James Keegan's page

My favorite part of The Library of Last Resort was the big 'team fight' between Darl's group and the PCs. Just a personal favorite of mine to see two teams of powerful characters (like the X-Men versus The Brotherhood or something) going at it. Sometimes the most dangerous thing to face an adventuring party is another adventuring party, and it's a good reminder that teamwork is the really important thing to accomplish their goals. My group isn't as big on the teamwork aspect as I wish they were, so I want to reinforce how potent a team of characters can be if they work in concert and this group (and the ones in The Champion's Belt adventure) is a great way of reinforcing that.

Also, it's kind of neat to see a guy decked out in robes that isn't a wizard.

Wow, that's really amazing that only 1 in 60,000 posts on the Paizo messageboards needs censoring or intervention from the webmaster. I guess we're lucky to have such a respectful (or at least mature) community here.

The flowchart suggestion is a great idea, and Chimes at Midnight is a good example. The ultimate point is that every adventure is scripted to a certain degree, with a dungeon crawl being the most scripted. If you can come up with a few good events or encounters, even just a 'beginning encounter' establishing the PCs motives and the plot, a 'climax encounter' which could be the dramatic confrontation or non-combat challenge and an 'ending encounter' where it's tied up and resolved to some degree and make them somewhat modular so that you can spring them on the PCs when the time comes or conditions are met, that's a good start.

From there, add smaller encounters based on happenstance that may directly tie into the plot or just be there if your players get stuck and need a clue as to where to go or if there's a PC that seems to not be included and invested as much as everyone else. For example, if there have been a lot of combat encounters in your city adventure involving invaders or muggers, throw in an encounter where diplomacy or magic may be necessary to give the bard a chance to shine. It's a good idea to throw in things that aren't related to the adventure just to give the setting some life and maybe reward players for exploring and for being curious. It's also handy to have some pre-fabricated 'clue' encounters to get the group back on track if it's really necessary or if you need to make the adventure a bit beefier. One of the neat things about the Eberron adventures Shadows of the Last War and Grasp of the Emerald Claw was that the authors included a table titled "Someone kicks the door in" based on the Hammet and Chandler detective novels. Basically it was a list of adversaries the DM could roll on and use to attack the characters if the pace had slowed down too much and needed a jump-start.

So, you're still writing a series of encounters for the PCs, but you're trying to make them a bit more loose. Not as tied to a specific room, but more set on circumstances in the story or a place on a timeline. You must also be more prepared to wing it and improvise, because there are more opportunities for the PCs to throw the DM a curveball.

Sounds like a perfectly reasonable law to me. I am a Christian, but I do not agree with the whole "let God punish them" train of thought. The world is slowly getting more violent and unsafe for innocent people to live in and if we don't have laws and practices that make the criminals scared of doing the crime, then we are asking for it when a 4 time burglar robs us, or a 2 time s*x offender is allowed to end some poor child's life. We have a "3 strike" law where I live and yet I always read about 3 time + offenders doing something again, why? Because we as a society do not punish the guilty as they should be. We feel that they still have rights. When you become a monster you should be treated like one. People need to stop worrying about the criminal's rights and worry about the protection of the innocents who have no idea that a monster just moved in on their block. I have a guy who moved into town who is on the registered s*x offender database listed as 58 yrs old and his offense was with a kid under 12. Why is he allowed to have a life when the pre-teen had their's torn from them? Why do I have memorize this monster's face so I can recognize if he is casing out my 3 year old? The answer is because society allows this crap to happen and is so worried about EVERYONE's rights that the people who deserve to have their rights protected are the ones being left to fend for themselves. I agree with the people touting "life is sacred" and all but when 1 person kills someone, goes to jail and gets out to do it again, now the "life is sacred" crowd can add 2 lives to their tally instead of the one that deserved it.

Sorry, touchy subject. (gets off of high-horse)

as always IMO
FH

You do have a point, and an overabundance of leniency can cause a lot of problems, as per your examples. That being said, I like to think that honest remorse is worth something. While there are plenty of repeat offenders, how many people serve their time in prison, get out, and just honestly try to put their lives back together? Murder should carry a life sentence, sure, especially when a child is involved, but as soon as the legal system stops being concerned about EVERYONE'S rights, we all may as well be slapped in handcuffs and hauled away. It's really difficult, sometimes, but we need to remind ourselves that it's just as monstrous to label someone 'a monster' and declare that they have no rights as it is to actually be that monster.

As far as killing someone over a bunch of stuff, I honestly can't get behind it. Sure, one works hard for it and if someone swipes it from you, they should be punished. But a stereo, computer, or pile of D&D books are all replacable. A life isn't, even a criminal's.

Enough of that. How about those big furry twenty sided dice you can hang from your dashboard? Talk about CRAAAZZZYY!!

I have to agree the Wingclipper's Revenge is a really great adventure that I've definitely filed away for future use if I have the opportunity. They're only minor parts of the adventure, but I love the grey-skinned Nerull worshipping halflings and if I come up with a home-made campaign setting I definitely would flesh them out and feature them prominently. So even if I don't find an opportunity to run the scenario as written, I've found something interesting to expand on for myself, which is a definite sign of a great adventure. Great job, Chris!

Yeah, I was worried it would seem a little too rail-roady. I get the feeling he doesn't really enjoy being at odds with the rest of the party but he really likes his character, so I was hoping this would give him the excuse to play a little differently.

I'll probably discuss it with him first.

And thanks for the suggestiong about where to find a good picture of Tenser, but I couldn't find any picture of him in The Adventure Begins. There does seem to be a picture of the Circle of Eight in the Player's Guide to Greyhawk but it's hard to tell who is who.

Aw, man, that's because I gave you the wrong title. It's the Return of the Eight module that has Tenser stated out in 2nd Edition terms with an illustration. Sorry about that.

Dungeons and Dragons fans worldwide must listen to the metal band 3 Inches of Blood. Album title: Advance and Vanquish, complete with cover art painting of axe-wielding barbarian hordes. 3 songs about pirates, one about an evil super computer called "Wykydtron" (how metal is that?), and a song called "Destroy the Orcs". My favorite lyric: "Enemies of Metal, YOUR DEATH IS OUR REWARD!!"

Beyond that:
The Decemberists- Picaresque
The Bled- Found In the Flood
Ed Gein- It's A Shame That A Family Can Be Torn Apart By Something As Simple As A Pack of Wolves
Curl Up And Die- Unfortunately We're Not Robots
The Arcade Fire - Funeral
Neutral Milk Hotel- The Aeroplane Over the Sea
The Pixies- Surfer Rosa
Andrew Bird- The Mysterious Production of Eggs

Lots of others, but that's a pretty good overview.

"The PRICE! Payed in BLOOD! THE PRICE! PAAAYYEEDD IIN BLLOOODD!! JUST PRAY THAT THE BLOOD IS NOT YOURS!!"-- 3 Inches of Blood

The Adventure Begins module (from the 2nd Edition Greyhawk revamp) has a lot of material on Tenser and a full-body illustration of him in the appendix. It's $4 for download as a pdf here on the paizo website.

As far as using Tenser's gift to change this character's alignment, I would say include the character in the process. If he wants to become good aligned, it's probably best (and more interesting) if he roleplays his character that way, rather than being railroaded into it with a magical item. Plus, from what I've read of your post it sounds like you're planning on making the obvious choice (the more powerful item) a tool for changing your player's character, which isn't really fair. If he wants to play a borderline evil character in a good party, let him. Part of the fun of playing such a character is the inter-party (role-playing) conflict this creates. It makes sense that even a self-serving fighter would travel with these altruistic types because of his hope for fortune and glory and maybe on some level because he genuinely doesn't want the world to be overtaken by undead; makes life in the campaign world for living people a lot less fun. It's in his personal best interest to maintain the status quo; just because he's leaning towards evil doesn't mean he's in favor of the coming Age of Worms. Evil isn't monolithic, it's just as likely an evil character will oppose an evil force as a good character will oppose an evil force.

All great ideas up here (that I'll have to swipe). Windnight, the only thing I would mention is that maybe you shouldn't exclude your other players from the dreams and such. Maybe make a roll to decide who should get one each night, and maybe have a predefined list of visions, increasing in intensity and detail. You could argue that your two characters' lawful nature puts them closer to their true bloodline, but everyone in the group is supposedly descended from the Wind Dukes in some way in Kings of the Rift as it is written. All I'm saying is that you may unintentionally be playing favorites in one way or another.

I love the Fallout games (well, the computer RPGs at least) and from what I read of what Black Isle was doing with Fallout 3 before Interplay shut it down and sold it, we missed out on a great game. I'm a bit apprehensive about Bethesda doing the next Fallout (it's going to be in first person, goshdarn it!). If I could get over my hatred for the artwork in the d20 Modern book, I would definitely run a Fallout campaign.

The main reason to hunt down the illithid is that he's behind attempts on the PCs lives. So, if they opt not to go after him (and find out who hired him) just send more assassins after the PCs; not just dopplegangers, but maybe gangs of drow or other crazy underdark creatures.

For party composition purposes, an arcane spellcaster and a cleric are really handy. At first there aren't a ton of undead, but they get more numerous as the path goes on. This is just a personal thing, but I would want my players to pick from classes in the Player's Handbook rather than supplements if this is their first campaign. But, you know what you're doing and if they're going to have more fun this way, why not?

A number of folks on the boards have run the party through an encounter at the mine manager's office to introduce the party to the game as well as to outfit them covertly with things they may need to survive the cairn. You're definitely going to want to encourage them to get flasks of acid or alchemist's fire and/or a burning hands spell or scroll. Those swarms are nightmares without these things.

It doesn't hurt to be a bit forgiving, especially when starting out. The combat encounters in the Cairn are spread out but deadly, so fudging die rolls every now and then to avert character death may be in the cards (unless you want to teach them about character mortality early on).

I ran the first adventure over the summer when it came out and it's one of the most fun I've ever DMed. You're in for a treat, so enjoy!

Pregenerated characters are great for learning the game, but half the fun for the players is watching a character they've created become more powerful and fleshed out. I think a good method of keeping both the players and DM satisfied without the Dungeon Master out-and-out creating all of the characters is to agree on a pre-rolled set of ability scores to distribute, certain restrictions within what races can be chosen (as far as level adjustment goes), classes (only the core books, or including stuff from the Complete series?) and feats/spells (again, core books or supplements?). That way, the players may still have freedom while remaining balanced and if the player can email the DM their character's concept, then the DM can help to tailor that PC's personal history to the campaign and the other PCs.

You can check out Goya's Horrors of War (not sure if that's exactly the name) drawings from the library for inspiration. They are pretty terrifying. Also, picking up on the idea with the children, you may draw a party cleric (or anybody) into role-playing encounters with children traumatized by the goblinoid army and occupation. For instance, Anna Freud worked with children that survived concentration camps in WWII and found that the children had learned to function completely as a kind of unit: if one child finished eating, they all finished eating; everyone followed the eldest child's lead, etc. Though many had repressed a lot of their memories of what happened, they were apprehensive around dogs, distrustful of outsiders and especially wary of adults. Remember that kids naturally repress traumatic things in order to take care of their psyches, yet these things still manifest in their behavior. So the children of this occupation may have all kinds of fears and neurosis developed. Make dealing with them frustrating (because it is) but ultimately rewarding (maybe these kids have some vital information that can only be gained after a character builds trust with them). Also, since these kids function already as a unit, attacking them (frustrated or evil PCs, or NPCs) would be kind of futile, since they would know how to avoid harm better than most adults (after all, they survived a goshdarn occupation). Good luck, I hope your players have a great time!

Honestly, I can't stand MMORPGs of any shape or form. No problem with you guys liking them or anything, but I tried Everquest (remember Everquest?) for three days and I was honestly bored to tears. There's no plot, there's no point. Walk around, ask yourself: am I tougher than that monster? If yes, walk up to it and hit it a few times. If no, run away from it. If monster dies, loot its stuff. Repeat for hours on end. Your character in the game is not important beyond what your numbers say, what other characters you have killed, etc. Plus, you have morons TYPING IN ALL CAPS AND ABBREVIATING EVERYTHING INTO MMORPG SLANG. OMGLOLBBQ! So, to heck with it all. If Neverwinter Nights 2 turns out to be good, maybe I'll try that, but $50 for the game and then $10 a month just to walk around and hear 14 year olds trash talk? No thanks.

For me, it truly started when my father read to me from a huge book about Greek myths when I was little. I guess he figured he'd inject me with some culture while I was young rather than reading the normal children's bedtime stories. From there, I went on to comics and then to an obsession with knights and medieval times, always drawing fantasy pictures. In fourth grade, it was Magic: The Gathering. God, I'm so filled with nostalgia thinking about the first cards I ever owned, searching everywhere to get booster packs (there was a major shortage for a while where I grew up). In sixth grade, my teacher told me about D&D and how much fun he and his friends had playing it, so I went out and bought the D&D basic set with the Macho Man Randy Savage cd and everything. I was hooked from then on. It's a bit strange that, now that I'm studying to be an artist, I don't really do much fantasy related work anymore, yet I still love D&D and everything. Oh, well.

"The Doomgrinder" pdf

Where can I get this?
Was it in a issue of dungeon?
I may allready have that issue.

The Doomgrinder is a Greyhawk adventure released in the 90s, when Greyhawk was getting revamped. It's available for download from the Paizo website under '2nd Edition modules'. Only $4 per pdf or any size, so it's a great resource.

Up here at school (SVA, Manhattan) the only thing on my keychain is an I <3 Vermont bottle opener. My courier bag always has:

Shakable no battery flashlight
2-3 sketchbooks, of various sizes
Pencil bag; pens and pencils
Some manner of tape (either PH neutral art tape or scotch)
Marble composition notebook
'Not For Tourists' guide to New York (really comes in handy)

My car at home has more typical 'just in case' stuff for the Northeast; cat litter for traction, blankets, water bottle, flashlight, etc.

I usually DM, though, so that may make me exempt from the rules; I've never as a character had to face down a werewolf with nothing but a spoon, so I likely haven't had the same preparedness issues.

Final Fantasy VI is one of the finest games ever made, I think. So much fun, so much going on. Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2 (and the expansions) are hands down the absolute best D&D computer games ever made. The other Infinity Engine games are also really good, but the BG series just got everything right. Fun combat (unlike Torment), good story (unlike Icewind Dale) and memorable characters. Plus, for a game set in the Forgotten Realms they did a great job making sure the main character is the most important person in the world that we see. Icewind Dale 2 was also pretty good, but not quite on the level of Baldur's Gate. NWN was fun, but being limited to only one henchman (or two in the expansion) prevented it from attaining the depth that BG managed. Arcanum is another great game, even though combat is the least fun part and the Fallout games are excellent. Morrowind can be fun at times, but after a while it fell apart for me.

1 Human Warrior
1 Human Adept
1 Human Expert
1 Human Aristocrat
1 Human Commoner

A perfectly well-rounded group if I've ever seen one. The expert can fix wagon wheels, make barrels and use those +1 woodcarving sets that would normally be tossed to the monk in the party, just because it would weigh down all the other characters. Never tackle Oregon Trail without one. The warrior is great at standing on the beaten path to town and inquiring,"Oy! Ye wouldn'happen to be a group a NE'ER-DO-WELLS, aye?!" The adept is great for applying the heal skill or, if you're really lucky, cure light wounds, to the expert's sore thumb or commoner's rash. The aristocrat is amazingly skilled at looking down on all the other characters, complaining about dust on his new dublet and occasionally slapping people with gloves and getting into duels that only the warrior can extract him from. The commoner can grow wheat and rye, and goshdarn if that single simple weapon proficiency (usually focused on the stick, but every now and then they switch it up and learn hoe) doesn't come in handy all the time.

I'm pretty sure the flumph could really use a hug. I mean, they only appear once every couple of years in an adventure, if they're lucky. Poor flumphs.

I bet hugging a Raggomoffyn would be nice and warm for the first minute or so until you start suffocating.

I think we should stat out a 'hug golem' specifically for this thread. And then we should all write adventure proposals for Dungeon involving the hug golem, or an Ecology of the hug golem (even if they are constructs). I bet every PC mage that's in-touch with their sensitive side would want a hug golem. Heck, I'm pretty sure I'd like one, too.

Oh, man. You need to have the Agrocrag! I guess it's just technically a rock wall that one would have to scale but you have to say the name of the game in a crazy Australian accent.

Now let's hit...THE AGROCRAG! Crikey!

Or track down that old Mayan themed game show from the Nickelodeon channel in the early nineties where you had to collect idols and scale rope bridges and dodge animated statues and sometimes the middle aged guards dressed up in ceremonial costume would grab one of the nine year old contestants and make them give up their idols. That would be cool.

1. Hellboy (especially the collected graphic novels)
2. BPRD
3. Powers

Those are the monthlies. Graphic novels:
1. 100% by Paul Pope
2. The Marquis by Guy Davis
3. Watchmen by Alan Moore
4. Black Hole by Charles Burnes
5. Jimmy Corrigan by Chris Ware
6. Bighead, Clumsy, Unlikely, Any Easy Intimacy by Jeffrey Brown
7. Blankets by Craig Thompson
There are a lot of other books that I'm leaving off, but those are the ones I like the most. Lately, I tend to find the indie/autobio stuff to be really interesting.

Personally, I do like Frank Miller's Sin City books. The art style is great for the subject matter and the guy can really draw. The stories are inspired mostly by noir films and hard-boiled crime fiction, so they can be pretty cliche, but I think he manages to pull something interesting into the cliches he's working with. I do concede your point, though. One of the major things that bother me about Miller's Sin City work is that every female character is a sex object, a villain, or a victim. And they are all on some level subservient or subordinate to a male character; except for Ava, who is a villain. Frank has some women issues, I think.

If someone were actually attacking me in real life, I don't think they would approach within 30 feet of me and take a swing within a six second time frame, then wait for me to either make a return attack or move sixty feet in the next six seconds (perhaps provoking an attack of opportunity) and then take their six second 'turn'.

If I'm making a drawing or painting for class, I'm fairly certain that it's more likely the time I've spent practicing coupled with preparation before making the final product and the amount of time spent on the final product that makes it pleasing to the eye, rather than some element of chance.

I'm fairly certain (and I'll have to check my character sheet on this one) that I don't possess any 'feats'.

I do not have proficiency in even one simple weapon nor any kind of armor, making me as a person inferior to a first level commoner.

I can't cast any spells by saying magical words, gesturing and expending material components, I do not derive superhuman strength from my anger, and if the gods have blessed me with supernatural resistances to disease, I'm completely unaware.

We suspend our disbelief for these things, knowing that it's a simulation. Discussion of metaphysics is fun in itself, and philosophers have been entirely incapable of agreeing on any one idea. Therefore, the simplest way to simulate a pretend person's moral outlook as a guide for their depiction in our shared fantasy is to give them a position based on a law/chaos, good/evil axis. That way, we can all spend more time arguing about just how many kobolds it would take to realistically overrun a human being or whether or not a gnome can survive indefinitely in an extradimensional space encapsulated in a magic bag provided his head is peeking out of the top.

These aren't as great as Elfy McElfington and Strom Thurmond, but my friends named their Age of Worms characters a bit strangely.
The ranger's name is "Slim", which isn't too terrible. Might be kind of strange after they hit 10th level or so and start to be well-known. The cleric of St. Cuthbert is known as Brother Shamas, like from the Big Lebowski. "A brother Shamas? Like an irish monk?" The gnome wizard's name is Moose. He's got a really terrible strength score, so the name works surprisingly well. Someone that used to play with us named a lot of his characters...Ratsmith. I have no clue to this day why. Strangely enough, this was the guy that found a wheelchair in real life and kept it in his dorm room to roll himself around in. Oh, college.

When my players stole Ilthanes egg at Blackwall keep with dreams of dragon ownership in their minds. I let a whole game session go before I had the egg hatch and spill worms all over the terrified PC's in their Inn room. They panicked and ran or jumped out windows. On Pc was knocked unconcious from the fall. The best part was the munchkin in our group Tony, who went out and bought a copy of Draconomicon right after they took the egg. It was great to see the looks on their faces. Especially when Ilthane reappeared and wiped out Diamond lake.

My players also took Ilthane's egg from the lizardfolk. They specified that they were being super careful while carrying it, so I let them take it. They managed to bring it all the way back to Diamond Lake and sold it to Smenk, claiming that Black Dragon Eggs fend off green worms. They did this, of course, knowing the dragon would likely come back for it. When (if) they get back from the Free City and see the swath of destruction from Ilthane as well as half the town turned into Kyuss spawn (let's say the worms incubated for a while and matured) there should be some serious alignment ramifications for the Lawful Good cleric of St. Cuthbert.

I haven't got a specific miniature in mind, but have you checked out the Reaper Miniatures website? They have pictures up of just about every miniature they sell and some are even professionally painted. I'm sure there must be at least one obese guy on there, though whether or not he wears chainmail is another matter.

It's true, play the character you want to play. If you really feel obligated to have arcane magic skills, it might be good just to take one multiclass level in an arcane class or max out cross-class Use Magic Device solely for scroll use. If you're willing to get some things scribed and spend some party dough on "the essentials", it shouldn't be as big a problem. Even better, ask your friend playing the rogue to put some points into Use Magic Device so that you won't have to even worry about it. Or even if the cleric player takes Wee Jas as his patron and takes the magic domain, that can help. Not ways to replace a devoted arcane spellcaster, but suggestions to have it both ways some of the time. Sorry to bogart your post like this, I'll leave the floor open for everybody else's suggestions.

For Shackled City, which is a pretty tough campaign, having all of your bases covered is important. A lot of tough enemies with really wicked tactics lie ahead of your group and having arcane spells added to your party's repetoire in addition to what you already have will be a huge help. That being said, it's also important to play the kind of character that you want to make. If you want to play a druid, but have your doubts about party balance, why not start out as a druid and take a good deal of levels in sorcerer? You can have druid flavor and arcane spells and maybe qualify for a prestige class that allows you to brush up on both. I say sorcerer just because it seems to fit with druid better than wizard, and if you're very careful about choosing spells (taking only the really essential "nuts and bolts" arcane spells for sorcerer levels) you can use your druid spell levels to keep things fresh and adaptable. Good luck and I hope you guys have fun!

A great way to go about creating your setting is to do what professional game designers would do in your situation: go to the library. Pick out some books on archaeology, anthropology and folklore and pick out what strikes your fancy. I would maybe advance the clock a teeny tiny bit to about the time of the druids in England; the guys that put up Stonehenge and things like that. It could be really interesting to have the major religion of their civilization practice some form of human sacrifice, just to toss in that fun murky morality; "Look, if we don't sacrifice this guy's virgin daughter, the sun MAY NOT rise tomorrow. I don't know about you, but I really can't risk it. We're scared of the dark, okay?!"

So many great moments. When trying to intimidate Kullen and his gang in the Feral Dog, Slim, the party's ranger, rolled a natural 1 on his Intimidate check and specified that he was using Skutch's severed arm to intimidate them. So basically, he got two words out, dropped the arm on the table, which then fell on the floor. The only reaction was Merovinn Bask sadly stating,"He was my best friend." Bar fight erupts and I'm certain that our three person party is doomed; I've already got the back up plan in place where the thugs will just take their hard-earned treasure and leave them tied up and naked in town square. Man, was I wrong. The gnome wizard gets a confirmed double 20 crit on Bask with a flask of acid, so his face just about melts off. The ranger manages to shoot out Kullen's eye with his own crit, knocking Kullen out of the fight. That was probably enough for the other members of the gang to be completely cowed, so they retreated.

The next night, after the party got their information from the captured and humiliated Kullen, the gang returns for revenge, burning down the mine office with the party inside. Another fight erupts outside of the burning shack, Kullen gets on top of the wizard and manages to start carving the groups insignia on his forehead. The wizard has true strike memorized, which doesn't require a somatic component so I rule he can cast it. Basically he bluffs with,"Oh dear, I can't move my arms, BLAGH!" and gouges out Kullen's other eye with his bare hand. Naturally, the other thugs are really scared of him now and he gets off another flask of acid at Merovinn Bask as he's running away.

There was some alignment adjustment for him after that.

Brother Shamas, our cleric of St. Cuthbert, managed a few great scenes in Three Faces of Evil. He managed to clamor up to the Grimlock barracks and grab all of their weapons from the rack and then threw them down the ravine, so they slaughtered the unarmed Grimlocks. Also, in Grallak's cave, body slammed two Grimlock guards by jumping in full plate on top of them from the cliff and spearing one with the horns on his helmet.

I love my players and the Adventure Path. Probably the most fun I've had playing D&D has been with these adventures.

I really hate monsters or NPCs with two or more templates. If it's necessary to add both the werewolf and vampire template to a bunch of fourth level rangers or barbarians to make them somehow more interesting, someone isn't looking through their Monster Manual hard enough.

Xen'drik, I think, would be just as good as Q'barra, just because of the tropical setting (which Q'barra has as well, I believe) as well as proximity of ancient ruins. Vaprak's Voice as a location, for instance, works especially well because of the giant connection.

As far as replacing religions in town, I would suggest St. Cuthbert for Silver Flame, Wee Jas for Blood of Vol (which is tolerated in civilized areas and fits with the Wee Jas storyline), Kord could either be a direct translation to Dol Dorn, a joint temple to Dol Dorn and Dol Arrah, or juat a Sovereign Host temple. As far as Pelor goes, a shrine to Dol Arrah might work the best, but the idea is that the Pelorians are down on their luck and terrorized a bit by the Wee Jas temple. So maybe Undying Court for them, since it's kind of a 'niche' faith, followed almost exclusively by elves. And if it's set in Xen'drik, there is a plausibility for them being there.

My only issue with the cover line is that Dragon may be evangelizing (devangelizing?) to me about the worship of Almighty Demon Prince Baphomet. I always thought that one of the nicest things about Satanists was that they didn't stand out on the street or in the subway car telling us all about how Satan and his worship helped them to a better life or performed miracles for them or bought Metallica albums for them when their parents had forbidden it. And now, my comfortable stereotypes have been shattered. For shame, Dragon. For shame.

I'm considering doing the same thing with the Silver Anniversary one. The only major thing for me would be magic item adjustment; I find 2nd edition modules give away a lot more magical treasure than 3.5 (at lower levels, anyways) partially as a balancing factor in case the PCs bite off a little more than they can chew in a normal situation. But that's just my opinion for the most part. 3.5 edition tends to distribute more single use magic items like scrolls or potions at lower levels than longswords +1 or chainmail +2.

As far as the Talisman of the Sphere goes, it doesn't get 'repowered' until A Gathering of Winds, much later. As a sage, Allustan can recognize it for what it is, but a simple merchant would probably not even know what the heck it does, especially since it isn't particularly useful unless you happen to have a Sphere of Annihilation around. A merchant probably wouldn't want to buy "a piece of junk you found in some old tomb", but a smith might buy it for the raw cost of the adamantine used in making it. This could be interesting if they realize they'll need it later and the person they sold it to agrees to sell it back to them for a few million gold pieces.

Technically, my shoe size is a men's 6 triple wide. No one makes these shoes, though. So I tend to wear size 12 Converse All Stars, simply because they can accomodate my bizarre feet.

I would say that your party (druid/bard/sorcerer/wizard), if played intelligently, can be effective. It's just a matter of delineating roles correctly: if the druid focuses on combat and animal summoning along with healing, the bard takes a lot of buff and charm spells to increase combat capabilities, and the wizard and sorcerer coordinate spell lists for maximum effectiveness, there should be situations where your group will really shine.

A good way for them to work is to focus on summoning creatures (the wizard and druid would be great for this) to keep monsters at bay while everyone else focuses on spells and ranged attacks. Be advised that allowing them to withdraw and rest periodically is even more essential for this group because they are so reliant on spells. It might be a good idea to have a fighting character tag along at lower levels, but once they have some experience under their belts, this should be a very powerful group.

In the end, as far as balance goes, any party combination can be played effectively with the right tactics. You have four characters, two of which are fairly adaptable, so even if they are a bit hit point deprived, their spell casting abilities should even things out a bit. Should be an interesting group!

I may be a bit late, but I just downloaded the age of worms overload. I looked at tirra's stat block and her intelligence is listed as "110" I assume that's a typo, but what's the correct score?

I'm going to assume either 10 or 11. I haven't got the Overload in front of me, but I'm going to guess 10, because I recall the three adventurers being basically the standard 28 point buy stats.

In my currently suspended Age of Worms game, Moose the gnome Wizard recently acquired the spell Explosive Runes. So the party contrived to carry around a note with explosive runes cast on it that said," WILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME CHECK YES OR NO." So far, no takers. Poor fellas.

In a previous Eberron campaign where we were running through "Shadows of the Last War", my friend Sean's warforged barbarian with a 9 Intelligence and 6 Charisma decided to try his luck at Gathering Information in Rhukaan Draal while looking for Failin. Basicially, he walked around the marketplace shouting,"FAILIN! FAILIN!" because he had no ranks in the skill. He rolled really high, though, so one of the goblins tapped him on the shoulder and pointed him in the right direction. After that, he was known as "Padlock"; like Matlock, only metal.

If I were introducing a living construct character into the Age of Worms campaign in the Gathering of Winds adventure, I would have him found in the tomb, maybe in stasis. Maybe he would be an offshoot of the Wind Warriors in the tomb, made of ceramic and designed with a wind motif. He could have vague memories of the war with the Queen of Chaos and be tied to the adventure that way.

If your player is set on having him dropped off in a cart (which is a funny idea), play it to the hilt. Have him stuffed in packing peanuts or their Forgotten Realms equivalent, making the box huge so that the other characters are disappointed to find that he's only medium sized. Maybe his parts are all in those plastic frames that old model pieces came in and the other characters have to pull them out and put him together, and there's a big "magic scroll" that folds out to read as instructions, but they're all written in gnomish or Auran or Japanese so they have to go by the diagrams. You could explain his appearance as being sent in my Manzorian or whomever is taking his place in your campaign, tipping his hand a little early. Maybe he's from another plane that was ravaged by Kyuss and he's the last of his race in existence, if you wanted to add something suitably dark to the character.

I've read J. Gregory Keyes' novels "The Waterborn" and "The Blackgod", as well as the Fool Wolf stories in back issues of Dragon magazine and throughly enjoyed them. He's great about creating cultures and a belief system thoroughly entrenched in that culture. He can also take the stereotypical characters, like "The young hero with the magic sword" and make them a little more flawed and human.

The second combat encounter in The Whispering Cairn can be a real problem, and without alchemist's fire, acid or an arcane spellcaster with access to a burning hands spell (or something similar), coupled with a lack of healing magic (assuming no one is playing a druid either), your party may find themselves in a heap of trouble. I always like giving the party one-shot magic items like potions, scrolls or alchemical items just to aid survival where it's needed. Maybe you can specify that each starting character gets a choice of a cure light wounds potion, some alchemical items, or a 1st level scroll for arcane spellcasters just to get them past that first encounter.

Maybe you could play around with some of the adventures coming up in the series. For example, rather than a Kuo-toa shrine in the fourth adventure in the series, maybe Zenith has recently slain Kazmojen's Drow transmuter "Father" and the PCs have to assault the recently appropriated lair in order to return Zenith. You might have to rework parts of it, replace monsters, etc. but I think it could still work for you. It even makes sense to keep Dhorlot in there as an old ally to "Father" that is working against Zenith and trying to capitalize on the recent upheaval to create more half-dragon spawn.

As for investigating Ashmantle, as a successful and experienced slaver he's bound to have a cover for his slave trafficking. It's either done through the Underdark exclusively or through a proxy business. If it's done with a proxy business, there's bound to be an accountant or someone that is keeping track of the "acquisitions" for him, as well as employees. He's also an accomplished sorcerer, right? So maybe he has developed magical abilities to augment his industry. Maybe in the downtime between adventures the PCs can do legwork and research on Ashmantle, tapping the Striders and other organizations to get information for them, but only making small steps in progress up until maybe a side adventure takes them to Kingfisher Hollow to hault an upcoming auction, where they may encounter Ashmantle briefly before meeting him at the soiree in Oblivion. Of course, there may be clues from freed captives that Vervil took a specific interest in a few slaves, seemingly without good reason. Only later would it be revealed that these were Shackleborn that his masters in the Cagewrights had special plans for.

Maybe they could use this money and whatever other revenue coming their way from NPC donors to set up a shrine/morgue in Diamond Lake proper. I can imagine a whole adventure about how the Cult of the Green Lady fits into the town; the prejudice they would face from the townspeople as well as other churches (Jieran Wierus would probably have a big problem with a death cult, even a benign one, setting up across the street) and it would be a nice opportunity to show Diamond Lake as a dynamic setting that can reflect your PC's choices in-game. A devout character might want to help the Cult develop itself within the community; overseeing construction of their shrine, helping to fend off Lanod Neff's "tax collectors", diffusing potential bias, etc.

If you enjoyed the adventure in the back of the Eberron Campaign Setting book, Wotc recently published three linked adventures (Shadows of the Last War, Whispers of the Vampire's Blade, and Grasp of the Emerald Claw) that build upon the events of that miniadventure. I think they are solid Eberron adventures, though my main criticism (along with a lot of Eberron adventures) is that they are based a little too much on finding magic items/artifacts.

I like the current Adventure Path a lot so far, so I'm not terribly worried about the next one. But I think a campaign featuring the Blood War could be very interesting. If I were running one, my premise would be that one side is gaining the upper hand, either with new leadership, a secret weapon, or an alliance. The PCs come in as a balancing agent, working with the other side in order to maintain the status quo and keep the forces of the Abyss and Hell occupied with each other.

My players' party is just about at the end of the Whispering Cairn. The group consists of:
Brother Shamas (Human Male LG Cleric of St. Cuthbert)
"Slim" (Human Male NG Ranger)
and
"Moose" (Gnome Male CN Wizard)

All are third level. Moose is by far the craziest bastard of them all, having ripped out a certain albino half-orc's eye with his bare hand and permanently disfiguring Merovinn Bask with a flask of acid TWICE.