Klamachpin's page

Honestly, I see no problem in the adventure being a bit of a steamroller. The PCs are 11th level, which means that they are verging upon becoming legendary heroes - let them feel it. Besides, the underground operation is supposed to be the lesser of two massive evils - let them get overconfident, and let that XP progression sag a bit. When they hit CoBI, they'll be in for a nice shock and sudden realization that they won't be able to sleep through the rest of the game.

That being said, the whole dominate or melee thing of the korpu seems a bit lame. While I wouldn't recommend increasing their numbers (because more useless attacks don't help you and only increase XP for false challenges) I would give the korpu some ranged weapons or abilities. Even just a single volley of arrows will invoke some sense of danger into your players before they turn their enemies into a fine paste.

Well, look at what your players know and what their plan may be - don't try to include what they don't know, at least at first.

- They figured out someone looted the vault and investigated
- Their investigation pointed toward Vanthus
- To find Vanthus, they concentrated on the family ring
- They traced the ring to a non-cooperative jeweller
- Likely they'll interrogate the jeweller, since that is where their leads have taken them.

If you want to stop the current track here, remember that the lotus dragons scare their infomants. The taxidermist is so sure of his destiny once he merely appears to be ratting the guild out that he'll leave town as soon as he can. In addition, remember that your jeweller is still a law-abiding citizen, and can call on the city watch against these thugs that are harassing his business. This could lead into an investigation of corrupted officials and side-track your players away from Dead Dog Alley, at least temporarily enough to get Shefton in.

If your jeweller isn't too low-key about complaining about the PCs, the lotus dragons may find out anyway and send new recruit Shefton (whom is working with sponsor Vanthus) to intercept the PCs. As the players are leaving the jeweller to formulate their next devious plan, have a not-so-stealthy Shefton follow them. This either will lend to suspicion and Shefton getting "caught" or Shefton will catch up with them and make his offer. Either way, Shefton's hook gets to your players ASAP.

On a side note, kudos to your players to utilizing triangulation! That's a neat little challenge vs. DM that would enliven my games. Really, I'd rather have the problem of dealing with clever players than that of dealing with "incredibly lucky" die rollers or munchkins.

Klamachpin wrote:

Demoing for any company is a great gig, but a word of warning to those of you who do join up - during the vast majority of the Con, you'll be demoing (aka NOT EXPERIENCING THE CONVENTION).

I prefer to think of it as experiencing the convention from an alternative point of view.

You're right, Vic, it is experiencing the convention from a different POV. I apologize if I may have inadvertantly tainted viewpoints - it really is a great opportunity and I would jump on it if I weren't already committed to another convention that weekend.

Between all of the members in my group we have almost all of the 3rd Edition and 3.5 rulebooks, splatbooks, alternative settings, etc. And yes, it's nice to include new shiny rules or incorporate something not usually seen to a game particularily if you are a PC. However, after so many iterations and variations of the same concept (Arcane Archer/Deepwood Sniper/Order of the Bow Initiate/Cleric Archer/etc. comes to mind), certain abilities become obselete while new ones take the lead and games become consequentally more power-based.

This trend is what makes DMs like myself want to hold back on books allowed. A player with a particular concept in mind can usually get away with doing it with just the core books - it's just they won't be munchkining a whole lot to do it, since the material is restricted. And when a player does munchkin in a limited rule set, it's far easier for a DM to judge whether or not the design is unbalanced - less rule sets and/or errata needs to be looked up for certain ability interactions.

For example, I like the rule of one magic system. Be it the core, the psionics, the incarnum, or what have you... choose one for the campaign and stick with it. It's too time consuming and confusing to try to adjucate and balance two different systems when they interact, so I resolve to just not deal with it. Now, if you have the tenacity to deal with that, rock on with your bad self. However, it detracts from the fun of the game for me and usually the other players in my games.

*sigh*

Every year I have to choose between Origins and the local Con. This year I chose the local. Had I gone with Origins, my demo-experienced butt would be all over this.

Demoing for any company is a great gig, but a word of warning to those of you who do join up - during the vast majority of the Con, you'll be demoing (aka NOT EXPERIENCING THE CONVENTION). That was kinda a let down my first go-round. Still, the swag is cool, the free badge is cool, the free lodging is very cool, and the ability to say you're there in an official capacity is ultra cool.

Character: Jareth Del'Arctur, Human Rogue 1
Adventure: There Is No Honor
Location: Smuggling Chamber under Parrot Island
Catalyst: Poor luck by entire party (aka one slippery zombie)

Having been sealed into the tunnels of Parrot Island by Vanthus, the party began exploring the caves to find a way out. Upon entering the large room that was the smuggling chamber, the former city guard Tarmak whom had the primary light source decided to pick another swollen door and force it open. The rest of the party followed suit.

Opening the door revealed two obviously undead pirates with gaping maws. Tarmak stepped back and waited for one to charge him, bastard sword ready. Jareth took a position next to Tarmak and the party's Warlock and Ranger took positions to use ranged attacks on the probable spot where the zombie would stand if Tarmak failed to drop it. The first zombie charged Tarmak - and was cut down quite easily. The second zombie hungrily moved over its companion's body, but did not attack.

The party chopped away at the surprisingly tough undead, but it still was up when its initiative came around. It took one good bite out of Jareth, dropping him. Then the poor luck began.

The next few attacks the zombie could not be hit, even with touch attacks (nobody rolled above touch AC 10). The zombie got another turn, and proceeded to leap on the easy target Jareth made and feast, ignoring the other PCs. The party then tried to grapple the zombie to pull it away from Jareth. Again, no one could even grab the thing - it proceeded to rip a meal out of Jareth's stomach, killing him.

...

(Of note, the very next initiative the warlock was able to melt the zombie's head with an eldritch blast, but it was too late for Jareth.)

My impression was that Vark was a small-time smuggler and was finally making it to the "big leagues" with the rhagodessa and dealing with the Scarlet Brotherhood. He was still scared out of his mind of the SB (which is why he wouldn't reveal the buyer unless "magically compelled") but in his mind this deal would advance his earning potential greatly.

Following along these lines, Vark attempted his usual course of smuggling by hiring on average thugs, not suspecting that the deal was going to go bad anyway. The Scarlet Brotherhood had no intention of actually paying for the rhagodessa and other animals, but rather planned to intimidate / use superior force to take Vark's prize. The remainder of the small animals would be left for Vark if he behaved well in the "transaction".

If your PCs managed to find out about the Scarlet Brotherhood buyer and decide to try to complete Vark's deal, I'd reward them with an encounter. Have the SB show, run through the deal until the rhagodessa is loaded aboard, then intimidate through skill and might to have the SB leave without paying. Should the PCs make a fuss or there is no rhagodessa to be loaded, a gang of brothers (3 - level 2-3 monk/rogues) punishes the supposed Vark and crew by killing the character most important to the one posing as Vark (as they see it) and subduing the rest as necessary. That'll teach 'em not to mess with the Scarlet Brotherhood!

Character: Taggart Ishram Vitu, Human Druid 1
Adventure: There Is No Honor
Location: Blue Nixie's Hold
Catalyst: Trying to save the innocent caged animals

Well, the 3.5 Dungeon Master's Guide has two variant rules that may fit with the "maintenence" you speak of. The first is on pg. 130, amounting to "upkeep". The levels that I think you'd be shooting for are at 100 gp/month for what I think would be a standard adventurer's lifestyle, and 200 gp/month for an extravagant lifestyle. The second variant regards costs in gold and time for training in new levels, though I'll leave you to go to your own copy or your FLGS and look it up on pg. 197.