I like the idea of Ahazu kidnapping whole planets, and starting with layers of the abyss. Perhaps the PCs can even prevent such a kidnapping.
The plot has gotten more complex, as it seems Orgosh will become involved with Ahazu and end up either imprisoned in one of the wells, or as a kind of avatar or aspect of Ahazu. This is all the result of one of my players messing around with miracles. High-level campaigns are such fun ! :-)
Fun to hear what happened to the pearls in your campaigns. It is one of those iconic moments of the STAP.
In my campaign the gnome wizard teleported away with it - and dropped it onto a deserted island - well, actually it wasn't deserted. It had some monsters on it (I think it was harpies) my group still had a score to settle with. After having dropped the pearl he used a fly spell to quickly get away as far as possible.
Yes, she has been sacrificed to Glasya. The LE PC has an ancestor who is LG and is only going to help the group if this PC negotiates with her patron devil for the release of this soul (and some others the PC sacrificed earlier, such as her own paladin brother - this PC is the black sheep of a LG family).
Meanwhile another PC was so impressed by the sacrifice that she converted to Hessa's faith on the spot.
Nice incidental detail: among Hessa's possessions was a fingerbone which once belonged to Avner Meravanchi (this was the only thing left of him when he was eaten by terror birds on the Isle of Dread). Hessa had taken it in order to ressurrect Avner at some time in the future, preferably in order to get something from his family.
Now her NPC friend has taken all her possessions in order to give them to her followers (her temple). Except for this fingerbone, as he will be handing it back to the Meravanchis. (This NPC was a good friend of Manthalay). So guess who will be brought back to life soon :-)
PC: Hessa, female human cleric (LN)
Adventure: Wells of darkness
Location of Death: on the Isle of Dread
Catalyst: a needed sacrifice
Because half my group is evil and the whole group has been played pretty ruthlessly so far, I introduced a plotline that they had to sacrifice a friend in order to gain the tooth of Shami-Amourae. The sacrifice had to be voluntary as well, so they had to convince him.
Hessa had sort of an affair going with this NPC, a LN halfdragon, but every time one of them got too close, the other one kept his/her distance. This had been going on since roughly the beginning of the campaign.
Now they invited him with a 'sending' to meet them on the Isle of Dread 'because they had important news', and they teleported there from Farshore. I fully expected them to sacrifice him then and there. However, Hessa did something really unexpected: she offered herself as a sacrifice, so that her friend could live. The reason was not that she felt sentimental about him and wanted to save him, but 'that it was something really unexpected'. As doing really unexpected deeds was part of her faith (long story), it was a logical action for her. Her words were: "Do not get emotional about this. You know that my faith requires me to do this!"
One of the other PCs (a lawful evil blackguard) finally sacrificed her, just after she pronounced her last spell, a miracle: "I want this sacrifice to have the best possible result for my friends."
She got it. After her death her body disappeared and the tooth of Shami-Amourae suddenly appeared out of nothing. Also, her friend, whom she saved, promised the group an army: he is a cleric of a war god and an admiral of the fleet. So they have got themselves one army for their final battle against Demogorgon.
I did not see this one coming at all. The player afterwards told me that he didn't either. He improvised it on the spot.
Cosmic horror is a good idea. I was even thinking along the lines of the Cthulhu mythos.
I have found Dicefreaks. It still exists, so I will check the site out for ideas.
The idea about Ahazu is linked to a second campaign I am running. It is a steampunk/horror-themed campaign and follows chronologically after the Savage Tide. So far there have been predictions about a possibly disastrous cosmic event approaching. It would be nice when some cosmic results of Savage Tide would lead to the rise of Ahazu, who could then become a cosmic villain for the final adventures of this second campaign, involving a planar threat of some kind.
There are hints Ahazu is trying to become a god. Did anyone do anything with this plotline? And what if he were to succeed, what kind of god would he be? Would he be at all interested in the throne of the Abyss? Or would that be far beneath him?
Are you still running Savage Tide, Carborundum? We are in Wells of Darkness now.
And unfortunately we do not have a campaign journal either, though we have a forum (members only, unfortunately) and an in-game newspaper, and yes, they are both in Dutch as well :-)
What I noticed running this adventure was that the players had no problem at all with the pirates. The captains and the other leaders made for the interesting fight.
I did not change the magical protection. PCs have a lot of ways to circumvent it.
Please also note that the traps are a nice touch, but at this level the PCs probably will be flying. If you want extra protection, include one or two flying monsters. Check out Strike on the rabid dawn (dungeon 111) if you have that. Not only it can be used as a nice sidetrek or as an extra guardian ship, but you will also find ideas here for high-level defenses in the air and under water.
And adding a storm is also a good idea to make things exciting.
Yes, indeed. I meant Serpents of Scuttlecove.
The problem is that when he uses Lavinia as a hostage now, and kidnaps her again in SOS, you are essentially repeating this plot. Not only is this repetitive, but you also run the risk that the PCs take precautions in order to prevent a second kidnapping and Vanthus cannot kidnap her for SOS.
In my experience, one of my players already found that the Vanthus plot was dragged out too long when they discovered in SOS that he had fled into the Abyss with Lavinia. Luckily Into the Maw is one hell (or one Abyss) of an adventure, so he forgot about his comment when the group got in the middle of the intrigue in that adventure.
But this is seriously something to consider. (And of course I do not know your group. Perhaps my comment does not apply to them at all.)
Before you do anything, read Tides of Dread. Perhaps you would want to fast-forward to this adventure, since events look a lot like what happened in your campaign.
41. After that episode with the sheep, the town kicked all of you out.
I actually know a group where this really happened in the campaign.
361. We are all partners in crime.
362. The first party member who leaves, will betray all the rest.
363. I don't know. I woke up and suddenly was with them. I do not remember anything before that.
364. I am the only male in an all-female group who do not have charisma as a dump stat at all.
365. They are the only ones who can protect me from the monster I have been having nightmares about as long as I can remember. It does exist! I know it does!
366. We all woke up in the hold of a ship, hunted by the inquisition.
PC: Davidia, female half-orc fighter/barbarian
Adventure: Into the maw
Location of Death: large room near the entrance
Catalyst: too many belairon breath weapons
Into the maw ended with a bang in my campaign (literally when you count the exploding balor in his death throes): it ended with a massive battle between two large armies, one led by S'Sharra and Belshamoth and a lot of demons, and the other led by the PCs, Lillianth, Saureya and Orgosh and his undead. It was a memorable evening.
My players kept underestimating Belshamoth, and prepared especially for S'Sharra and for the balor they knew she had released from his cell. So the fighter/barbarian thought Belshamoth would be easy pickings when she attacked him. She did not worry about the filth demons, which the group had already classified as mooks. 4 breath weapons and some unluckily failed saving throws later they had to reconsider...
Finally the filth demons were killed and fed to Lazruvakas, the magma drake (named Francis by my players).
Consider showing Vanthus on board ship the next time that they scry. Show them the whole fleet that is sailing to Farshore. My players scried the fleet, and were considering teleporting aboard, but shied away from it when they saw the vrocks and yuan-ti. And if they teleport aboard anyway, or sail towards the fleet, reward them with an exciting fight.
You could also involve Emraag. If the players spot Emraag near the ships, they probably remain at Farshore.
Or otherwise reward them with a rumor that demons will be teleporting to Farshore (and let one or two demons teleport in during the battle). Give them the idea that, if they go to Scuttlecove, they will leave Farshore undefended, and they will probably decide to defend Farshore.
I have adapted Molypente as follows:
- The dominance effect is not a dominate/mind-affecting effect, but a sort of mind meld, where there is a struggle between two personalities (so his influence is not from the outside, but from the inside).
- The chokehold is replaced by an energy draining effect to which the host is especially vulnerable.
- The chokesnake gets death throes as ability, so when he dies, he explodes, which deals damage to the bystanders and to Shami as well.
Yes, that is probably the only possibility. It would be the only thing Molypente can do against her anyway. His poison theoretically works against her, but he has to bite her first, and that is nearly impossible with her AC (he has to roll a natural 20). And then she will always save against the poison. Choking does not work either, as I have already mentioned.
I was also thinking about instead maybe adding a trap that activates once Shami is freed. E.g. a symbol written on Shami, triggered by her release. Or perhaps Molypente can slither around to take on the form of a symbol.
Or the snake could have death throes like a balor. That might do as well.
As I have already described above, I am thoroughly rewriting WOD. Now I have discovered another mistake I have not yet read about on this forum: (remember, spoilers!)
Shami-Amourae is immune to mind-affecting effects. How on earth (or how in the Abyss) is it possible for Molypente to dominate her? This should be a mind-affecting effect if it is anything like the dominate spell. If not, then what is it? How does it work? I know that Molypente works like an intelligent item with an ego, but this still means that it is mind-affecting, doesn't it? if a battle between egos is not mind-affecting, then what is? This should be more than a mere intimidate duel, don't you think?
I am at a loss how to solve this. Perhaps I am going to get rid of Molypente altogether. Or I only let him use the choke effect and make it a lot more serious (or I just let it look a lot more serious to the players).
Then again: demons do not need to breathe, do they? After all, they can survive anywhere, even in the black goo in the Wells of darkness. Then how can they be choked to death?
I think it is bye bye Molypente!
I have decided to replace the bar-lguras on retrievers (bar-lguras again? Retrievers again?) with augmented armanites. After all, they can air walk above the Styx water, and they can transport victims to the Abyss as well. Unconscious. On their backs.
It is also nice to make them really fanatic and give them a nice Demogorgon banner to defend.
This is such a nice thread to read. I have been running the STAP for a while and have made newspapers from the beginning of the campaign (we are at Into the Maw now). My players love it. I thought I was the only one doing this.
I avoided the printing press problem by setting the campaign in the Renaissance in my own campaign world. I found this more fitting with the pirate theme of the STAP. We have guns and cannons, too.
What I do for pictures:
I use my own photographs, and run them through a photo editing programme to change them into a sort of artwork (e.g. pen or charcoal drawing, or even watercolour or oil painting) so that they look more historical. For the STAP I e.g. used some pictures of historical ships I took in ports in Sweden and France.
In the same way you can use pictures of historical buildings or of gravestones and monuments.
I also looked up 16th and 17th century paintings on the Internet and used these in the same way, e.g. for NPCs not pictured in the modules.
For articles I also used the following ideas:
- articles that looked like advertisements, but were written in code by some organization or other (e.g. a thieves' guild). E.g. I had some small messages about homing pigeons, which were not about homing pigeons at all. They made my players pretty nervous.
- background articles about the area, about interesting sites in the city or elsewhere, or even about certain monsters or peoples.
- interviews with famous NPCs.
I hope you can use these. Unfortunately I am not so well known with Shackled City that I can give you more specific content. I have read it really a long time ago. Good luck with the newspaper!
It so happens that some of the PCs have vile damage. Since they have no good cleric, the only one who can heal it is a trumpet archon they have freed from the prison. She can do a consecrate or hallow in order to heal it. Wouldn't it be nice if the PC who wants to become a death knight, has to sacrifice the angel, preferably before it has the chance of healing the vile damage? :-)
I like the idea of the alicorn, too. And of bringing the organs of a cleric of the opposite alignment as well. (The PC was originally from a family of famous LG clerics, descended from a LG saint. However, she rebelled in puberty and sacrificed a girl in the woods near her home. She has already sacrificed her own brother, a paladin.)
I was also thinking of letting the PC slowly drain her own blood (dealing con damage), since an undead has no constitution.
My PC group in Savage Tide is far from good-aligned. One of them is even lawful evil. Now a fun incident happened in the latest sessions. We are in Into the maw.
I will put the incident under a spoiler button for those who have not yet played this adventure.
Spoiler:
The PCs are negotiating with Orgosh. They are talking about his long service under Demogorgon. Orgosh tells something about being involved in creating the first death knights, and that Vanthus does not fit the mold. LE PC asks: "So you know how to make death knights?" Orgosh: "Yes!" LE PC: "Can you change me into a death knight?" Orgosh: "Yes!"
In other words, now the LE PC is going to become a death knight! The character has been played such that it is strangely appropriate, and it is also strangely fitting for the end of the campaign.
I want to make this a transformation akin to a prestige class, so that the PC will be fully changed at the end of the campaign. But I also think this transformation should not be easy. So I want to think up a dark ritual, preferably taking place in several stages. Perhaps an innocent should be sacrificed every time the PC gains new abilities. Perhaps she should drain a bit of her own blood every day.
I know there are some fiendish dungeon masters out there :-), so I am curious to hear about your ideas.
Sounds cool and mysterious! I am curious to hear how it plays out. The only thing that is left, is a way to destroy the artifact. With the wand of Orcus perhaps? Or by some special kind of undead?
You can nicely link this to Orcus plot in EOME.
Savage fever?? Lemorian template?? Vile rigidity??
There are examples enough in the campaign.
There also was a drug-like plant on the Isle of Dread, I have forgotten the name. I think it caused a rage effect. You can make the idol not magical at all (your PCs will probably investigate it with spells), but filled with plant spores slowly drifting out of it in the air.
Im my campaign world I have introduced a storyline that some deities are legal deities and some are illegal. There is an inquisition that relentlessly persecutes the followers of illegal deities. The head inquisitor has actually been corrupted by a lilitu demon, who was sent by the demon Alvarez the Purging Duke (from the appendix of Fiendish Codex I). In my campaign Alvarez is the son of Graz'zt and Shami-Amourae, one more reason for Demogorgon to be angry with Shami.
Alvarez is the only one who knows where his mother is locked up. He was actually present when Demogorgon locked her up, and was subsequently banished himself. However, the strong presence of the inquisition on my campaign world has brought him back (with the aid of a very bloody ritual). Now he is trying to get his layer on the abyss back, which is in the possession of Athux (who is a drow half-demon by the way). Athux has locked himself in the fortres previously owned by Alvarez, which happens to have an entrance to the Infinite Staircase in the cellar.
I have introduced all this because the PCs have a NPC friend who is a high priest of a highly illegal faith. The PCs also have had a confrontation with the head inquisitor (two of the PCs have illegal faiths). This confrontation went all wrong, and the PCs barely managed to escape with their lives. One of their cohorts even died, but has been ressurrected by them.
Now their heretic friend (the NPC high priest) has challenged the high inquisitor to a duel, which is to take place on the Infinite Staircase. The inquisitor has asked the lilitu as his second, and the heretic priest will ask one of the PCs. However, Alvarez will only tell them where Shami is if they betray their friend (and attack him) during this duel.
The players have played their characters as pretty ruthless so far - they do everything in order to achieve their goals, namely prevent the Savage Tide. Now I want to see how ruthless they actually are, especially because the PC who will be asked as second at the duel, sort of has a relationship with the heretic high priest, and some of the others are his close friends. He has helped them out several times in the campaign. This will therefore be a nice moral dilemma for them.
To make matters worse, the illegal god worshiped by the heretic high priest is one of the five would-be allies from Enemies of My Enemy (a version of Gwynharwyf adapted to my campaign world).
Yes, I agree. My group had enough trouble as it is with Vanthus.
Spoiler:
And it undermines the victory point system. Or else you would have to let them arrive one by one and give the group some time in-between to recuperate.
At the moment I am sort of rewriting this adventure, with a lot of stuff from my own campaign world added. I used 2 demonic characters from 2 earlier campaigns, whom the players know (but the characters don't). I also introduced Athux, Graz'zt's son, and gave him a half-brother with whom he is at war, in order to make the plotline with Graz'zt somewhat more interesting.
I have players who always seem to spot such things. If not by negotiation, then in other ways. Three of them maintain a campaign diary with lots and lots of notes. I seem to remember they intimidated Sutolore with quite a high score, so he did not even dare to lie.
I think the last 5 adventures are full of social stuff. However, it depends on the player group as well. Some situations can be solved with violence or with diplomacy. It depends on what the rest of the group prefers.
I have put this under a spoiler button, as it is for DMs only.
Spoiler:
On page 61 of the adventure it says: "She [Red Shroud] informs the PCs that the tooth [of Ahazu] was recently sold to a varrangoin outcast named Sutolore". Actually it is the other way round in the sidebar in Sea Wyvern's Wake: Sutolore tries to sell the tooth to a lilitu demon agent of Malcanthet in Broken Reach, and thus it comes to the attention of Malcanthet, who then recruits Sutolore to put the item in the cave of Zotzilaha and take the bat statue away with him to Tamoachan. Just so that you know and can avoid awkward PC questions.
Actually I wonder he is even that. Even the fighter in the group has a will save high enough to resist him (except in case of a very unlucky dice roll). So I wanted to make him more interesting. Otherwise I might as well leave him out of the adventure alltogether.
I wondered if Sidith-Yeus actually can possess someone at this level. Did this happen in any of your campaigns? If so, how did this play out? How long before the PCs discovered what happened?
I was thinking of replacing him with a stronger demon, sent by one of the other demon princes. He could ride along in the body of a PC and then suddenly take over the body when Demogorgon has been defeated and claim the throne for his master. I will be using the possession rules from Fiendish Codex I in this case.
I will probably make this a succubus with class levels, or a marilith, with the possession ability as per Fiendish Codex I.
Ask your mom (or dad) if she would like to DM. I am a mom and I am DM-ing for my daughter (13 years old) and her three friends (14, 15 and 11 years old). We have been playing for a year now and everybody thinks it is great fun, including me.
Good luck with finding a group!
Thanks for all the input everybody.
In the meantime I have solved the problem by using a LN githzerai monk who is striving for purity. I play her as a very stern and taciturn character. She also did not want to give her true name and purpose and the PCs are forbidden to ask, or otherwise she leaves the group (I actually borrowed this from the opera Lohengrin; it is meant as a sort of loyalty test, i.e. whether they are pure enough to keep their word).
One of my players is playing a LN cleric worshiping purity. She is looking for a cohort and I would like to give her a special cohort, especially an outsider. What creature would do? Most LN outsiders, such as formians, are simply too warlike for the role. So I am thinking of using an axiomatic version of some kind of other creature. Any ideas?
My group started with 6 characters (who played till Tides of Dread) and I adapted the encounters just to be sure. However, not all of them. Some I left as they are and the campaign was certainly not a pushover and my players kept a healthy dose of apprehension.
Also do not forget that if you divide the XP over 6 characters, the level progression will be slower, so that, except for the first few encounters, the group level will be slightly too low for the encounters. This is the self-correcting mechanism for the campaign, and will probably compensate for the fact that there are 6 characters in the group.
The only difference is that Thanaclan might be sunk away, but there is still an island, namely the Isle of Dread. If I read your description well, the maenads have no land at all. So you would have to adapt that.
Do not forget there is tons of things you could do with monsters like Burbalarg and Xiureksor - they could be cult leaders as well and perhaps linked to the yuan-ti in some way.
From Into the maw onwards you could probably run Savage Tide as written. Though it is a nice option to let defeated opponents recur as petitioners (or something else) in the abyss to keep the connection with the previous adventures.
And what about making Burbalarg, Xiureksor, etc. fiendish creatures or half-fiends?
As for the lightless depths: they do not have to destroy the tear, it is only one option. If you want to make it less railroady, just introduce another high-level creature with a totally different agenda, who manipulates the group in another direction altogether, so that they have to choose.
Ghosts might be a good idea, yes. Especially because I have the kinds of players who always try to communicate with ghosts.
The scuttlecove thugs do not have the lemorian template to begin with, so I do not need to add it. (Anyway, it is only given to chosen Crimson Fleet members in a special ritual, not to mere thugs.)
In the module it is suggested that Vanthus can command the undead because he is a death knight, so it does not really matter whether the ghosts blame him or not, they just have no choice but to do his bidding. Perhaps it is even more fun if they do blame him, but cannot do anything about it.
I also like the "battle for control of the undead" between Vanthus and Orgosh and would like to keep that aspect intact. Especially because one of the PCs is a blackguard, who can rebuke undead, which makes this even more interesting :-)
You can find Savage Tide in Dungeon Magazine, issues 139-150. Most of them are available as PDFs, but perhaps not all of them, so you will have to check that first.
I have put the campaign info under a spoiler button:
Spoiler:
The campaign is roughly about pirates, dinosaurs and demons. It involves a plot by Demogorgon to unleash the savage tide, which consists of spreading chaos across the world by exploding black pearls, which spread a disease called Savage Fever. The group starts in the city of Sasserine, where they are hired by Lavinia Vanderboren, a noble lady. It turns out that her brother has turned evil and later on he appears to be working for the Crimson Fleet, pirates who work for Demogorgon. From Sasserine the PCs travel to Kraken's Cove, where they witness an outbreak of Savage Fever. Then they rescue Lavinia from bullywugs. Then Lavinia wants to travel to a colony established by her (now dead) parents and the group travels along with their own ship. They have a lengthy sea journey to the Isle of Dread, where their ship is shipwrecked. They have a trek across the island with the survivors and are attacked by dinosaurs and demons along the way. When they finally arrive in the colony, it is attacked by Lavinia's brother Vanthus and the Crimson Fleet. After defeating them, the PCs get the chance to explore the Isle of Dread, and Thanaclan, the ancient Olman city. There they discover Demogorgon's plans. Then Vanthus returns from the dead as a death knight and kidnaps Lavinia. The PCs follow him to the pirate city of Scuttlecove, where they can defeat the Crimson Fleet, and then to the Abyss, where they can defeat Vanthus again and free Lavinia. Then they get involved in the politics of the Abyss and a daring plan to finally defeat Demogorgon, which they do in the end (hopefully).
This is a very varied and exciting campaign and I hope that it is still available. It is also very complex, so be sure to read through all the adventures before you run it. There is also a lot of interesting information about it on this forum.
Good luck!
