at the lackadaisical attitude
that most of Cauldron’s other churches have adopted over the
last several years toward the Flood Festival ceremonies, and
he secretly hoped that the Church of St. Cuthbert had a
chance this season to single-handedly turn back the flood
waters with the wands of control water. In particular, nothing
would please Sarcem more than to see the public image of the
church of Wee Jas become tarnished; he has long had a running
feud with that church’s high priestess."

The sin of pride and lust for glory have gotten him killed. Worse than that he has endangered Cauldron with his ego. Any true Saint Cuthbertine would say that at least The Cudgel allowed him the mercy of an honourable death, on his own two feet, fighting evil as opposed to a trial by an inquisitor asking why his pride was writing cheques that Cauldron couldn't afford to cash. Jenya is a far more complex, involved, matron NPC and losing Delasharn is just good riddance to bad rubbish really. A bit harsh I know but I'm a bit bored with bombastic Saint Cuthbert clerics and Jenya is a refreshing change :)

Dungeon #116 has been out for a few days now (weeks for subscribers). What is the usual lag time for the map resource .pdf's for each issue, and what is Paizo's target for these. I personally cannot see why they aren't available on the newstand release date, but then again I'm an impatient aggressive go-getter (I'm kidding but I am curious about the delay).

Whilst I'm on a silly one do you have a road map for playing catch up on downloadable retrospective resources, particularly for the Shackled City Adventure Path.

In other words, Paizo sort it out :)

Heretics :) Personally I love playing themed campaigns (as do my players), from level 1 through 20+, that takes 2 years plus. Given that the next Adventure Path is due to be set with undeveloped NPCs from Shackled City in it again, from level one, at one adventure per level, that'll keep my group busy until about 2008.

We haven't started Shackled City yet, I have agreed to run it in January once work settles down and so I have time to collect all the miniatures required and paint them. You know, that thing people used to do until the plastic blobs arrived :). Also time to convert a couple of modules from 3.0 to 3.5, see whinge elsewhere :) (actually thats done but I might as well join in the moaining). Then again different strokes for different folks I suppose. Didn't one of your former Presidents say you can't please all of the people all of the time?

As for price, it's worth it (more than worth it) and in the UK converting £ sterling to $ US it comes out a lot more expensive than a US subscription and I ain't complaining (even with a Place for Games subscription), I'm just glad to have an excellent campaign to run (and hopefully so will my players).

TTFN

Bit of an issue with inconsistent backstory. Keygan Ghelve speaks Common, Dwarven, and Gnome. How did the skulks make him craft a master key when they can't speak Common? Yuathyb the dark stalker speaks Gnome but it specifically states the skulks made him (Keygan) craft it and also Keygan never met their leader, even if they had one (as he doesn't know about Yuathyb). Incidentally, that won't cut much ice when I run it, one player is up for playing a puritannical LN Ftr/Clr[St Cuthbert), he'll probably hang him for treason (people have died due to his inaction). Also, the skulk that is guarding the shop can overhear all it wants, it can't speak Common!

Also, Ghelve specifically knows that they share a common language that he doesn't understand (Undercommon) so making him speak their shared language for the sake of brevity is unrealistic (strange phrase for a fanatsy game).

The gist is that the dark creepers and skulks cannot talk to Keygan, and vice versa, and he has never mey Yuathyb. Not good as the whole story arc is based on the premise that they can communicate and that the skulk can eavesdrop on Keygan.

As a solution, that is partly satisfying, I have made the skulk in the shop a slightly smarter member of it's species (Int 12) but slightly dafter (Wis 7), and have had it put 5 cross class ranks in Sense Motive, which with Wis 7 means it has +0 to it's check (as opposed to -1). It's extra language is Common (or a heavily basatrdised version as per FF 154). They can all be like this if it helps, for those that envisage swapping guard duty in a rota.

If anyone has a more elegant solution I'm all ears,
or eyes as this is the internet :)

Now to ponder what to do about the unpolymorphable (in 3.5) Xukasus (I'm going with just a dirty ogre), and the fact that various CRs have shifted as per the 3.5 update booklet and knocked ELs (and thus treasure balance), all out of wack.

Paizo really should release an official eratta PDF from 3.0 to 3.5 for the first two parts of the Adventure Path (the naughty little gnomes). Saying that I have already done it, I will post on the web somewhere when I start running, or mail me if you can't wait (and modify to your hearts content).

I just converted them myself. It was a good exercise to get used to the subtleties of 3.0 to 3.5. I haven't started running it yet, I will in January (need to get all the figures painted), but I intend to build a website with a forum (for player discussions) so I will eventually post the stat blocks. I'd still advise changing them yourself, you can tweak them to include feats etc from the splat books (although Paizo tend to do this anyway).