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I think running TLD in the Abyss would require too much adaptation. I think I may just miss it out entirely, not decided for certain yet though. Although it would remove the forced choice of whether to destroy the tear of Tlaloc or not...
Decisions, decisions... EDIT: Actually, on second thoughts I give my players the Savage Tidings Sections, so I'd better keep it otherwise they'll look at the last one and go "Tear of Tlaloc? Koprus? Aboleths? WTH?"
Okay, well to set some context... MY PC's are just about to start the Battle of Farshore at the end of Tides of Dread. Over the course of the campaign, they've been through plenty of side quests:
So they'll be a couple of levels ahead at the end of ToD, after which, I intend to run Strike on the Rabid Dawn (not sure if it should happen in Farshore or Sasserine). Should I conflate CoBI & tLD?
I'm planning on putting the option for a few sidequests into the Isle of Dread, focussed around monster hunting. The giant Scorpion may turn out to be the haunting presence of the imprisoned Aspect of Obox-ob if I decide to put a bit of EomE there. The Shambling mound will probably be a dungeon with an advanced Mother of All at the centre, and the Green dragon will rule over a small civilisation of Greenspawn of Tiamat. In my campaign, Sasserine has just been partially sacked by the Crimson Fleet, so could Strike on the Rabid Dawn fit in well there?
So I'm going to be running the Strike on the Rabid Dawn from Dungeon 111, and in it, a disciple of Asmodeus releases an aspect of Asmodeus from an Iron Flask. Given that the specific selling point of Malcanthet's Iron Flask minor artefact is that it can hold an aspect, how do these interact? As I am planning on making Malcanthet an antagonist rather than an ally, should I make this Iron Flask the one required for the Aspect of Obox-ob?
So here are my ideas: A house sized scorpion.
A reclusive green dragon
A domineering dragon turtle
A massive shambling mound
Okay, here is the list of miniatures that I used/will use with links to where they can be bought (all stores with multiple regions will link to the uk version) If a character is not mentioned, then the model that I am using is OOP Minor NPCs - Keltar Islaran and Father Feres - Saruman and Grima - http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat150076 a&prodId=prod1080061
Significant NPCs - Harliss Javell/Lirith Veldirose - Isabella Florentina - http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/isabella/sku-down/03130 Grunt Villains
Minor Villains
Major Villains
More on this later...
Here are some ideas. 1) Ambush: The road to the village could go through a gorge with high cliffs on each side. Have natives with bows and arrows and javelins all along the side of this. When the PCs are half way through, roll logs to block both ends of the passageway, and then have the natives shoot arrows down, lob rocks down, roll boulders and logs down etc... 2) Building the natives: It's almost certain that the natives will be less powerful individually than any of the PCs. That said, make them all rogues/barbarians with a bit of fighter mixed in so that they can give the party a nasty fright. Have a few assorted casters in there too, the weaker ones to buff allies, and the stronger ones to perhaps be a threat on their own. 3) Native tactics generally: The natives will almost certainly be weaker than the PCs. Have them all use vantage points like tree tops, rock ledges, and the far sides of hazardous swamps to rain death on the PCs. They should always be shooting from cover, and where possible they should have height advantage and the advantage of surprise for maximum sneak attack efficacy. Consider having one that is really good at sneaking sneak into the camp at night to nick stuff. Combat oriented natives should ideally be built as chargers, so spirit lion totem barbarian is a must. It's unlikely that these fellows will survive one round in combat with a PC, so they need to have all of their impact at the start of the battle, so power attack, leap attack, improved bullrush and shock trooper are must-haves. 4) Tactics with dinosaurs and other monsters: Have dinos stampede and rampage, send fleshrakers at casters, triceratopses and tyrannosauri at the more melee capable ones. Perhaps one or more of the village elders could be an orlath in disguise. He can send one retriever at the PCs each day to support an ambush, and when confronted, he'll have some suitable retriever to protect himself. Perhaps he could disguise himself as a defenceless elderly woman, and open relations with the party by having his retriever disintegrate the wizard and have himself disintegrate the rogue, that would set the party on edge. 5) Psychic poisons: Psions can really confuse the PCs, and psionic poisons more than most. Have some Lanshita (2d6 cha/2d6 cha) on some kind of obvious malign magical device or some other thing that is going to get spells hurled at it, and then watch as the wizard blasts himself into a coma. 6) General poisons: These are always good to use, as even a lowly graze can lay a PC low. They will roll a one at some point, so coat every weapon with as many poisons as you care to. 7) Trapped offerings: On the side of the cave, have some alcoves with gold and silver offerings in them. When a PC goes to grab them, have something within the cave ensnare his hand, or better yet, have his entire arm stabbed by hundreds of tiny spikes with enough colossal spider, colossal scorpion and colossal centipede venom to fell even an ogre. Even if the PC survives, his arm is impaled with spikes that will do a lot of damage if he tries to remove it. And the gold is naturally just iron pyrite. 8) Giant punjee pit room: Have a large, empty room which is in reality a thin rock bridge across a large punjee pit which would make the tomb of horrors embarrassed. 9) Idol trap: Have a giant, ancient Olman idol of some god like Zotzilaha in the centre of a room or clearing. The statue should either itself be made of some precious material, or else carry a magical, flaming sword. If the PCs try and grab the sword, then they are whisked up in a net. On top of this, the sword itself burns the flesh to touch. If that wasn't enough, then the gems on the hilt of the sword are actually scarabs of death. In summary: Use poison, use cover, use spellcasters (magic weapon is a must-cast on ranged weapons before an encounter to overcome any pesky damage reduction), and use fiendish traps.
*Facepalm* Okay, he should, in that case add an additional attack at +5 less than the worst on the fang of the abyss. Additionally, swap leap attack for greater two weapon fighting for a sickle attack at +5 less than the worst.
If needs be, the 6 characters and a cohort can be reinvigorated by Zotzilaha before Vanthus or the Vrocks. (He has promised them a favour of some sort at some point) Additionally, I'm running Porphyry House Horror and The Lost Temple of Demogorgon as part of the Tides of Dread, so they should be level 11-13 before they face big V.
Here is my version of Vanthus Vanderboren for the end of Tides of Dread for your perusal. Name: Vanthus Vanderboren (raging, hasted, unholy aura)
Suddenly, in the midst of combat, a dark shape comes soaring down through the air. It rapidly approaches and lands atop a nearby pillar. With spined wings, a barbed tail, scaly patches and a pair of evil looking blades in his hands, a demented smile plays across the twisted countenance of the fiend. The past year hasn't been kind to Vanthus Vanderboren.
Here's my revised reincarnation table. 01 Bugbear (MM) ECL +4
Chance of getting an ECL +0 race = 73%
A character in my campaign died in HTBM, and they have been reincarnated by a druid. Two issues face me though. 1) The party is now level 9, when he died this character was level 8, so he will come back at the start of level 7. He is already in a party with a druid and a warlock/binder/beguiler/incarnate/something else, and as a single-class barbarian specialising in Dex, Int and Con he is already quite weak. 2) What's actually on the list: bugbear, dwarf, elf, gnoll, gnome, goblin, half-elf, half-orc, halfling, human, kobold, lizardfolk, orc, troglodyte. Ot those, Only humans, lizardfolk, kobolds and troglodytes are thematically appropriate. So I want to create a new list of Isle appropriate races, preferrably with an ECL mod of +1 to +4 I've already looked at the saurials in the serpent kingdoms web enhancement, can any of you give me extra suggestions?
They actually managed it, despite some clever tactics on my part. They entered the main room and killed one of the Bar-lguras before escaping to rest and recoop. They came back the next day and in one trip exhausted the spells of the spirit naga and the summons and perdays of the bar-lguras before escaping again. They then healed up again and re-entered, taking out all of Olangru's mates and the spirit naga. The druid was abducted all around the complex, first to the fire pit and then to the baboon room. After a hair-raising encounter with the baboons (led by Olangru), they escaped, rested and re-entered. They found Olangru and killed him, and then ran away with the hostages after a perilous encounter with the Lemorian Golem. They healed up and went straight back in. The resurrection issue was sorted out by a reincarnation from an Olman druid.
Actually, I ran a few sidequests in Farshore during which it was established that there was an open temple of Hextor in the city, and due to these sidequests the players were able to add two ships to Lavinia's fleet which they themselves recruited the crew for. They went to get a cleric from the Hextorites and Spoiler:
they got the high priest himself to come along. He will be an interesting future ally/adversary, but at level 13, he is capable of casting resurrection. Not sure if I should have him running in Farshore's election.
*is broke* Ah well.eBay?The original Isle of Dread adventure has a few more detailsAny idea where we could find that? Spoiler:
maybe less... legitimate sources?
I'm not going to let the other 3 players find new characters there, not until they get to the pit and find all of Olangru's sacrifices (one or two of which will be captured Olman (new characters). One of the dead characters has expressed the wish to be resurrected and so he won't get a new character (maybe let him control one of the NPCs).You can have the character wanting to come back dangling in the... ooops ** spoiler omitted ** They've already buried him and taken a hand for resurrection in Farshore.
I'm not going to let the other 3 players find new characters there, not until they get to the pit and find all of Olangru's sacrifices (one or two of which will be captured Olman (new characters). One of the dead characters has expressed the wish to be resurrected and so he won't get a new character (maybe let him control one of the NPCs).
Hrmmm ... Advanced Dreadnaught Flying Retreiver mount for ol' Vanthi... Where's the dreadnaught template?
Speaking of suitable mounts, how about the Skyshadow from the Elder Evils page 22? It's a converted Nightwing that can be won from its previous rider.
The druid and the warlock are the only two living party members. Due to good profession (sailor) rolls, all of the named NPCs survived the shipwreck. However, all barring Amella, Tavy, Thunderstrike and Avner were abducted by Olangru and his mates. The Druid and the Warlock have just figured out the Shrine of Duplicity, but have yet to enter the mirrors. Although the situation looks grim, both the druid and warlock are powerful beyond their levels (being dragonborn whisper gnomes). Both can manage an AC of above 30, the druid can turn into a troll (MoMF) and the warlock is also a level one beguiler and has incarnate levels. That is the situation as it stands.
The party, originally consisting of a warlock, a druid, a barbarian, a spellthief and a wizard, has been severely battered by HTBM, and now only the warlock and druid are left alive. The combat capable NPCs have been abducted by Olangru, and only those two remain able to enter the Temple of Demogorgon and do anything. Should I make any changes?
Although the STAP has no use for Rowyn Kellani (other than Chaeron's proxy) after her battle in SWW, I was wondering if the following would be a good idea. The party has, by crook and by hook, managed to get two extra ships for the expedition, both captained by ex-pirates and one crewed mostly by pirates. On one of these ships is a powerful priest of Hextor (the party doesn't actually know HOW powerful, but between us, he's level 13). Due to making him flee in BG and royally ticking off Harliss Javell, the party was attacked by Drevoraz while in port. They killed him and threw his corpse overboard, but the priest of Hextor gathered up his corpse. They have now just killed Rowyn and will probably dump her overboard too. If they do, then the priest of Hextor will probably gather up her corpse too. What should I have the priest do with the bodies of these two powerful NPCs? By RAW he can make them into corpse creatures, bone creatures, skeletons, zombies, ghouls or ghasts. Which should I have him do? Should I even have him do any of them? If he does, will he keep it a secret from the party? Will he use his servitors for evil? Will he openly have them and just use them as extra help to him?
I think that you should leave it as a devil. Dispater would be a good choice as he is so paranoid that he would do anything to make sure that he knows what is going on, same too for Asmodeus, and Bel or Mephistopheles would be interested in furthering the Blood War by bringing down the Prince of Demons.
Please do tell about the trip to the iron city, I plan on having devilkind involved in EomE too.
The way I did it was to have a chart detailing the successes and failures of different Profession (Sailor) checks, with room for circumstance modifiers depending on technical know-how of the players. The best result is to avoid HTBM (that's a really high DC), or they could beach the ship, or they could wreck the ship with all NPC's surviving, or do the above but named only, or as HTBM assumes, or without any NPCs and an unsalvageable wreck, or all dead.
I think that I have it. When Verrick and Larissa Vanderboren gained their vault under Castle Teraknian, they were owed a favour by a master construct maker named Arthur Morannin (CG Gnome wizard XVIII) for capturing a working Kolyarut for him, and so he agreed to make for them a guardian. Larissa wanted a mindless golem or iron cobra, but Verrick instead chose to have a nimblewright created and contributed some of the XP for its creation. Because he so liked the personality of the construct created, Verrick named it Maximilian Vanderboren and treated it as his firstborn son. He often spent time with it between adventures, and though many intelligent constructs would have come to loathe this servile, menial existence. Verrick lavished enough attention upon Maximilian that he in turn considered himself a beloved member of the family.
I ran this as my first adventure. It worked a treat as I was able to introduce Rowyn Kellani and Keltar Islaran early.
In the Vanderboren Vault, there is an Iron Cobra construct guardian. Is such a thing thematically appropriate for such brave and experienced adventurers as the Vanderborens? It strikes me as not impressive enough for them, but still too powerful for level 1 adventurers. So my question is this, should I replace it with a Dreadguard from the MM2?
If I recall correctly, the Kopru are a nod to an earlier module. I have a few problems with them though. 1. They are very hard to represent with miniatures. I have warhammer models coming out of my eyeballs, but barring one snakeman I have nothing to represent a Kopru.
So with that in mind, should I replace the Koprus? If I do, what should I replace them with? If I don't, what should I use for miniatures? Should I just keep the stats but apply them to different looking monsters?
The way you do spoiler tags is [ spoiler ] [ /spoiler ] without the spaces in the square brackets. But don't worry about that. This entire thread is spoiler material.
Spoiler:
As far as the AP's length goes, my group has 2 DM's, and when the group gets to a certain point (say, the end of ToD), then we'll swap over and do another campaign for a while.
Yeah, my group was like that. My character lobbed a rock at the suspicious looking pool. When it bounced, the relevant knowledge check told us what it was. The DM mistakenly inserted the word "elder" into his name of the monster. We fled that room as quickly as we would have done if Big D was in it.* *Which ironically, I did in my new group recently when we were playing Crypt of Lyzandred. We fell into a room with Big D, and when I saw him, I sprinted as fast as possible away from him. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as we thought though ;)
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