GreenGrunt's page

In order to make Allustan look less like a coward, I'd up the number of lizards by one squad and have Allustan throw his single fireball to wipe out the extras. You could send him to Marshkeep to see if there also in need, or you might have him go to Diamond Lake, not for the sake of breaking the siege(that responsibility falls squarely on the pcs), but to inform the garrsion commander and requisition troops to replace the fallen.

Great idea Galen!

GreenGrunt wrote:

Hey, could you give us a run-down of how you adjudicated XP for the role-playing bits?

Like describing the event and the amount of XP you doled out to the PCs? Thanks!

I am running a lot of side-quests/stories in Dimaond Lake that are very individualized to the player's characters, and these missions (and the XP rewards) probably wouldn't relate well to your campaign. I tend to reward between 50 - 200 XP for various actions and/or roleplay, however.

My PCs are about to take on the Wind Dukes in Whispering Cairn and are already 4th Level, so you might be able to reverse engineer the XP if you wanted to know the totals. I used to keep track of XP I handed out, but I haven't thus far. Thanks for the replys.

Well.... Thanks. What were some of the side quests, aside from the baby owl bear? Which reminds me, did your PCs manage to find Fester?

Hey, could you give us a run-down of how you adjudicated XP for the role-playing bits?
Like describing the event and the amount of XP you doled out to the PCs? Thanks!

Elf monk
Half-elf rogue
Half-orc barbarian
NPC: human- Cleric of Fharlanghn

The last three party members are all brothers or half brothers.. Ahem.. Their father really, really, got around!! Alustan has kind of adopted them as they've grown up. He's hinted to them that he knows of their father but won't really say. The mage gave them the location of the Cairn; he wanted the party to let him know what was in the cairn in weekly progress reports.

My PCs kept rolling great saves vs. the lurking strangler's eye attacks, but they kept rolling absolutely horrible spot checks, so they never saw the bugger until it started to strangle a subdued NPC in the party. I thought that was going to be a tpk.

Wow Chris... As the cliche goes.. Very deep. Nice post.

I just got it in the mail yesterday and I loved it. However, this adventure is going to be tough for my PCs. If they're not smart it will be a TPK. Taking on a small lizard man army right off the bat is going to be rough... Not to mention the "tainted" potions.

GENERAL DISCLAIMER:

>Russell Jones does not promote party killing.<

The party of guys I'm running is about to head for the observatory to confront Filge; that is, they WERE before three of them DIED!!

MUA-HA-HA!!

Every DM has their own special D20, and mine has been dubbed "PC Killer" due to its uncanny ability to roll 20s like no-one's business. Despite what people tell you, it is one of the most viscerally gratifying moments as a DM when you off members of a party. It's even BETTER if you get more than one in the same combat. And if only one squeaks away to tell the tale, so much the better.

Plus, it was all their fault! Well, mostly their fault...

First Casuality: The CN human fighter/rogue had just found a Large +1 katana in the metal ball pit right outside the True Tomb (and before you comment, I had just bought Weaps of Legacy). It didn't help him though; when they made it inside the TTomb, he got walloped by not one, but TWO criticals in a row from one of the Wind Guardians. Current status; in Allustan's meat locker.

Second and Third Casualties: The remaining three PCs dumped Alastor's body and found the thugs in the Feral Dog. The NE wanna-be-blighter druid split off from the group to skin the baby bugbear, while the LE Favored Soul of Hextor and LG Tiefling Warlock (don't ask) confronted the toughs. After hearing many not-so-subtle hints that the guys were itching for a fight, the Hextorian tosses the scrap of their comrade's arm with their tattoo on it onto the table.

Violence ensues.

First round of combat; Hextorian critically misses. Kullen the half orc rages and critically hits. For 46 damage. The warlock runs all over the tavern trying to get away, and the druid shows up. Two rounds later, the orc crits again for 55 damage on the druid, and things are looking bleak. All the dead players at the table are now rooting for Kullen, and the warlock is turning pale. The half-orc falls to several well-placed fatigue fogs, and the 'lock cuts his thumbs off, finding...

Aha! But you promote hpk! : )

Hey thanks guys! Of course, there's no mage in the party! I've completely forgotten about ray of frost. What level is the spell?

For all you DM's whose PCs have passed the Lair of the Architect- how did your PCs defeat the brown mold in room #11, the Gallery? Did they do it or did they avoid it?

Tatterdemalion wrote:

My impression is that he doesn't fit in -- what we see in Whispering Cairn is an incidental overlap in the Wind Dukes' story and Kyuss' activities. It seems to be little more than coincidence.

Or is it?! MUWA HA HA HA!

Oh, wait. I mean... I too am interested in finding some origins of Kyuss. Didn't they become Queens of the Stone Age?

Kyuss was awesome!! I heard the lead singer tried out another band but they broke up. But getting back to the D&D Kyuss, I dunno! I just don't know!

You're not going to get that in the Overload, which includes a detailed campaign outline of all 12 adventures, tons of stat blocks for Diamond Lake, additional information on the region surrounding Diamond Lake, and conversion appendices for Eberron and the Forgotten Realms.

The "hook" is this: Adventurers from the Free City come to town looking for riches in the Stirgenest Cairn. The heroes, residents of Diamond Lake with a reason to want to leave, know that the Stirgenest Cairn is empty of treasure, but know of another cairn that probably does contain some unplundered goods. They pull together to raid the place in hopes of raising enough funds to get out of Diamond Lake (which after all is a bit of a hole).

If that hook doesn't work for you, the Diamond Lake backdrop provides literally dozens of NPCs who might put the PCs on the path. If one of the characters is tied to the garrisson, perhaps Valuks Dun or Tolliver Trask put them on the scent of the Cairn, having discovered its location on one of Dietrik Cicaeda's old maps after their curiosity was piqued thanks to the arrival of the Free City adventurers.

Or maybe the superior of a PC cleric's church suggests that the PCs check out the cairn.

Or start the thing in a tavern, with a conversation with one of the three adventurers from the Free City.

If none of these ideas work for you, perhaps a thread asking for specific advice would be in order?

--Erik

Nice ideas Eric. Thanks. I have a crazy way for the PCs via an NPC in the party to get rid of the brown mold in the Lair of the Architect... But anyways, thanks again.

Bocklin wrote:

It would be nice if someone at Paizo could collect all the names and email addresses of those who have posted at least once on this Thread and send them a warning email when the Overload is online. It would allow me to stop checking Paizo's website every other hour. Me, sadistic? Nooooooo!! ;-)

Excellent idea. Will do.

By your command,
-rob

Thank you Rob!! Thaaaaaaaaank you! WOTC is slacking on their D&D website, they're still in July... "Tee-hee-hee!"

Loops! wrote:

Yeah, Savage Orcs from WotC Deathknell (57/60 c), much more impressive than the grimlock "weaklings" from WotC Dragoneye -

and easier to get.

Is there any sort of official "in production, not in production" list for the D&D minis? Aside from Harbringer and Archfiends, which sets are no longer being made? It seems like with the release of Angelfire, it's everything up to Aberrations. Maybe even including Aberrations... Which, obviously, is a real shame. How am I supposed to get an Umber Hulk? Or Drizz't? Or some of the dragons? It's not fair, I say!

But at least I managed to get two Bulettes and a Huge Red Dragon!!!

Giants of Legend is now factory retired I believe. Umber Hulk- I don't even want to discuss how much I paid for one of those as a single! Displacer beasts and other singles from the older sets are being sold for huge amounts of money! I don't even know how many Giants of Legend I bought and I still had to purchase both dragons as singles.. Those %$@# cloud giants made me want to scream! I bought 24 sets of Angelfire booster packs and I couldn't get some of the minis I wanted out of that list. Not to mention a Blackscale Lizardfolk having no tail!!

Anyways- trying to get rid of the steaming anger... The timber wolf minis from Deathknell worked out awfully nice for Whispering Cairn. I'll be using quasit minis from GOL for the elementals I think. For the beetles and swarms I'm trying to acquire some Reaper minis. For the statue I think I'll use the Stonechild mini.. For the Wind Warriors I bought two Gloom Wraiths from Reaper. That's all I have so far.

GreenGrunt wrote:

Even if that were so, it still screws things up, because the description states that the fountain of nutrient sludge is on the west wall of the room's central pillar, which actually does match the way they have the map's compass.

So, I switch the compass, and make the niches east/west and the fountain of sludge at the southern end. Croikee! What a pain in the arse! : D But at least I'm not seeing things. Thanks J!

Yeah, that was the other mistake. But you got it figured out now.

I ended reading the text out loud and I had to explain the f%@!ups to the players, they were understanding.

Peace and smiles :)

j.

Dude, I thought the Lair of the Architect was going to be a disaster, the strangler kept hiding (it's ungodly hide modifier) from the PCs and zapping them with its sleep and fear rays, amazingly, most of the PCs made their saves. However, the cleric and the fighter NPCs failed their saves and were down, the monk PC tries to burn the brown mold with the torch and gets knocked out. I decided to have the lurking strangler start strangling the party members as the half-orc barbarian is dragging the unconscious monk away from the brown mold. The half orc PC sees the lurker and tries to chop at it with his axe (while its wrapped around the throat of the fighter NPC, the half orc's wisdom score is horrible), kills the fighter NPC in the process and successfully grapples it with as it attempts to strangle the cleric. Eventually the half-orc squeezes it in half. Once the cleric wakes up, everybody decides to get the heck out of dodge and rest in the sarcophagus chamber.

For a few tense minutes I thought the party was toast. That is really deadly part of the Cairn!

GreenGrunt wrote:

Whispering Cairn: Lair of the Architect Room #11: The Gallery.

There are some serious errors with the map and the description of the room. According to the map, it appears that the tool closet trap is at the south end of the central pillar. However, in the description of the room in the adventure it states that the tool closet is on the pillar's east face. What the heck!? "The central pillar's east face bears a similar niche.." According to the map, the compass indicates

The compass is wrong on the map. North is up. And when you move the slab in area 9, it goes to the west, not north.

Peace and smiles :)

j.

Even if that were so, it still screws things up, because the description states that the fountain of nutrient sludge is on the west wall of the room's central pillar, which actually does match the way they have the map's compass.

So, I switch the compass, and make the niches east/west and the fountain of sludge at the southern end. Croikee! What a pain in the arse! : D But at least I'm not seeing things. Thanks J!

Whispering Cairn: Lair of the Architect Room #11: The Gallery.

There are some serious errors with the map and the description of the room. According to the map, it appears that the tool closet trap is at the south end of the central pillar. However, in the description of the room in the adventure it states that the tool closet is on the pillar's east face. What the heck!? "The central pillar's east face bears a similar niche.." According to the map, the compass indicates that the niches of the central pillar run north/south, not east/west. "A dry fountain along the south face of the central pillar features.." Again, looking at the map, it appears that the tool closet and the column trap are on the south face, not a dry fountain. The only way this makes sense to me is that the fountain basin is the northern niche which is covered in brown mold. Massive screw ups with this room. Fortunately, my party didn't get to that part yet as they had to go back up to the first level and rest after being gassed, fighting the lurking strangler, and one PC getting all the heat sucked out of him from the brown mold. I noticed these mistakes in a read through last night after the session ended.

Thanks again Eric for all the hard work and the heads up!! And thank you for the Rumors Table, nicely done man, nicely done!!

Thanks again Phil. Twas a big help.

Last night I (finally) completed the complete campaign outline section of the Overload document, which was the main thing holding up the release of Age of Worms Overload. I need to spend about four more hours on it writing up the Cairn Hills and the Cult of the Green Lady, and from there it goes to our fine layout people, who will make it pretty. From there it goes to Wizards of the Coast for a quick look-see approval, and then to you guys.

I apologize again for the delay. Things have been crazy lately, and I've been working as fast as I can. I will keep everyone updated on where we stand as we churn through the various remaining parts until it's in your hands.

Thanks again for everyone's patience.

--Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dragon & Dungeon

Hey Erik-

No problem. Thank you very much for your communication with us customers as well as your hard work. Keep up the good work man! Cheers!
All the best-
GG

In a buisness envirement you don't promise your customers something and not deliver and untill they actualy post SOMETHING that's what they are doing. I'm running my 3rd AOW game very soon so if they delay any longer it thanks for nothing but an empty promise--the material's great but useless. This reminds me of that verse in the song "Ironic"--

"It's like a free ride when you're already late".

Ah yes, but we live in an imperfect world. You should see Fantasy Flight Games release schedule for their Midnight d20 products, I don't know which end is up with that deal. But I buy the stuff because I like setting, it's just that I don't really follow their schedule anymore because it's mighty unreliable.

FF Games got me used to disappointment I guess. Sometimes businesses screw up a little- sometimes a bit more. The important thing is that the business acknowledges the screw up, which is what paizo has done. Cheers man!

GreenGrunt wrote:

I'm starting Age of Worms next week. One of my PCs is an elven monk, and we can't give him a decent character background because the Twilight Monastery hasn't been covered yet. So yes, I'm a bit frustrated.

Erik leaked the Twilight Monastery info to the boards a few weeks ago. Here's a repost:

The Twilight Monastery

About two hours north of Diamond Lake, a towering crag called the Griffon's Roost casts a dark shadow over the muddy road to Elmshire. From a perch hundreds of feet above looms the cat-infested Twilight Monastery, a three-towered monument to an obscure philosophy of the Distant West. Two score monks dwell within the monastery, dedicating themselves to a litany of exercises meant to perfect the body and spirit. The secretive monks hold dusk as the holiest of hours, and sonorous chants emit from the Twilight Monastery's central courtyard when the night sky appears in the heavens.

Foremost among the monks is Izenfen the Occluded, a peerless masked combatant thought to be one of the wisest figures in the hills. Travelers frequently seek her council, but most leave Diamond Lake without ever having gained access to the Twilight Monastery, for Izenfen deigns to speak with only a handful of pilgrims foretold to her via the agency of the night sky and an immense mirrored lens called the Censer of Symmetry. The Censer, which dominates the monastery's central courtyard, grants any who gaze upon it a +10 bonus on Profession (astrologer) checks made during a clear night. Junior monks polish its smooth surface throughout the day, and the whole of the order is prepared to defend it with their lives.

When word of the Censer's predictive prowess spread to the miners of Diamond Lake 20 years ago, a desperate contingent petitioned Izenfen to predict the location of the richest unclaimed local ore deposits, appealing to her compassion with tales of starving children and dangerously unpaid debts. The masked mistress of the Twilight Monastery rebuffed their pleas, triggering...

Thanks much Phil, where's the Bronzewood Lodge stuff?

Everybody here has valid points. In order for a business to satisfy the needs of its customers, it needs to hear the input from the customers. And there has been some overwhelming response for the AOW because everybody here thinks it's that good, otherwise there wouldn't be the volume of replies as we're seeing now. What's nice here is that both Eric and Jeremy have responded to customer input in these threads. They've apologized for the delay in the PDF for the campaign setting.

It's true that a product can't please everybody, so regardless of what is done, somebody somewhere is going to be disappointed. But I don't agree to that we should not voice our opinions or at least make known that we're a bit frustrated because paizo didn't come through with the initial promise made on page 10 of Dungeon #125 where it states: "Drop by today to download Age of Worms Overload, a free PDF compilation of supplementary material to help Age of Worms Dungeon Masters get the most out of their campaigns."

I'm starting Age of Worms next week. One of my PCs is an elven monk, and we can't give him a decent character background because the Twilight Monastery hasn't been covered yet. So yes, I'm a bit frustrated.

As far as this free download goes, yeah, its great, but if paizo decided to publish the campaign overload in a separate issue at the regular magazine price, I'd still buy it, because I feel Age of Worms is that good. As a DM, I'm pleased with both adventures in 124 and 125 and I really hope my players will enjoy it. But in order for a player to enjoy a campaign, he has to feel like his character is part of the campaign world, and for the elven monk I can't deliver that satisfaction.

However, getting back to both Eric and Jeremy; they've made replies to our complaints, and they've been prompt about it.

As a customer though, I feel I have a right to voice a complaint. It's part of business. I'm confident that paizo won't make the same mistake in future campaign settings for Dungeon magazine. These guys are professionals and they listen and respond to customer issues. You can't expect anything more out of a company.

Lastly, my punctuation in this post really sucks! :P

I agree with Airwalker.
I too, would like to make a request. All I ask is that you guys put out the maps of the surrounding area. That's what I'd like to see. All the other nitty-gritty stuff can wait if you feel you're rushed. I'll be running the campaign soon (I hope) and I'd like to see the overall layout of the Cairn Hills and the environs. Well, it was worth a shot guys.